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It’s a Wonderful Life: The Christmas bestseller is back with an unforgettable holiday romance
Julia Williams
A cosy Christmas tale perfect for the festive season…Christmas with the family. Cosy, relaxing…and a total nightmare?Driving home for Christmas, Beth has everything she wants. The kids and the house, the career and the husband. So why is it that when the New Year comes, she can’t stop thinking about her old college boyfriend?Her husband Daniel is tasked with bringing a struggling school up to scratch, but when family life catches up to him, can he be a good father and a good teacher at the same time?Beth’s sister Lou has just been dumped…again. Single and childless, she can’t help but be jealous of her sibling’s success. But is the grass really always greener?It’s a Wonderful Life is a heart-warming novel about the lives that could have been, and what happens when you start to question the choices you made…
It’s a Wonderful Life
JULIA WILLIAMS
Copyright (#ua0f60fb7-6a86-5bf5-8b3c-cff3eac0c431)
AVON
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
Copyright © Julia Williams 2016
Julia Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record of 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, down-loaded, 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.
Source ISBN: 9781847563606
Ebook Edition © November 2016 ISBN: 9780007464517
Version: 2016-09-20
Praise for Julia Williams: (#ua0f60fb7-6a86-5bf5-8b3c-cff3eac0c431)
‘Heartwarming, witty and magical … I shed a few tears!’
SUN
‘As essential as tinsel and turkey if you want to get into that warm, fuzzy mood for Christmas’
Closer
‘Terrifically warm, with lovely, lively characters’
Fiona Walker
‘Warm and completely irresistible!’
Chick Lit Central
‘A brilliant read … absolutely wonderful’
Cosmochicklitan
‘Heartwarming and engaging … poignant’
OneMorePage
‘This story warms you like a cosy cup of cocoa’
Closer
Dedication (#ua0f60fb7-6a86-5bf5-8b3c-cff3eac0c431)
To my family, who light up my life
Table of Contents
Cover (#u2b27b783-ae00-5436-b776-4cd75211978f)
Title Page (#ud30825ec-a40f-56a8-ad64-755bbd36ca63)
Copyright (#u4dfa467d-d8e8-56f4-9d2b-49e24b4a6557)
Praise for Julia Williams (#u3f6c408c-1aa8-505a-b0e2-962b11b16235)
Dedication (#u2eb66cbb-6220-501b-90ed-9ae1c38d03fb)
Prologue (#u24c8a473-3144-51f5-b85b-2bfb6024db4d)
Part One: The Journey Begins … (#ud37914a5-bb26-5d9f-9cbb-44a668cf8ea6)
Chapter One (#ubb23c12a-f596-56fb-9125-9c2d83600b0f)
Chapter Two (#u374e05c1-ea65-543e-ae38-4ce7a1c3385f)
Chapter Three (#u90323601-44aa-5a48-a4cd-ab6bb4ef82ff)
Chapter Four (#ueaabc5a2-7a7c-5ed6-9211-77f56065e458)
Chapter Five (#u202c94d6-163c-5349-9c39-faabf7839d44)
Chapter Six (#u087cc5ba-9935-533d-bf0c-877d964838b6)
Chapter Seven (#ud403afc5-adec-520e-a111-ed8457a853d4)
Chapter Eight (#u16f39eb2-45cd-52c6-9f4f-d57c56395218)
Chapter Nine (#ufb5368d5-4bfd-5526-a6dc-d3776b008aeb)
Part Two: A Long Way Home (#ub09df71d-1741-58d6-89f4-c3744ea51fd9)
Chapter Ten (#uc655c690-5f9a-5a7c-a3d4-906dabaa904c)
Chapter Eleven (#u8e9f9c2c-d07e-5885-ac12-7bed018de5b6)
Chapter Twelve (#u385da6ce-3885-5334-a06e-cc9f709a1538)
Chapter Thirteen (#u09c0245c-45b9-5524-b8b2-21f459d461bf)
Chapter Fourteen (#u4da5b249-1c47-5b38-a58f-0f1b7332fa4b)
Chapter Fifteen (#ud1cf207e-f967-5cb7-a29e-36777d5fca23)
Chapter Sixteen (#u497e11d7-0190-58f6-a894-28f297acd7e3)
Chapter Seventeen (#uf8a0511b-01ea-5c82-bd7b-96353d08f4ba)
Chapter Eighteen (#uc312b456-79af-5777-8686-f23395e49813)
Part Three: A Long Way From Home (#ufe3f1a6c-6aab-5edc-978c-f0855e6fa42b)
Chapter Nineteen (#u71d28755-061f-500f-8778-706fe579e3db)
Chapter Twenty (#uab0b86d0-218c-568a-9800-aaa2986db14c)
Chapter Twenty-One (#u4abea87b-3f90-5cff-949b-bc9a5fae250b)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#u81f57c40-9026-54a4-9f14-603cf41be5b6)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#uf085acdf-2c3e-568b-a7f2-a7876ec18835)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#u69c4b6d9-c5c5-5389-927e-d5647dcdf623)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#u80ead8ac-eb6c-5e59-862b-9a84af882f5f)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#u1b6b7b43-dc4e-5833-b60f-a60fdb41db67)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#udd9cf408-f479-50a1-9eac-f475d5e64c70)
Part Four: The Way Home (#u5d96b733-49b2-553c-bade-ebd3fb4cbeec)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#u93408466-e48e-5037-b037-064aa522c847)
Chapter Twenty-Nine (#u4f6a5bf6-1fe9-572e-87e0-f434dc0b47aa)
Chapter Thirty (#u62e51140-c5e8-5efb-a01e-316e0c34e118)
Chapter Thirty-One (#ua6cb947f-6210-57ea-8c31-ad4da749c6cc)
Chapter Thirty-Two (#ub0568376-d3cb-5c7a-87c6-1fe0f9e7af8f)
Chapter Thirty-Three (#u5794ac56-8ef6-5dcc-ae84-1c225ace5ac9)
Chapter Thirty-Four (#u6e31012c-af3f-53da-8f64-2c7934dc96a5)
Chapter Thirty-Five (#u482e5ad8-bbd5-5af4-a1e6-8234880db254)
Chapter Thirty-Six (#u6b853345-4ead-5439-9f51-c2dd55c90371)
Epilogue (#u33a4ac9d-f5f7-54a8-8982-1aca209af306)
Acknowledgements (#uac992a8c-f4e4-5f12-ad2f-d4eee1687f39)
The Littlest Angel (#u74594859-62dd-5656-8edb-52bc86c0af2f)
Keep Reading … (#ua94f09ea-1b2c-5817-b924-e54a653268b8)
About the Author (#u3ac69df9-4dca-5dcd-9c9f-88f5c8d0d8e2)
By the Same Author (#uc8671875-e706-5c53-afbf-edaff5259f79)
About the Publisher (#u51804079-90d5-5626-8b9f-59fc4a7bc5d2)
Beth
I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I have a wonderful life. No, really I do. I’m very lucky. I am pretty healthy, I have a lovely husband and two kids who, if no longer at the adorable stage, still make me laugh on a regular basis, as well as giving me the usual frustrations teenagers do. I have a good career as a picture-book artist, and a family that loves me. Why can’t I be satisfied with my lot? I know my sister, Lou, would never understand, but sometimes I feel as if life is passing me by. Is this all there is? It feels so ungrateful, and yet I can’t stop myself from feeling like this. If my life is so damned brilliant, why do I feel there’s something missing?
Prologue (#ua0f60fb7-6a86-5bf5-8b3c-cff3eac0c431)
August
Beth
It’s a gorgeously hot afternoon in August. I am sitting in my kitchen with the patio doors wide open, to let the little breeze there is in, staring at an email I’ve received this morning from my editor, Karen. I’ve been looking at it for several hours, in between trying to get a sketch right for my new picture book. Inspiration isn’t flowing, and several pieces of paper are scattered on the floor.
The Littlest Angel synopsis
By Beth King
This is the story of a little angel, whose job it is to find the baby Jesus. She sets out with a band of angels and gets lost. All she knows is a special baby is being born in Bethlehem, and she has to follow a magic star which has risen in the East in order to get to him.
On her journey she meets a young shepherd boy, a page, a camel, a donkey and finally some sheep, who lead her to where the baby Jesus is. She is the first angel there and sings him the first ever carol.
