Four Christmases and a Secret
‘For lovers of Sophie Kinsella this is the perfect book’ Goodreads Reviewer It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Except for Daisy, Christmas means another of Uncle T’s dreaded Christmas parties, complete with Christmas jumper and flashing antlers. And Oliver Cartwright. Gorgeous Oliver Cartwright. Who she hates. Every year Daisy has to face insufferable Ollie and hear all about how BRILLIANT he is. Whereas Daisy has no job, no man and no idea how to fix things. This Christmas, however, Daisy is determined things will be different. There will be no snogging Ollie under the mistletoe like when they were teenagers. No, this year she’ll show Ollie that she’s a Responsible Adult too. But as the champagne corks pop, and the tinsel sparkles, Uncle T has news of his own to share… and it could change Daisy's life forever… Bridget Jones meets the Hallmark Channel in an irresistible romantic comedy you won’t want to miss this Christmas. Everyone is LOVING this Christmas romcom… ‘Oh my goodness, what a fantastic book…I am gutted to have finished it’ Vicki, Instagram ‘I could so easily see this working on a big screen, its such a heartwarming story’ Rachel’s Random Reads ‘Characters-*****Hero- swoony *****Heroine- my kinda people *****Plot- amazing ******Will I recommend it?-highly. To all romcom lovers!:)’ Diary of a Young Book Lover ‘There’s a secret hanging around and it’s one that I certainly didn’t see coming…would make a fabulous Christmas tv movie’ Jo, My Chestnut Reading Tree ‘A story that gets you in the feels’ Vonda, Goodreads ‘Zara Stoneley is quickly taking a place on my shelf of "must read" authors…a perfect feel good read for any time of the year’ It’s All About the Thrill ‘I could not put this book down nor did I want to. I wanted to keep reading for as long as I could and even hid away on Sunday afternoon to read this!’ Zooloo’s Book Diary
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Four Christmases and a Secret
ZARA STONELEY
One More Chapter
a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Zara Stoneley 2019
Cover design by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover images © Shutterstock.com
Zara Stoneley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008363161
Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008363154
Version: 2019-09-11
Table of Contents
Prologue – Mistletoe Kisses
Act 1 – Must Try Harder
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Act 2 – New Year, New Me
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Act 3 – Nothing’s Going to Stop Me Now
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Acknowledgements
Also by Zara Stoneley
About the Author
About the Publisher
For everybody who has felt at some time in their lives ‘not good enough’.
Believe me, you are!
24 December 2004
‘I flung open the curtains and shouted look at my hedgehogs!’
Oh my God, I knew it. My mother is going to totally embarrass me. Here, at Uncle Terence’s Christmas Eve party, in front of everybody.
Want to be able to embarrass your kids as they get older? Get your own back for every little slip up? Well, bring them up in a village where everybody will know them, and nobody will forget anything they have ever done. And never ever move house.
I am eighteen years old, for heaven’s sake. I need to stop coming to family and friends’ parties so that I can avoid total embarrassment.
Nine months, that’s all. I just have to stick it out for nine more months and then I’ll be free.
I love my parents to bits, I sometimes even like them, but I cannot wait to go to university. My own place, nobody watching my every move and I will be able to snog who I like, when I like, where I like. I will be able to leave crumbs in my bed, read until 4 a.m., spend the weekend in my pyjamas.
I straighten my antlers self-consciously, set my jumper to ‘flashing’ mode as a distraction and glance at Dad, who just shrugs apologetically, because we both know that mother in full flow is unstoppable.
‘Wendy, darling?’ He does try, but like I say, she’s unstoppable.
‘And Stuart switched the patio light on and there they were!’
‘Hedgehogs?’ I hear somebody say, hopefully.
I edge back, try to sidle behind a bookcase before anybody notices me. One more step and I’m heading towards the ‘Narnia’ display. Another step and I’ll be safely hidden behind a giant White Witch.
‘Oh no, no! Our Daisy and a boy. Horizontal on the lawn, searching for slugs they said! I didn’t even know Joshua the postman’s son was interested in hedgehogs. I never even realised that Daisy knew the boy, she’d definitely not introduced him, had you dear? Daisy?’
I lean back against the bookcase and close my eyes. I am mortified. I mean, wouldn’t you think that when your parents are holding a dinner party, you’d be safe having a quick snog in the back garden?
If Josh had had his way, we would have been naked and have more in common with rabbits than hedgehogs, but the full moon, dew sodden grass and nip in the air had dampened my ardour (as well as my best jeans) a bit. I mean he’s okay, he’s quite a lot of fun actually but I’m not about to marry him. And I’m not a hedgehog. Or a rabbit.
He’s a bloody quick thinker though, he probably would have said we were doing some kind of druid-dance to summon up snails (I bet Mum would have fallen for that, not sure about Dad). While I just stared wide-eyed like a rabbit in the headlights then scampered for the safety of the summerhouse.
