We will be having a Christmas themed Sunday Swap at the library on December 6th. Pop into the library to register if you are interested in joining us.
This year, nothing about Christmas is going to plan in bestselling author Sarah Morgan’s irresistibly feel-good novel full of friendship, love and festive chaos!As the snowstorm of the century bears down on New England, reclusive author Mabel Miller is preparing to spend yet another Christmas alone with her cats. While everyone else is making merry, she’ll be avoiding the whole painful holiday. No decorations. No tree. No traces of Christmas. That is, until the weather intervenes and sends not one but two cars spinning into the stone wall surrounding her isolated cottage. Now she has a house full of strangers when the last thing she wanted was company for Christmas.Yet Mabel’s unexpected guests—a family with two young children expecting Santa to drop gifts down the chimney, and two work colleagues who clearly have a history—are determined to make the best of the situation. As her attempts to protect her privacy are thwarted by the two little ones who are charmingly oblivious to her boundaries, soon Mabel is making cocoa and cookies for the first time in years, and allowing them into her library, a place that contains so many of her secrets.Mabel has her reasons for keeping her truths so deeply hidden. But this Christmas, if Mabel is brave enough to share, she might finally be able to rewrite the past and find a festive happy-ever-after - for her new friends, but also herself.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans comes an emotionally rich work of historical fiction inspired by the true story of Etta Wheeler, a woman whose courage and compassion helped spark a movement that forever changed a country.In 1874, Etta Wheeler leaves her quiet upstate New York farm town behind to follow her husband into the bustling and sometimes brutal world of Gilded Age New York City. Surrounded by wealth, power, and ambition, Etta struggles to find where she belongs until a chance encounter in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen changes everything.There she meets a young girl trapped in conditions no child should endure. What began as one woman’s determination to help a single child soon draws Etta into a battle against the city’s most powerful institutions, forcing her to discover a courage she never knew she possessed.Set against the stark contrasts of Gilded Age Manhattan, this uplifting historical novel of compassion and moral courage tells the extraordinary story of how a singular act of courage ignited lasting change that still impacts the world today.
A Christmas-hating recluse goes head-to-head with her holiday-obsessed neighbour in this clever, laugh-out-loud rom-com, perfect for fans of B.K. Borison and Julia McKay.It's the most perilous time of the year...Devra's family is cursed. There's simply no other explanation for the catastrophes that have tormented them every December for the last thirty odd years—a house fire from exploding string lights, severe burns from spilled hot cocoa, breakup after breakup, always in the lead-up to Christmas. So, she does what anyone with a family curse would do: she goes into hiding and scorns the holidays. But when Bradley, "Mr. Christmas" himself, moves in next door and ruins her perfectly un-festive space with every twinkling, shimmering, blaring decoration imaginable, Devra is certain he's been sent by the curse to upend her quiet life.Bradley's days are looking up. He's one year sober, with a new home, and what better way to celebrate his fresh start than by honouring his family's tradition of extravagant holiday decorating. The only problem: his festive spirit has somehow offended his prickly new neighbour, sparking a feud that just might end in attempted snowman murder.But while Devra seems hell-bent on driving Bradley away, Bradley becomes fixated on solving the riddle that is Devra. And somewhere along the way, their over-the-fence antics spark something deeper: feelings.Except was Bradley sent by the curse? Or is he the answer to finally breaking it—once and for all?
Spanning the ballrooms of Pasadena and the sunlit gardens of Altadena, a new novel of love and sacrifice from the internationally bestselling author of The Light Over London and The Last Garden in England.1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson’s life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house’s beautiful garden is Miss Pearce’s proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.Stifled by expectation as Pasadena’s newest doyenne, Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.