Always, in December: A Novel

Product Description

“A poignant, heart-tugging, life-affirming story that will wrap around you like a hug during any season. Keep tissues nearby!”—Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in DecemberIt started with a letter. It ended with a love story.

Every December, Josie posts a letter from her home in London to the parents she lost on Christmas night many years ago. Each year, she writes the same three words:
Missing you, always. But this year, her annual trip to the postbox is knocked off course by a bicycle collision with a handsome stranger–a stranger who will change the course of Josie’s life.
 
Josie always thought she was the only one who avoided the Christmas season, but this year, Max has his own reasons for doing the same—and coincidence leads them to spending the holiday together. Aglow with new love, Josie thinks this might be the start of something special. 
 
Only for Max to disappear without saying goodbye. 
 
Over the course of the next year, Max and Josie will find that fate continues to bring them together in places they’d never expect. New York City. Edinburgh. The quiet English countryside. And it turns out, Max had every reason to leave and every reason to stay. But what does fate hold for Josie and Max as Christmas approaches again?
 
A devastating, romantic, life-affirming love story,
Always, in December will stay with readers long after they’ve finished the last page.

Review

“
Always, in December begins with a Christmas romance of dreams but grows into something deeper for these two characters with so much love to give….A poignant, heart-tugging, life-affirming story that will wrap around you like a hug during any season. Keep tissues nearby!”
—Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

“I adored this sweepingly romantic, captivating love story. A poignant page-turner, this gorgeous book is as uplifting and hopeful as it is heartbreaking. If you’re looking for a true will-they-won’t-they tearjerker to capture your heart this Christmas, look no further.”
—Holly Miller, author of The Sight of You

About the Author

Emily Stone lives and works in the UK and wrote her first novel,
Always, in December, in an old Victorian manor house with an impressive literary heritage.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Josie stood in the doorway of her flat, under the mistletoe that Bia had insisted they hang “just in case,” and stared mutely at the box Oliver was clutching. One of her hands was still resting on the door, and for a moment she nearly gave in to the urge to slam it in his lying, cheating, and, she realized now, far too symmetrical face.

Oliver cleared his throat. “I know you wanted your stuff back so I just thought I would . . .” Something about the expression on her face caused him to trail off and he looked down at the box of her belongings instead. He fumbled with it as he tried to hold it out to her, awkwardly bumping into the doorframe instead.

“Right.” She gave in and took it from him, deliberately maneuvering so that she avoided touching his hand. She grunted at the sudden weight of it—it was far heavier than it looked. She supposed that made sense—two years’ worth of stuff left at his flat, forgotten about or left there deliberately to make life easier. Stuff she’d presumed, up until a few weeks ago, wouldn’t be leaving there for the foreseeable future, given she’d assumed that she would, sooner or later, be moving in. What had he been thinking, as he packed it all away? He’d pleaded with her not to end things initially, but now here he was, determinedly marking the end of the relationship.

She pressed her lips together firmly to stop them trembling, and turned her back to Oliver. Right at the top of the box, rolling around on one of her books, as if thrown in as an afterthought, were the flashing reindeer earrings he’d given her three weeks ago, ahead of th