A
seasonal easy
read romance,
Christmas in
the Cotswolds
is Jenny
Kane’s
festive sequel
to Another
Cup of
Christmas.
(It can
also be
read as
a stand
alone story.)
Blurb
Izzie
Spencer-Harris, owner of the Cotswold Art and Crafts Centre, is due
to host the prestigious Cotswold Choir’s annual Christmas carol
concert in her beautiful converted church. Or at least she was, until
a storm smashed a hole right through the chancel roof.
Days
from Christmas, Izzie suddenly finds herself up to her neck in DIY,
with her last dodgy workman having walked off the job. She does the
only thing she can… calls in her best friend Megan to help.
Leaving
Peggy and Scott to run Pickwicks Café in her absence, Megan heads to
the Cotswolds for Christmas. Within minutes of her arrival, she finds
herself hunting down anyone willing to take on extra work so close to
Christmas. It seems the only person available to help is Joseph
Parker – a carpenter who, while admittedly gorgeous, seems to have
ulterior motives for everything he does…
With
Izzie’s bossy mother, Lady Spencer-Harris, causing her problems
at every turn, an accident at work causing yet more delays, and the
date for the concert drawing ever nearer, it’s going to take a lot
more than Mrs Vickers’ powerful mulled wine to make sure everything
is all right on the night…
Excerpt
Izzie
closed her eyes and counted to ten as the door of the Cotswold Arts
Centre slammed shut.
There
was no point in panicking. She simply didn’t have time for such
luxuries if her converted church was going to be ready to host a
Christmas carol concert by the renowned Cotswold Choir in nine days’
time.
Bored
of being propositioned by men who weren’t remotely interested in
her until they discovered she was a daughter of the gentry, Izzie had
ejected the carpenter through her front door before he’d quite had
time to work out just how insulting her rejection of his latest lurid
suggestion was.
Now,
her hasty tongue having deprived her of a desperately needed pair of
tradesman’s hands, Izzie sat with a heavy thump onto the nearest
pew. She knew she had to find fresh help, and fast. A task that
wouldn’t be easy so close to Christmas.
‘Although,’
Izzie addressed the image of Noah, who smiled benevolently at her
from his stained-glass window, as if grateful he hadn’t been
smashed to pieces by the tree branch that had come through the top of
the chancel and caused so much seasonal inconvenience, ‘I’m damn
sure I’m not asking my mother to help out ever again!’
Reaching
for the offending package of invitations that had arrived by courier
first thing that morning, Izzie emptied it onto the table. The
invitations were supposed to have been posted by now. As soon as
she’d seen them, Izzie understood why her mother had left them to
the last minute.
Unfussy,
cost-effective, and with a medieval Christmas flavour in keeping with
the spirit of the converted fourteenth-century church where the
concert was to be held. That’s what she’d asked for.
What
she’d got was decadent Victorian-style gold-edged invitations which
weighed so much, Izzie was sure that posting them alone would break
the bank. And if that wasn’t bad enough, her mother had done the
one thing that she had expressively forbidden. She’d put Izzie’s
full name on the invitations.
Lady
Perdita Spencer-Harris had been unable to comprehend why her daughter
didn’t want to use the family name to help sales. She simply didn’t
understand that Izzie wanted people to come to hear the choir for its
own sake, or because they wanted to see what she’d done in her art
centre; not because she was a young and single female member of the
landed gentry.
Miss
Isadora Spencer-Harris
cordially
invites you to a magical festive evening at
The
Cotswold Arts Centre, Chipping Swinton
to
hear the renowned Cotswold Choir’s
Christmas
Carol Concert
Saturday
21st December
7
p.m. for 7.30 p.m. start
£25
per ticket
Refreshments
provided
RSVP
by 18th December to Harris Park
Wrapping
her stripy woollen scarf more tightly around her neck, Izzie breathed
warm air over her cold fingers. Deciding it wasn’t cost effective
to heat the church this late at night just for her, she gathered up
the invitations, and with one last check that the polythene sheeting
would keep the rest of her chancel roof in place overnight, Izzie
headed home.
Izzie
scooped up three Christmas cards from her doormat. A smile replaced
her frown as she opened the first envelope to see a cartoon robin
wishing her a Merry Christmas. Inside, beneath the seasonal greeting,
her friend Megan had written Must meet up
SOON! I’d love
to see your new
art centre.
‘Should
I?’ Izzie was sure her dearest friend from college would help.
Megan always helped. Izzie addressed the picture of the robin, ‘But
won’t she be hugely busy at Pickwicks café this close to
Christmas?’
Switching
on her laptop, Izzie started to hunt for a replacement tradesman to
help repair her church roof. Half an hour of searching later, and her
quest was looking increasingly hopeless by the minute.
It
was no good, if she wasn’t going to be forced to ask her parents to
bail her out – which was an ‘over her dead body’ situation as
far as Izzie was concerned – she needed alternative assistance.
Izzie picked up her mobile before guilt at disturbing her friend’s
life at Christmas overtook her.
‘Megan,
thank goodness you’re there! How can I put this … help!’
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Bio
With
a background in history and archaeology, Jenny Kane should really be
sat in a dusty university library translating Medieval Latin criminal
records, before writing research documents that hardly anyone would
want to read. Instead, tucked away in the South West of England,
Jenny Kane writes stories with one hand, while working for a Distance
Learning Company with the other.
Jenny
spends a
large part
of her
time in
the local
coffee shops,
where she
creates her
stories, including
the novels
Romancing Robin
Hood (Accent
Press, 2014),
the best
selling contemporary
romance Another
Cup of
Coffee (Accent
Press, 2013),
and the
novella length
sequels Another
Cup of
Christmas
(Accent
Press, 2013)
and Christmas
in the
Cotswolds,
(Accent Press,
2014)
Jenny’s
next full
length novel,
Abi’s
House,
will be
published by
Accent Press
in 2015.
Jenny
Kane is
also the
author of
quirky children’s
picture books
There’s
a Cow
in the
Flat (Hushpuppy,
2014) and
Joe’s
Letter (Coming
soon from
Hushpuppy)
Twitter
- @JennyKaneAuthor
Jenny
Kane also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee. (www.kayjaybee.me.uk)
2 comments:
Hi, Jenny,
Thanks for dropping by. This holiday tale sounds like pure fun!
Thanks hun- it really is total festive escapism - hot chocolate and sofa at the ready!! xx
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