Starting my Christmas countdown, I am delighted to welcome author Jackie Ladbury whose novel, Happy Christmas Eve, is described as an uplifting, heart-warming story…

Welcome to my blog Jackie, the cover of your book is gorgeous and I would love to know how your characters will be celebrating Christmas…

The characters in my book, Happy Christmas Eve, are in turmoil over Christmas. Eve has loved Lucien, the bad boy singer in her band, for all of her life but is starting to realise that she’s wasting her time. Theo, a local baker has, in turn, loved Eve all of his life and is desperate to make her fall in love with him. Lucien – well he doesn’t really care about anyone or anything as long as he’s fed and watered. Christmas brings them all together in Lucien’s parents’ manor house, and it seems that this Christmas a few home truths will be dished out along with the turkey and Christmas pudding.

And for a bit more of a teaser here’s the blurb:

All I want for Christmas is you … or you?

Eve Halligan is back in her hometown for Christmas after a whirlwind few years touring with her band, the Molotovs. A lot has changed since she left, but two things have stayed the same. One: Eve is head-over-heels in love with Lucien Malikov, the Molotovs’ bad boy lead singer. Two: Lucien is completely indifferent to her.

Still, Eve dreams that this could be the Christmas where she convinces Lucien that they’re made for each other. But when childhood friend and local caterer Theo Wright comes back into her life bringing with him festive cupcake and sausage roll conundrums, Eve begins to question whether her Christmas dreams have been wasted on the wrong man …

Click to buy.

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With your characters having quite the Christmas in store, I’d love to know how you will be celebrating the festive season in the Ladbury household?

We normally wake up quite early, my two daughters jump on to the end of our bed and we drag our pillow cases that Santa has filled and take it in turns opening various bits of nothingness mixed with a few decent presents. My daughters are not children anymore so the days of being able to stuff their stockings with cheap pink plastic toys are long gone.

We rarely have a Bucks Fizz and smoked salmon to start the day, apart from in my dreams where we are the perfect family sitting down to breakfast on a table that was meticulously laid the night before. More likely to wipe the cat hairs off the table and take it in turns watching that the breakfast doesn’t burn.

Oh but the culprit of those cat hairs is so very cute!

We’ve never, ever spent a Christmas day on our own – I think we’d all want to cry if that happened as we all enjoy ‘getting ready’ even if we are having family over to ours. My family are scattered wide, but my sister, who lives in Dubai, is home this Christmas (yay!) but not my other sister who lives in Sydney (not yay!)

I’m doing a ‘Ladbury Christmas’ this year which will probably be between ten and fourteen of us, including my mother and father-in- law who I love to bits. Hopefully my daughters will help out as I lose the plot after I’ve prepped it all and opened the champagne!

You have a busy time ahead, but I can’t possilby let you go without asking you to answer five quick questions from my festive selection:

Naughty or nice? Nice. I’m a real pink and glitter ‘buy me a unicorn’ kind of gal.

Favourite Christmas film? The Holiday. I don’t know why I find it odd that people read Christmas books all through the year as I watch The Holiday whenever I’m feeling low. I’ll bet I know the lines better than Cameron Diaz.

Best Christmas gift? An iPad from my husband when they very first came out and I was still trying to become a published writer. I cried, I was so bowled over. Still have it although it’s an iPad 1 and not much more use than the proverbial brick now.

Worst Christmas gift? A packet of roll-up tobacco packed in a Tiffany jewellery box when I was trying to give up smoking. I seriously thought the boyfriend in question had bought me a beautiful present – until I opened the box. Had to try really, really hard to pretend I thought it was funny too. Thanks Chris!

Multi-coloured decs or co-ordinated Christmas tree? I pretty much just upend a full box of decorations onto a tree and jiggle it all about a bit. At least that’s what it looks like – I have NO artistic talent.

I love The Holiday all year round too, and your Christmas tree sounds perfect to me! 

Thank you so much for kicking off my Christmas countdown and I wish you and your family a wonderful festive season! xx

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About the author:

Jackie Ladbury writes heart-warming contemporary and historical women’s fiction that guarantees a happy ever after. From spending many years as an air-stewardess and seeing that it really is love that makes the world go around, she determined to put the same sparkle and emotion into her stories. Her life is no longer as exotic (or chaotic) as it was in those heady days of flying as she now lives a quiet life in Hertfordshire with her family and two cats, spending her days making up stories and finding excuses not to go to the gym

Discover more about Jackie via: Facebook | website | Twitter | The Write Romantics

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Check out how author Lynda Stacey and her characters will be spending Christmas, on my blog on Thursday 7th November. xx

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