Looking for something festive to read?
Stock up on Lume’s best seasonal picks – from Christmassy murder mysteries, humourous family get-togethers to charming winter romances. Whatever you’re in the mood for, we have the perfect ebook to snuggle up with!
Happy reading!
The appetizers were to die for.
Exhausted after shopping for teenagers, struggling with cappuccino machines, and eating way too many cookies, Susan Henshaw is glad she hired “The Holly and Ms. Ivy” to cater her annual New Year’s bash.
But when half the team, the blond and buffed Z Holly, chef extraordinaire and notorious ladies’ man, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons, Susan starts hunting for a killer—and a way to save her party.
Though kept in the dark by the police, Susan crashes the holiday parties of the area Hancock, nibbling her way through epicurean delights and sordid tales of sin.
Last Christmas had been a disaster for Sophie and her daughter Bella.
On Christmas morning Sophie discovered a present, which turned out to be for her husband Archie’s mistress Bertha. Sophie was determined that this year was going to be different. If only she could shake this cold and it would stop snowing.
With Bella still away at her Dad’s, Susi, her lively best friend, persuades Sophie to host a party on Christmas Eve. With a menu consisting of simply ‘Booze and nibbles’ what could possibly go wrong? Sophie is about to find out. Susi is playing seasonal match-maker under the mistletoe before Christmas! And the suitors are queuing up…
Everyone dreams of a White Christmas.
None more so than Hal Benson. An out-of-work actor, Hal has been hired as a stand-in weather forecaster by a ratings-chasing news channel. Hal couldn’t care less whether it rains or not. It is just a job.
But then he meets Lizzie Foster. A rival weather forecaster, on a far more serious channel. Lizzie is bright, determined, fascinated by meteorology – and very beautiful. She is the complete opposite of Hal, but sometimes opposites attract.
After meeting at a conference – and after a spark develops between them – Lizze and Hal make a bet live on air: will it snow on Christmas Day? As the big day approaches, their relationship turns out to be as unpredictable as the weather. And sometimes as stormy.
If you had to choose between exciting and irresistible, what would you do?
Last year Ella’s heart was broken. She’d been with sophisticated banker Robbie Newton for six years when suddenly, on New Year’s Eve, he had left her with nothing but a note explaining he had taken a job in Chicago.
This year Ella is determined to bury her past and start afresh. While shopping for her best friend who is hosting her infamous Christmas party that evening, Ella bumps into a mysterious man in the supermarket. After a series of awkward run-ins and chance meetings with this stranger, Fergus Lamb, Ella feels the pangs of love again.
A generation ago a young woman was knocked off her bicycle in the snow and left to die alone.
Decades later, the murders start. The first victim is a semi-disabled couple who are brutally ambushed and killed in their home. Others follow, each killing more horrendous than the last. And in all the attacks, a calling card is left, a final indignity that suggests that revenge and retribution are at the heart of the brutal murders…
A New York society girl follows her heart all the way to the majestic Alaskan wilderness.
Lovely Janice Trent fled New York on the eve of her wedding to a millionaire. Yet, in the rugged Alaskan mining camp where she took refuge, Janice soon blunders into a marriage that was not a marriage…
A mysterious murder, a desperate rival, and above all, the danger and hardships of the untamed land show Janice the strength within herself, and the man she was truly meant to love.
Escape this Christmas…
Karen is determined not to spend another Christmas with her lazy and unappreciative husband, Frank. The final straw came when he tricked her into going with him to a ‘swingers’ party. Horrified, she stormed out, packed all her stuff up and fled.
With no income, no home and all her possessions stuffed in the back of her caravan with her beloved dog, Eccles, Karen is more than a little apprehensive about starting over.
As Christmas looms ever closer Karen starts to realise how lonely she could become in her new life. And when the biggest snowstorm in fifty years hits the village things are complicated even further…
Christmas is not Lulu’s favourite time of year.
Worse, this year she simply can’t face the idea of her gorgeous boyfriend Ravi meeting her family. Desperate, she decides it’s time to plan an alternative Christmas. When Ravi suggests they invite Lulu’s best friends – Susannah and Jo – to join them she is unsure, but they seem keen and soon enough they’re all on the train to spend the dreaded holiday period in a secluded coastal cottage, their respective partners in tow.
Susannah is back in a relationship with her teenage sweetheart, Grant. Jo is living with Troy Cooper AKA TC, the soap opera star. And – as yet – none of the girls have met their best friends’ partners. Is this a recipe for drama or can Lulu manage to get her perfect, Christmassy, couples retreat?
Hancock, Connecticut, was bustling for Christmas: parties, cookie baking, concerts… and a missing body.
Although Kelly Knowlson firmly thought her newly remarried ex-husband, Evan, would return to her, did she set him by the fire, egg nog by his side, the Night Before Christmas in his hands, and put a bullet in his head?
By the time the police show up, the body is gone, so of course, Kelly is the prime suspect.
Between moulding cheese balls and salmon mousse for a holiday dinner, suburban sleuth Susan Henshaw fits in a little yuletide detecting to discover if Kelly Knowlson iced her ex. And if not, who would dare send such an uncharitable Christmas greeting?
Lucy Stephenson is facing a Christmas nightmare.
Her bistro, ‘The Town Mouse’, is in a bad financial and her sous chef, Emily, has just dropped the bomb that she’s quitting –
leaving Lucy in the lurch just weeks before Christmas. Unable to see how she can turn her business around, Lucy reaches out to Dustin at a cookery agency to find a temporary chef. In a stroke of luck, Dustin says he has the perfect man for the job.
Lucy is surprised when the stranger, James Drummond, arrives in her kitchen, but she’s glad of the help. What’s more, she can’t take her eyes off him. As the two work together through the night, feelings stir between them – despite James’ arrogance – and Lucy in desperate need of holiday help offers this mystery man a job.
The trip had been part of Jackie’s grand plan.
Jackie and her boyfriend, the perfect Jack with his handsome looks, wealth and charm, would spend one season working on the slopes. A final blow-out before they finally settled down. Jack and Jackie, Jackie and Jack. Childhood sweethearts, they would escape their small town and experience the romance of La France.
But at the airport, poised to buy their two tickets, Jack shatters her dreams of the perfect Christmas. He’s been seeing someone else. Not just anyone, their lodger. With her last ounce of resolve, Jackie boards the plane and sets off on an Alpine adventure of her own.
30-something Sarah has finally decided to start her own business.
After years of 5am starts, running around a busy television studio, she has decided to hand in her resignation, and begin her dream of running her own cake making business. Swapping her stylish clothes for tracksuits and an apron she gets to work and is thrilled when the local café agrees to start selling her treats.
Working from home also means she can finally do one other thing she couldn’t do with her hectic job – get a puppy. So when fellow dog-walker Nick steps in to give her a hand, she knows she should take his advice. But does he just want to help her out, or is he interested in something else?
Christmas is fast approaching – but for Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr Watson, a sudden visitor is to change what little plans they had made.
James Harding, owner of a Guildford antique business, has travelled to 221B Baker Street armed with an intriguing proposition for the ever-dutiful detective. He has received an invitation from a Mr. Gerald MacMillan to assemble some friends and spend the festive period with him at his stately home in Sussex.
A bizarre proposal considering Harding had only just met MacMillian…
‘Gano’s excellent descriptive passages create a vivid atmosphere…’ – Publishers Weekly
Snow is falling in Hampton and the city’s inhabitants are busy with festive preparations when a young woman is savagely murdered in the city’s picturesque cathedral. Then another young woman is murdered…and another…
Inspector Proby is assigned to the case. As a seasoned detective, it’s not difficult for him to figure out who did it, but proving it is another matter altogether. It will take all of his wit and courage to catch this killer before he strikes again. But his quest takes a dramatic turn when he finds out his own wife is sleeping with the killer. Was she involved with the slaughter?
The chilling killer watches Proby…taunts him…thinking he’s got away with his crimes…
