UNCOVERED PICKS: Ready for Christmas

Even though we're still in the midst of a surprisingly hot summer, it hasn't stopped us from getting a little excited about news of winter chick-lit releases. So when the time comes to swap beach reads and cocktails for Christmassy tales to enjoy curled up with a hot chocolate and blanket (bliss, yes?) here are five festive novels.

The Christmas Party by Carole Matthews 
Louise Young is a devoted single mother whose only priority is providing for her daughter, Mia. Louise has a good job in a huge international corporation and she's grateful for it. The only problem is her boss who can't keep his hands to himself, but Louise can handle him. What she really doesn't have time for is romance - until she meets the company's rising star, Josh Wallace. Louise usually says no to evenings out but she's decided to let her hair down tonight. It's the office Christmas party, she has a pretty dress to wear and she's looking forward to some champagne and fun. She's completely unaware that others around her are too busy playing dangerous games to enjoy the party - until she's pulled into those games herself ...Romance is in the air and secrets are about to be uncovered. It's going to be a night to remember at The Christmas Party. 

A Proper Family Christmas by Chrissie Manby 
Annabel Buchanan has it all. A privileged life. Pots of cash. Looks and manners born of generations of fabulous breeding. At least, that's what she likes people to think. But Annabel's carefully created image is about to come crashing down. With her beloved daughter Izzy in need of a kidney transplant, Annabel is desperate to find a suitable donor. That's how she comes to admit that before Annabel Buchanan there was Daisy Benson, given up for adoption by her teenage mum and dad. Hoping her biological family will be able to help, Annabel traces the Bensons and is horrified by the embarrassing, chavvy bunch she discovers. They're definitely not her kind of people. And she is equally baffling to them. But as Christmas approaches and Izzy's situation brings the Benson and the Buchanan families closer, will Annabel discover at last that blood is thicker than water? 

The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan 
Rosie Hopkins, newly engaged, is looking forward to an exciting year in the little sweetshop she owns and runs. But when fate strikes Rosie and her boyfriend, Stephen, a terrible blow, threatening everything they hold dear, it's going to take all their strength and the support of their families and their Lipton friends to hold them together. After all, don't they say it takes a village to raise a child? 

Confetti at Christmas by Abby Clements
Holly Madison never set out to be a wedding planner. She was just helping her stressed sister Lila with cakes and décor for her big day. But when Lila and Jack's summer ceremony is a runaway success, with high-profile guests raving about the food and styling at the pretty treehouse venue, word about Holly's expertise soon spread. 

A year on, Holly has a fast-growing business on her hands, and she is struggling to keep up. 

Boyfriend Marco worries that with so little experience she could be heading for a fall. After all, Holly's clients expect the very best - she's promised lawyers Mia and Eliot a snow-covered castle in the Scottish Highlands, and laidback couple Josh and Sarah a bohemian beach wedding in a Caribbean paradise. But as weather, in-laws, and wilful brides conspire against her, will she be able to deliver? 

I Will Marry George Clooney (by Christmas) by Tracy Bloom 
There comes a time in every woman's life when the only answer is to marry George Clooney. 

For Michelle, that time is now. 

Slogging her guts out in a chicken factory whilst single-handedly bringing up a teenager who hates her is far from the life that 36-year-old Michelle had planned. 

But marrying the most eligible man on the planet by Christmas could change all that, couldn't it?

Sometimes your only option is to dream the impossible - because you never know where it might take you.

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