Earlier this week I listed my top romances of 2012.

Now I’m looking forward to relaxing over the holidays with an endless supply of tea and mince pies and a great big pile of romances big enough to take me into 2013.  I actually have so many books to read on my Kindle it’s likely to burst!   So, I’ve had a good look through and whittled my growing TBR list into a few select holiday reading choices.  Can’t wait!

First up is Never Coming Home, by Evonne Wareham.  I’m particularly interested to read this novel because it was the winner of the Joan Hessayon award in 2012.  This award is given to the best novel to have passed through the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme.  I wrote my own novel, The Silk Romance (to be published in May next year) as part of this excellent scheme, and I’m always interested to read other writers who have reached publication through this route.  Besides being a romance, Evone Wareham’s novel is also a mystery.  It has gained great reviews on crime fiction blogs as well as romance novel blogs, and I can’t wait to sit down to a cracking page-turner.

Next up is Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes.  Thanks to my fellow Muse author, Marie Lanvin, for this recommendation!  I’ve read some excellent reviews of this book from all quarters, including broadsheets such as The Independent and I’m really looking forward to reading it.  This is part of the novel’s blurb:  What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.  Hankies at the ready, I think!

My third choice is Guppies For Tea, by Marika Cobbold.   Marika Cobbold is another graduate from the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme, and she certainly graduated in style with this novel!  Guppies For Tea has gained excellent reviews from all, including the weighty Times Literary Supplement.  And considering Marika’s first language is Swedish, I find her achievement even more remarkable.  Here’s the blurb:

Amelia Lindsey shares her days between a grandmother whom she loves, a mother whom she tolerates with patient fortitude, and Gerald. They had fallen in love two years earlier, when he was in his artistic phase, and had begged her to move in with him. Now (no longer in his artistic phase) he is showing signs of irritation. And suddenly Selma, the talented and much-beloved grandmother, has become old. As life – and Gerald – begins to collapse all round Amelia, she is determined that the one person who will not fade is Selma. Fighting a one-woman battle against Cherryfield retirement home, Gerald’s defection and her mother’s obsession with germs, Amelia finds herself capable of plots, diversions, and friendships she has never imagined before.

And finally, after reading this Guardian Review, I’m also going to be reading Marian Keyes’ The Mystery of Mercy Close.

Phew!  Will I get time to read everything I want to read?  Well, that’s an impossible task, because there’ll always be something else to add to the list, but I’ll enjoy trying!  My husband, my dog and I will be in a cottage in Cornwall next week, with the wind howling round the chimney-pots and the waves crashing on the beach.  After we’ve worn our dog out on the beach (may take some time!) I intend to go home, put the kettle on, get the mince pies out and immerse myself in my novel.  Can’t wait!  Hope you all enjoy a lovely Christmas!