From forgotten loves to second chances, new happiness and old friends, this is an uplifting and moving collection of short stories about how love changes, and how it changes us - from Sunday Times bestseller Veronica Henry. Your favourite authors love Veronica's gorgeous storytelling: 'Fills your heart with joy and leaves you with a big fat smile on your face' Milly Johnson on Christmas at the Beach Hut 'Truly blissful escapism' Lucy Diamond on A Family Recipe 'A delight from start to finish' Jill Mansell on The Forever House - - - - - ** This is a collection of short stories **

    With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a safe place for little Leo.When she finally uncovers the cottage from underneath the boughs of a weeping willow tree, Beth realises this is far more of a project than she bargained for and the locals are more than a little eccentric! A chance encounter with gruff Jack, who appears to be the only male in the village under thirty, leaves the two of them at odds but it’s not long before Beth realises that Jack has hidden talents that could help her repair more than just Willow Cottage.Over the course of four seasons, Beth realises that broken hearts can be mended, and sometimes love can be right under your nose…

    Inspired by her Italian Poppa, Lucy’s chasing a new dream with her pizza van business. And at one particular party she meets Jack, the brooding but gorgeous owner of the Cocktail Campervan.Wary of repeating mistakes of the past, Lucy and Jack keep it strictly business. But as the summer drifts by in a swirl of garden parties, fun and fizz, laughs and celebrations, and as the cocktail campervan creates the community they so desperately need, romance starts to blossom – one stop at a time…

    Houses cluster around the fishing harbour. It has a pub and a sought-after little restaurant. It is here that Liz has found sanctuary for herself and her young daughter, Rosie - far away from Rosie's cheating father.Liz works all the hours God sends. First thing in the morning she's out, cleaning offices. At night she is waitressing in the village restaurant, while friends and neighbours rally round and mind Rosie. But trouble is waiting just round the corner.As with all villages, there are tensions, secrets - and ambitions. Emma Burstall's wonderfully engaging first novel about Tremarnock is the story of what happens when one shocking turn of events sweeps a small community.

    Even when his estranged father dies, Eric can’t help but dream about the luxuries he’ll spend his inheritance on. Unfortunately, Eric’s late father, had other ideas.Life quickly becomes a chaotic kaleidoscope of grumpy pensioners, wellington boots and vintage automobiles as Eric is forced to juggle his hectic career and family life in London, with regular visits to the small riverside town of Burlam. Plagued by heavy machinery mishaps, missed deadlines and drug raids, it’s not long before his job, his marriage and his sanity are hanging in the balance. Will he get his hands on his father’s treasured Aston Martin before he loses all three?Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martin is the first book in the delightfully funny new series from the award-winning author of The Afterlife of Walter Augustus. This quintessentially British novel will have you laughing and crying until the very end.

    Blame It On Mistletoe – Abby Baxter has spent the year since her husband's death trying to hold on. When she discovers her son is missing, her entire world trembles- until her husband's best friend appears at her door. Secretly in love with Abby for years, Frank Machado is determined to see JD back in his mother's arms. Sparks fly, hearts warm, love-and Christmas-are in the air. Should they Blame it on Mistletoe? If Only In My Dreams – Jilted in North Pole, Alaska, cafe owner Amelia Beckett's bad man-karma has struck again! She wants out of this cutesy town-until a snarling, injured fox in her backyard sends her running to strong, silent neighbor and cafe regular, Wes Curtis. Wes moved to Alaska after his wife died, not expecting he'd need to brush up admittedly rusty dating skills so soon. But moonlit nights spent helping beautiful, skittish Amelia and the fox relax and heal make him determined to convince Amelia she belongs in Alaska-with him What Child is This? – Hope Grayson's six-year-old daughter clearly wants a daddy for Christmas. Eli Thompson has never forgotten Hope, realizing just how much he's missed her. When he unexpectedly shows up to help in the clinic, Hope is stunned. She wants to protect her daughter and her heart, but is it possible Eli is the perfect Christmas present for them both?"

    But when they land dream opportunities on opposite ends of the country following graduation, they are forced to make a heart-wrenching pact. In the hope of one day restarting their love story, they set a date to reunite in five years at their favorite restaurant.Restaurant owner Gianna Hayden is thirty-seven, single, and one bad date away from giving up on finding the right guy when she meets Peter Clark on a dating website. Attractive, kind, and driven, he is exactly what she thought she was looking for. But as the day of Charli and Jack's reservation approaches, Gianna finds herself reflecting on the kind of passionate love her former customers once had and begins to question her bond with Peter.These two riveting stories converge on the night of the fateful reunion. Gianna, Charli, and Jack are all forced to make difficult choices as they struggle to follow their hearts, and ultimately each must decide where their true feelings lie before time runs out.Waiting at Hayden's is the first book to be published in the new reading experience format shopfiction™, which Costello coined and branded. The digital version of this book contains links to watch key scenes unfold and to shop the characters' clothes. The print versions contain web addresses to do the same.

    She thinks she’s ready for this homecoming. She’s spent years escaping her perpetual shyness and being Katie Michaels’ tag-along friend, but being back in her hometown brings back a lot of old memories, especially when she is faced with the cowboy she never forgot — Katie’s older brother, Maddox. Twelve years ago, Maddox Michaels was supposed to be somebody. He had everything. A football scholarship. A Division I team scouting him. Maybe even a chance at the pros. Now, he’s a burned-out cowboy working day and night to stay ahead of his brother’s medical bills and keep their family farm from going bankrupt. And trying to be a father-figure for his niece, Olivia. When Haley and Olivia start spending time together, Maddox can’t help remembering those dreams that died alongside his sister. Will being with Haley open his heart to new dreams?

    Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall. No wonder her family always believes she needs Looking After, and her friends think she really shouldn't be allowed out on her own...Which is why, at the age of thirty-nine, she finds herself shamefully back at home, living with Mum.Viola knows she has to take charge; she needs to get a life, and fast. With a stroppy teenage daughter, a demanding mother, and siblings who want to control her life for her, where is she going to turn?

    But when old Smiler takes a seat beside him, sucking in pint after pint through his gingery whiskers, a whole new world of battles and bones opens up before him…H. E. Bates – a prolific English novelist and short story writer – wrote 'Castle in the Air' for The Evening News in 1957, but the story was never re-printed in any of his later collections. In fact, its existence was forgotten until 2013 when it was spotted accidentally during a rummage through a newspaper archive. On re-discovering this charming and humorous short story – which exemplifies H.E. Bates's great skill of drawing vivid characters and his ability to create an almost tangible sense of a place – Bates's descendants felt it had to be shared with a wider audience.Bloomsbury Reader is delighted to be re-publishing 'Castle in the Air' alongside the whole body of H. E. Bates's short fiction and novellas, and here we offer it as a free taste of Bates's irresistible writing.

    One kissThe first time Noah Bryant meets Colbie Michaels they collide at the top of a snowy mountain in California and sparks fly. Swamped by sudden emotion – and a desire she can't control – Colbie panics. Before he can get her phone number or last name, she's gone. When they serendipitously meet again in Seattle one week later, Noah is certain Colbie is his destiny, and he can't make the mistake of losing her again.One night... One forever loveColbie wants to believe in a happily-ever-after, but experience tells her falling for Noah is more likely to lead to a broken heart. But how can she resist him as he sets out to prove that they're destined to be together? Especially when he's intent on fulfilling every last one of her secret desires and he’s willing to keep proving it to her every day...and every sweet and sinful night.

    Having parted on bad terms two years previously, Darcie and Jake now find themselves flung back together. Tensions reach new heights when they’re forced to work in the same place and the pair struggle to put the past behind them.And, all the while, Ross is becoming increasingly involved with a dangerous influence, which looks set to make Darcie’s problems with Jake pale into insignificance …

     'Not something you'll ever want to put down' Sunday Independent 'One of the smartest writers of popular fiction around' Irish Independent On an autumn day in 1981, three schoolgirls write their petitions for love at St Valentine's shrine in Whitefriar St Church, Dublin. Thirty years later, freelance journalist Vonnie unexpectedly returns home from her life in California and reunites with her two friends: Abby, now married to a plastic surgeon and Diana, a high-powered businesswoman.As the three friends examine their lives, they learn that finding love was the easy part ... it's what comes afterwards that proves complicated. If they were to do it all again, would they wish for the same things?

    A compelling, sweet romance... A story of passion and love in Medieval England. Gruff, brooding Lord Bernard of Derkland needs to find a wife, if for no other reason than to satisfy his father and his incessant badgering. He has no interest in marrying, but when he meets the beautiful and gentle Joanna of Swerthmore, he immediately knows she is the one. The only problem is: she's already wed...to a monster. Readers who like Roberta Gellis, Catherine Coulter, Tina St. John, and Paula Quinn will enjoy this book of romance about ladies, lords, knights and castles.

    When he threatens to not promote her because she refuses to get in ‘compromising’ positions, she quits.If a day can go from bad to worse, it does for Abbey. She runs into Bruce Harrington on her way home—literally. Bruce Harrington was on his way to a very important meeting. That was until a raving lunatic with brown, bouncy hair spiraled towards him in her car and then on foot. Maybe he should count it a blessing that when she sent him cascading over the side of the embankment—he wasn’t in his car. To make amends for causing Bruce to break a leg, Abbey becomes his chauffeur and helpmate until he recovers.When his cast is about to come off he has to face losing Abbey. There has to be some way he can keep her from walking out of his life forever. If a job offer won’t do it then perhaps it’s time for a proposal.