Build up to Christmas through fiction

"The scent of cinnamon, orange peel and ginger perfumed the air, with a strong undercurrent of coffee. Outside the rain was battering against the large windows of the eau-de-nil-painted exterior of the Cupcake Café, tucked into a little grey stone close next to an ironmonger’s and a fenced-in tree that looked chilled and bare in the freezing afternoon."
(Extract from Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan)

Only a few days before the holidays start and so it's time to gather together some fiction to enhance that Christmas feel, set, of course in different locations around this lovely world of ours. We hope you enjoy our selection - a list such as this can never be definitive as there are huge numbers of Christmas-themed books out there, so if you have a particular favourite do share it with others via the Comments Box. Let's make this a list to remember.

Click on the covers for more information.

The Night before Christmas by Scarlett Bailey
Set in CUMBRIA
All Lydia's ever wanted is a perfect Christmas...So when her oldest friends invite her to spend the holidays with them, it seems like a dream come true. She's been promised log fires, roasted chestnuts, her own weight in mince pies - all in a setting that looks like something out of a Christmas card.
But her winter wonderland is ruined when she finds herself snowed in with her current boyfriend, her old flame and a hunky stranger. Well, three (wise) men is traditional at this time of year...


The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy
Set in GERMANY and TEXAS
1945. Germany. Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager who has been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger. Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba’s latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town and the two stories unfold. Peppered with German Christmas customs and recipes.


Cold Comfort by Ellis Vidler
Set in VIRGINIA
Claire runs the little Christmas shop called "The Mistletoe." After being dumped by her faithless fiancé, she has abandoned her dreams of a family of her own tucked neatly inside a picket fence. Instead, she's plotting her solo course and settling for a quiet life as an independent Williamsburg shop owner. So how does she become a killer’s target? Riley enters her life, a former security consultant, and as a result of an attack on a friend of a friend, the pair find themselves fleeing, whilst battling a powerful romantic chemistry.

Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan
Set in LONDON
Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Cafe, is in love and couldn't be happier. Her new business is thriving and she is surrounded by close friends, even if her cupcake colleagues Pearl and Caroline don't seem quite as upbeat about the upcoming season of snow and merriment. But when her boyfriend Austin is scouted for a possible move to New York, Issy is forced to face up to the prospect of a long-distance romance. And when the Christmas rush at the cafe - with its increased demand for her delectable creations - begins to take its toll, Issy has to decide what she holds most dear.


Have a lovely Christmas and thank you to everyone who has supported us over 2012, our first year. We have now been up and running and growing for 11 months.