Love and Lies at The Village Christmas Shop: A laugh out loud romantic comedy perfect for Christmas 2018
Blast the Michael Bublé, wrap your hands around a cinnamon latte and enjoy this warm, hilarious Christmas novel!Ivy loves Christmas. As the owner of Christmas Every Day, the year-round festive store, you'd expect nothing less!The only thing missing in Ivy's life is a dash of romance – something her twin sister Holly will not let her forget…When her mother passed away, Ivy vowed to take over the running of her mother’s store and keep the Christmas spirit alive in the idyllic seaside town of Marram Bay.But all this changes when an enigmatic businessman moves to the town, threatening to bulldoze her beloved shop to make way for a holiday complex.Can Ivy save her shop before Christmas? Could there be a different side to the newest resident of Marram Bay that would make all her Christmas wishes come true?The brand-new laugh-out-loud romantic comedy from bestseller Portia Macintosh. Perfect for fans of Zara Stoneley and Tilly Tennant.Readers love Portia Macintosh:‘I really loved, no make that ADORED reading this book.’‘I didn't enjoy it… I LOVED IT!!!!’‘A heart-warming, uplifting book that had me captivated from the first chapter’‘Portia MacIntosh as always delivers us a treat, one that will leave us smiling from ear to ear.’‘Hilarious, unique, refreshingly brilliant, and addictive read’‘Heartwarming, well-written, and entertaining’
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PORTIA MACINTOSH has been ‘making stuff up’ for as long as she can remember – or so she says. Whether it was blaming her siblings for that broken vase when she was growing up, blagging her way backstage during her rock chick phase or, most recently, whatever justification she can fabricate to explain away those lunchtime cocktails, Portia just loves telling tales.
After years working as a music journalist, Portia decided it was time to use her powers for good and started writing novels instead.
Bestseller Portia writes hilarious romcoms, drawing on her real life experiences to show what it’s really like being a woman today – especially one who doesn’t quite have her life together yet.
Between A Rockstar and A Hard Place
How Not to Be Starstruck
Bad Bridesmaid
Drive Me Crazy
Truth or Date
It’s Not You, It’s Them
The Accidental Honeymoon
How Not to Be a Bride
Summer Secrets at the Apple Blossom Deli
Love and Lies at the Village Christmas Shop
PORTIA MACINTOSH
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018
Copyright © Portia MacIntosh 2018
Portia MacIntosh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for 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.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without the prior permission of the publishers.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
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that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this
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E-book Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008297725
Version: 2018-09-25
Table of Contents
‘Holly Jones, what have you done?’ I hear my mum ask through gritted teeth, with enough volume to show that she’s angry, but not so much that the shop full of customers can hear her.
I remove my nose from my copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to see what exactly my sister has done now. I wouldn’t usually jump to conclusions, but this is Holly, and Holly will do anything if it has enough shock value.
We went our separate ways at the school gates no more than a couple of hours ago. Holly wanted to go into town with her mates for a while before tea, but I wanted to come here and read my book, sitting on my stool behind the counter of my mum’s Christmas shop. I always enjoy spending time here but now that it’s December – and actually Christmas time – the place feels all the more magical.
This afternoon the shop is overflowing with tourists, who have travelled from all over to check out Marram Bay’s open-year-round Christmas shop. Christmas Every Day is so much more than just a shop though, it’s like a magical Santa’s workshop, with wall-to-wall Christmas decorations and gifts, with glitter and twinkly lights everywhere you look. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is pumping out through speakers around the shop. It’s such an infectious song, which you can’t help but love and sing along to. I’m not even sure I can name another Mariah Carey song, but this one is a Christmas classic.
Despite the trees in the shop being artificial (they do have to stay up all year round, after all), my mum has these special pine air fresheners which, combined with the locally made gingerbread she’s selling at the counter at the moment, give the place a real, irresistible Christmassy smell that I can’t get enough of. Perhaps my favourite part of all – and a favourite feature of many of the customers who visit the shop – is the steam train that runs on a track around the shop, over bridges, through tunnels and even around the shop Christmas tree that stays up all year.
