Kitabı oku: «One Hundred Christmas Proposals: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile»
The eagerly anticipated follow-up to One Hundred Proposals.
If you thought Harry & Suzie’s life couldn ’ t get anymore sweepingly romantic than Harry asking her to marry him at the end of One Hundred Proposals – think again!
It’s Christmas in a snow-kissed London, and the.PerfectProposal.com have vowed to carry out one hundred proposals in December. No easy task at the best of times - made even more complicated by Harry & Suzie trying to plan their first Christmas and a visit from the dreaded in-laws. But one hundred deliciously Christmassy proposals later they find themselves asking if everything is still perfect in their own relationship…
Welcome back to the divinely warm world of One Hundred Proposals – with a sprinkling of pure, joyful, festive magic.
Have yourself a very merry Christmas indeed with Holly Martin’s Christmas novella.
One Hundred Christmas Proposals
Holly Martin
Copyright
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2014
Copyright © Holly Martin 2014
Holly Martin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2014 ISBN: 9781474008419
Version date: 2018-10-23
HOLLY MARTIN
I live in sunny Bedfordshire in a house with round windows. I studied media at university which led to a very glitzy career as a hotel receptionist followed by an even more glamorous two years working in a bank. The moment that one of my colleagues received the much coveted carriage clock for fifteen years service was the moment when I knew I had to escape. I quit my job and returned to university to train to be a teacher. Three years later, I emerged wide eyed and terrified that I now had responsibility for the development of thirty young minds. I taught for four years before History Off The Page came to my school to do a Tudor day. I now drive round the country in my little white van, dressing up as a Viking one day and an Egyptian High Priestess the next.
I love to write. The characters do exactly what I want them to do, most of the time. Sometimes they do seem to go off and do their own thing without my permission. It is complete escapism into a world where I have full control.
I’ve been writing for five years now, every spare second I have, I’m scribbling ideas in a notebook or typing a scene on my laptop.
Changing Casanova, my first novel, was shortlisted for the 2012 Festival of Romance New Talent Award. My short story, One Hundred Proposals won the Belinda Jones Travel Club short story competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology alongside some of my favourite authors including, Belinda Jones, Miranda Dickinson and Rosie Blake. My debut novel, The Sentinel, a YA fantasy adventure story, was published in 2013. I won the Carina Valentine’s competition at the Festival of Romance in 2013 and my first chicklit book, The Guestbook was published by them in February 2014 and subsequently went on to reach No.5 in the Amazon UK chart. My second book One Hundred Proposals was published in June and was recently shortlisted for Best Romantic Read at the Festival of Romance. The Guestbook was also shortlisted for two awards, Best ebook and Innovation in Romantic Fiction.
You can contact me on hollymartin.writer@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @hollymartin00
For my mom, my biggest fan, who reads every word I have written a hundred times over and loves it every single time.
To my family, my dad, my brother Lee and my sister-in-law Julie, for your support, love, encouragement and endless excitement for my stories.
To my gorgeous friends Victoria Stone, Megan Wood and Kirsty Maclennan for all your support, tweets, the endless promotion, the excitement and your love. You are truly amazing.
To Becca who read bits of this when I had my doubts and for falling in love with it.
To my best friends Gareth and Mandie, for your endless support, patience and enthusiasm.
For my twinnie, the gorgeous Aven Ellis for just being my wonderful friend, for your support and encouragement, for cheering me on and for keeping me entertained with wonderful stories and pictures of hot men. I couldn’t do this without you.
For Sharon Sant for listening to me moan and stress and panic with endless patience and for all your support and friendship.
And some other gorgeous people who have encouraged, supported, promoted, got excited or just listened; Erin McEwan, Lisa Dickenson, Jaimie Admans, Dan Thompson, Sharon Wilden, Kim Nash, Kelly Rufus, Pernille Hughes, Rosie Blake, Simona Elena, Katey Beeden, Maryline, Jo Hurst, Dawn Crooks, Jenny Marston, Laura Delve, Janet Emson, Pat Elliott, Agi, Alba, Ana, Jess Bickerton, Kate Gordon, Kiri Mills, Louise Wykes, Shaun, Stacey Hargreaves, Maggie Woodward, Trish H, Jac, Verity and Jodie.
To all those involved in the blog tour and cover reveal. To anyone who has read my book and taken the time to tell me you’ve enjoyed it or wrote a review, thank you so much.
To the wonderful supportive Carina authors, you guys are the very best.
And finally to all at Carina who have helped to bring this book to publication, my wonderful editor Lucy Gilmour, for making the book so much better, the digital team, the design team for this incredible cover and anyone else there who has helped to make this book a reality.
Thank you, I love you all.
For my Mom
Contents
Cover
Blurb
Title Page
Copyright
Author Bio
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Endpages
About the Publisher
Chapter One
‘Suzie! Ninety-three,’ Harry shouted from the office and I hurried in with two mugs of tea.
‘You’re kidding?’ I leaned over his computer screen to see a confirmation for an ice sculpture proposal, with the sculptures dotted along a favourite walk showing different landmarks in the couple’s life – leading up to a sculpture of a man proposing to a woman. That was beautiful and it definitely had Harry’s unique fingerprints all over it.
He pulled me down onto his lap and I quickly put the mugs down so I didn’t slosh hot tea all over him. Wrapping his arms round my waist, he nuzzled into my neck, peppering light kisses across my collarbone.
‘Have I told you today how much I love you?’
I smiled hugely. ‘You tell me every day, several times a day in fact.’
‘I only speak the truth.’
I pressed my hand against his chest and then kissed the gap between my finger and thumb, right above his heart.
‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted – why don’t we go back to bed for a little bit.’ He waggled his eyebrows playfully.
‘It’s nine-thirty.’
‘Hmmm.’ He resumed his kissing, pulling the jumper off my shoulder gently so his mouth could continue unhindered.
‘In the morning.’
‘So?’
‘You’ve answered one phone call, I’ve made tea, it’s hardly a constructive use of our time.’
‘I worked hard on that phone call.’ He snaked his hand up my thigh. He had been like this ever since he had proposed to me six months before. The final proposal that is, not the hundred proposals before that. He had always been touchy feely, but since I’d said yes he had taken the tactility to new levels. Whenever we were within touching distance he would stroke my hair, hold my hand, ply me with kisses and hugs – it was like he physically couldn’t be apart from me. And the sex was incredible. I guess we were still in the honeymoon stage of not being able to keep our hands off each other. I loved it.
His computer pinged with the arrival of another email and he paused slightly in his kisses but after a second’s hesitation he resumed where he had left off. His computer pinged again with another email.
‘Well if someone hadn’t had the bright idea of doing One Hundred Christmas Proposals I’d be taking you back to the bedroom and…’ I whispered in his ear exactly what I wanted to do to him and laughed when I saw him blush. ‘But as it happens, we’ve never been busier so unfortunately there’s just no time.’
Harry scowled as I stood up and sat behind my desk.
‘If you’re good I might give you a quickie at lunchtime.’
His face lit up for a second then the frown came back. ‘There’ll be nothing quick about it.’
I fired up my laptop and stared at all the unanswered emails that had come in on the company account overnight. Our company the.PerfectProposal.com had boomed in the last ten months, ever since Harry had started his mission to find me the perfect proposal last Valentine’s Day. Over five hundred thousand people had logged on to read the final proposal post and our phone had barely stopped ringing since. To prove the point, the phone rang between us but before I’d even made a move to answer it, Harry snatched it up.
‘The Perfect Proposal, Harry speaking.’ I smiled. He was so smooth and professional. He nodded as he quickly typed something into his computer and scrolled through a few web pages.
I scrolled down the emails for any urgent Christmas proposals. After our success with One Hundred Proposals, Harry had wanted to carry on the theme but for our clients, not for us. His brilliant idea was to arrange, carry out and blog about one hundred clients’ proposals during the month of December. I couldn’t mind the extra work Harry’s Christmas promotion had created, but I was looking forward to the break. On January first, Harry and I were flying off to Canada to spend two weeks locked in a log cabin – without the internet, phones or any communication with the outside world. I couldn’t wait.
I clicked on an email and read through the request. This man wanted to go snowmobiling. In England. I turned round and looked out the window. The sky was slate grey, rain lashed against the window in great sheets and the trees outside on the green bowed in the unforgiving wind. But not a single flake of snow had fallen since the start of December, and as it was the twenty-first it didn’t look likely that I could arrange that sort of thing by Christmas Day. We could do fireworks, helicopter rides, brass bands, even a ride in a submarine – but I couldn’t make it snow. Instead I priced how much it would cost to go to Iceland for the weekend – they would almost definitely have snow at this time of year and hotels and flights were quite cheap, especially with my contacts.
I sent the details over to him and then noticed I had another email from Alexander. I smiled. This was one of many proposals that were happening on New Year’s Eve, but one that was closest to my heart as it was taking place in St Dunstan-in-the-East, a public garden inside an abandoned church and one of my favourite places in the world.
Alexander had seemed very laidback about the whole proposal and what to include. He was adamant that it should be at St Dunstan’s, apparently his bride-to-be loved the place, but the other details he had left to me. I loved proposals like this, a whole project I could get behind. So far I had arranged for fairy lights to be strewn across the church and around the old windows. Using Harry’s idea that he had come up with for our penultimate proposal with the jam jars, I had arranged for a hundred jars filled with real candles to create a small path through the church to where the proposal would take place. Friends and family were going to be there too so I’d booked a hog roast to cater for forty people. Alexander loved the sound of that. He wanted something to mark their life together so I had suggested that on one of the walls we could arrange for a projector to beam photos of their relationship. Apparently he had a ton and said he was going to create a slideshow of all the best ones. He wanted music but when I’d suggested a harpist, he’d told me to pick something more lively that they could dance to. In the end I’d picked a local jazz band who I loved – Harry and I had seen them on many occasions and there was nothing more romantic than dancing to the soft, happy tones of the saxophone and piano. I wasn’t sure if Alexander would like it as it didn’t really go with the Christmassy theme but when I suggested it to him, he loved that idea too. I had a snow machine booked to add a frosty covering to the plants and trees that twisted and climbed across the walls. I’d even ensured that the snow was going to come with extra glitter. The place was going to sparkle and I couldn’t wait to see it. Alexander had been quite insistent that Harry and I came, and as such this was set to be the big finale for our Christmas Proposals promotion.
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