by Julia McKay (£9.99, PB, Penguin) Ten years after her heart was broken, journalist Emory Oakes has sworn off love. But when her father’s financial scandal lands him in prison, she knows it is time t

Christmas was totally cancelled this year. The last thing Tam wanted was to be surrounded by all that jollity and stupid jumpers. She’d been looking forward to Christmas, because the last one had been

IT was two days until Christmas and the afternoon sky was blue and crisp as Lydia’s car pulled up in front of the magnificent Bristol Hotel. Why was it called the Bristol? she wondered. It was nowhere

JENNA arrived at nine o’clock to open up the stall. Since Lily had been working on her dissertation until the early hours of the morning, she was having a lie-in and would arrive later. Jenna wasn’t l

TOMMY was cold. He couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t felt cold. His fingers hurt the most. He folded them inside his woollen jumper and squeezed them tightly. Sometimes it eased the tingling pain. So

As I look ahead to Christmas this year, I feel that familiar cocktail of excitement and mild dread. The children are growing up fast now – and who knows how many more years of ‘magic’ we have left? La