An Off-Piste Christmas

Prepare to spend Christmas in the Italian alps...

The last thing Harriet Westmoreland wants is Christmas away from home, particularly when skiing, snow, heights and freezing her backside off are on the menu. While her own family, together with her best friend Grace's, are soon whizzing down ridiculously scary mountains in the fashionable Italian resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Harriet is stuck in the remedial class on the nursery slopes unable, it seems, to remain vertical.

Tired of trying to stay upright in the dunces' class, Harriet decides to overcome her fear of heights and take her bruised body off to explore the refugios in the magnificent Dolomites above Cortina. And maybe catch a glance of George Clooney, rumoured to be in town...

But what happens next triggers a totally unexpected avalanche of events which proves that, for friends Harriet and Grace and all their families, Christmas really is a time for little miracles...

A laugh-out-loud novella from the Kindle top 5 bestselling author of "A Village Affair".

Praise for Julie Houston:

'A real page-turner. You'll laugh and cry, but not be able to put it down as Julie's trademark humour shines through from beginning to end'

Cassam Book Blog.

'This is one of those novels that makes you want to read "just one more chapter" before you turn out the light, and that chapter turns into several more' Big Bertha, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer.

'I became so engrossed in this story I couldn't stop – kept going for just another chapter, and another, until I'd read straight through to the end. I loved it – the magic five for me, a wonderful read and one to keep for rereading' Jeannie Zelos Book Reviews.

Julie Houston lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at 'Bridget Jones' author Helen Fielding's old junior school and her neighbour is 'Chocolat' author, Joanne Harris.