After all, how hard can it be to bring your nonexistent girlfriend home for the holidays?In Hustle & Bustle by Maggie Cummings, Hannah Monroe is ready to dazzle customers with her pop-up shop at NYC’s winter holiday market. NYPD beat cop Toby Beckett, who just wants to protect and serve, barely notices the spirit of the season until events keep pushing her into Hannah’s path.In A Christmas Miracle by Fiona Riley, Mira Donahue’s bar, Mirage, is the hottest Christmas party venue in Boston, despite Mira’s secret: she hates Christmas. When self-described Queen of Carols Courtney Rivers books Mirage for her company’s holiday party, she clashes with Mira over the plans. Then a freak storm strands them in the bar, and more than miracles abound.

    Not only does she find herself swept off her feet by the handsome and successful, Andre, but there’s another man after her heart. Her Ex. The only problem is, she doesn’t know which ex it is. For 12 days, December receives gifts that remind her of what love is supposed to be, but the sender of the gifts remain a mystery. Who are they from? Who wants her back? And which man will she choose? True Love sometimes comes by surprise. And sometimes it’s the person right in front of your eyes. But on rare occasions, true love could be your ex. Take this holiday journey with December to see what happens next!

    The tree goes up at the start of November and there’s always a long list of festive activities planned. To Blayke, Christmas is the best time of year and she can’t wait to start celebrating.Beauty therapist Zanthie Brown has only been in town for a little over a year and with no family and very few friends, is set to spend another Christmas alone. If anyone asks, she’ll tell them she doesn’t mind, because the truth is, she’s never actually had the opportunity to celebrate a proper Christmas, and although she secretly yearns to take part in the holiday season, she certainly doesn’t want to be pitied. When Blayke and Zanthie’s worlds collide, Blayke makes it her mission to pull together a Christmas checklist to ensure Zanthie experiences a Christmas she’ll never forget. Between ice skating, hot chocolate, baking cookies and tree decorating, sparks start to fly but there’s a problem. Everyone knows you shouldn’t date your best friend’s ex and Zanthie is Blayke’s friend and work colleague Lana’s ex-girlfriend.Join Blayke and Zanthie as they try to fight their growing feelings in this festive romance.

    . . No one said anything about a friendly camel or a hunky mechanic Cedar Haynes has a choice: change her high-pressure lifestyle, or end up dead by the time she’s thirty. Not one to do things by half measures, she quits her demanding corporate job, swaps her sports car for an SUV, and moves to the peaceful mountain community of Faraday. She envisions a quiet, peaceful Christmas, surrounding by silence and sparkling snow. When a camel takes up residence on her porch, she realizes small-town life may be more quirky and complicated than she imagined. Thankfully, the local mechanic seems to have all the answers - plus good looks, bad-boy charm, and a mysterious aura that leaves her wanting to know more. Rhett Riggs left big city life behind the moment his small-town uncle needed his help. To make ends meet, he takes over Faraday’s one and only garage and gas station. He gets more than he bargained for, though, when Uncle Will passes away, leaving Rhett a run-down farmhouse, a wacky camel named Lolly, and a deep-rooted love for the community he considers his home. With the holidays approaching, he watches with interest as a new neighbor moves in next door. He waits for Lolly to send the woman running, like she has the last handful of residents. Only this time, if his beautiful neighbor leaves, she’ll take his heart with her.Between spilled secrets, mistaken identities, and a camel determined to spread a little love, it will take more than mistletoe and holiday magic to help Rhett and Cedar find their happy ending.Come along on a sweet Christmas romance adventure sure to uplift the spirit, touch the heart, and imbue the warmth of the holiday season. ˃˃˃ Read all four sweet romances in The Friendly Beasts of Faraday series! * Scent of Cedar (Book 1) - A woman in need of a new beginning finds herself tormented by a camel and captivated by the town's bad boy. Can she overcome her fears to embrace a sweet holiday romance?* Tidings of Joy (Book 2)- Only one woman can draw a shy mail carrier out of his shell, but it will take the help of her donkey and puppy to make it happen.* Boughs of Holly (Book 3)- A free-spirited nurse winds up on a ranch with a stubborn cowboy and his matchmaking grandpa. Will love triumph over her need to roam?* Wings of an Angel (Book 4) - Will a fun-loving teacher convince a woman sworn off romance to give love a second chance? He'll need a hand from her son and his furry, feathered friends. ˃˃˃ The inspiration for the stories. . . The Friendly Beasts Christmas carol mentions a camel, a donkey, a cow, a sheep, and a dove. That sweet carol is what sparked the idea for this series, along with a steal-the-show camel at a live nativity performance. Start reading this heartwarming holiday series today!

    Our parents’ approval is hard-won, and it can drive some of us to ridiculous ends…Are these two really an item? Or, just maybe, did my brother simply not want to be the only sibling here without a date?I’m a man who always gets what he wants,And all I want for Christmas this year, is her.

     Having recently relocated to Seattle, Shelby longs for someone special in her life. When a handsome green-eyed stranger walks into the coffee shop where she works, her interest is piqued. Later, she finds a bag containing five beautiful hand-painted Christmas bells on the cream and sugar table. No one comes back to claim it, so she decides to do a little detective work. Does she dare hope that it will lead her to the stranger with the magnetic green eyes? Chris Bertone loves his job at Impact Ministries, but working day and night has prevented him from having much of a social life. On a whim, he stops for a cup of coffee and is instantly smitten with the beautiful barista. Now, even with everything he has to take care of at work, all he wants to do is find time for another coffee break. But things are so hectic this holiday season, how can he manage to get to know her better without being too overbearing, or breaking his budget on coffee? Holiday Hearts…seasons of love.

    As his sister's impending marriage signals the inevitable drifting-apart of the Blackshear family, it's his last chance to give his siblings the sort of memorable, well-planned holiday their parents could never seem to provide.He has no time to dawdle, no time for nonsense, and certainly no time to drive the falconer's vexing, impulsive, lush-lipped, midnight-haired daughter to a house party before heading home. So why the devil did he agree to do just that?It couldn't be more deliciously mixed-up...Lucy Sharp has been waiting all her too-quiet life for an adventure, and she means to make the most of this one. She's going to enjoy the house party as no one has ever enjoyed a house party before, and in the meanwhile she's going to enjoy every minute in the company of amusingly stern, formidably proper, outrageously handsome Mr. Blackshear. Let him disapprove of her all he likes—it's not as though they'll see each other again after today....or will they? When a carriage mishap and a snowstorm strand the pair miles short of their destination, threatening them with scandal and jeopardizing all their Christmas plans, they'll have to work together to save the holiday from disaster. And along the way they just might learn that the best adventures are the ones you never would have thought to plan.

    But no one saw past her body and while she was growing up she was taunted with the name “plump plum.” She learned to accept her figure and was happy in her own skin. She considered herself fabulous and curvaceous even if no one else could see her beauty she sure as hell could. Mr. Right would come along when he was good and ready, till then she wouldn’t settle for “you’re pretty but if you weren’t so big…” hell no. Christmas came around and her little flower shop was selling poinsettias and holiday bouquets faster than she could make them. Mr. Hollis Wright came into the store with a rush order for a holiday party and showed more interest in her than her flowers. She accepted his dinner date and from the first kiss sparks flew. One minute he was buying arrangements for a party, the next he was dating the sweetest plum in New York City. Hollis didn’t care about her size or gossip. When he kissed Portia made him feel more alive than he felt in a long time. To him she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That doesn’t mean people didn’t talk when the dashing eligible bachelor showed up with her on his arm. From a size two to sixteen, one headline read and it faze him, it was his life and he lived it on his terms. The only thing that mattered to Hollis was the size of her love. While she thought that a holiday fling, Hollis was going to show her he had something more permanent in mind.

    With a fresh break-up on her heart, she had no desire to start anything new. After spending a few days moping around the house, her meddling sister sets Winter up on a blind date. She was fully prepared to have a few drinks and leave until her high school best friend, Gabriel, entered the bar.Gabriel Snow wanted one thing for Christmas, to reconnect with his best friend, Winter. After losing contact with her, he longed to have her in his life again. With the help of Winter’s sister, Gabriel plans a date, hoping to win over Winter’s heart for good.Will Gabriel be granted his one Christmas wish?

    In the midst of the annual Christmas festival, an accident forces her to return and manage her mom’s candy business at the Sugar Shop.Grant hasn’t seen her since she left for college, but remembers spending summers at the lake with the skinny, plain girl he and everyone used to know as Sugar. The contemporary advertising executive he encounters now is anything but plain.Will Grant’s kindness, the charm of Silver Falls, and the caring community open Sugar’s heart to all she’s been missing?The best-selling author of A Season for Hope, the tale readers describe as the perfect Christmas story, delivers a touching sequel with the second in her Christmas in Silver Falls series in this new festive novella that pairs perfectly with a cup of cocoa in front of a blazing fire.

    The infuriating man forwards them along with his annoying commentary and unsolicited advice. At least she never has to see him in person since they work in different locations…until they come face to face at the office holiday party. As luck would have it, Kennedy turns out to be gorgeous…though still a jerk. Yet somehow he’s able to charm her out on the dance floor—and convince her to participate in his crazy scheme: He’ll go home with Riley for a Christmas party and pretend to be her boyfriend if Riley agrees to be his date to a wedding. It sounds easy enough. But little by little, the act they’re putting on starts to feel like so much more than a Christmas pact—and Riley’s about to learn there’s more to Kennedy than she ever imagined.

    And it’s not such a bad gig, especially when she has a thermos full of hot coffee and some great bluegrass music to drown out the sound of the plow.Megan hasn’t seen her best friend in over a year, so she decides to take a road trip with her recently newborn son to visit her in Cleveland. But when a road closure detours her to the middle of nowhere in rural Pennsylvania and a snowstorm strands them on the side of the road, it seems like she’ll never make it to see her best friend.When Zoey rescues Megan and her son, it’s a bit tense and awkward at first. But as the ice thaws and they get to know each other, they start to grow fond of their chance encounter and love begins to blossom in their hearts. Perhaps, they’ll have a complete family for Christmas after all.

    But even at three-and-thirty and well past marriageable age, though, she has to admit that the architect the MacTaggerts have hired could turn even a confirmed spinster’s head.In CHRISTMAS AT DEWBERRY HOLLOW by Amelia Grey, Isabelle Reed has no plans to ever fall in love. Certainly not with Gate, a man who doesn’t live in Dewberry Hollow. She will fulfill her duty and help him keep his promise to have his ill grandfather back in London in time for Christmas dinner. The last thing Isabelle wants is for Gate to take her heart with him when he goes.In MY MISTLETOE BEAU by Anna Bennett, Miss Eva Tiding is determined to cheer her widowed father with the perfect Christmas gift. Even if it means breaking into the home of the rakish earl who swindled Papa out of his pocket watch and pretending to date the earl for the Christmas season.

    Two single women. One meddling family. Is it a recipe for love or disaster?Jas Arsenault won’t let a bad breakup ruin her Christmas. Her heart aches for someone to spend the holiday with, but time with her family will have to be enough. But they’ve made it their mission to find her a girlfriend, and they won’t stop until she has one...no matter how much she protests.Chloe Simmons has always been alone, and this year will be no different. Snowbound at a ski resort with total strangers must be better than spending the holiday by herself, right? When she and Jas meet unexpectedly in the resort’s only working hot tub, both women are shocked by the intensity of their connection. Could this be exactly what they need?Too bad Jas’s family has other ideas...“Mission: Girlfriend” is a lighthearted, romantic holiday short story by best-selling author Marian Snowe.