Annie Lyons - A Not Quite Perfect Christmas

A Christmas fairy tale in New York?

This Christmas, Emma Darcy has decided, is going to be perfect ! Not only has she exchanged her glamorous London life to jet out to the even more glitzy New York, but she has her gorgeous boyfriend finally by her side, and her dream job comes with an invite to their super-dazzling Christmas party. Ooooh, what to wear?!

To celebrate, this year she’s planning a Christmas like you see in the movies; her tinsel-topped to-do list includes ice-skating outside Rockefeller Center, strolling around a snow-covered Central Park and Christmas (window) shopping at Tiffany.

That plan goes slightly out the window with news that her Mum, sister and niece Lily will be visiting her – that’s a lot of Darcy women, even in the Big Apple! With family drama and a work disaster to avoid too, this might not quite be the picture-perfect Christmas she’d had in mind…!

A Not Quite Perfect short story.

Also available by Annie Lyons Contents Cover Blurb Book List Title Page Copyright Author Bio Acknowledgement Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Excerpt Endpages About the Publisher

Not Quite Perfect

Not Quite Perfect Christmas

Annie Lyons

Copyright Copyright Author Bio Acknowledgement Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Excerpt Endpages About the Publisher

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2013

Copyright © Annie Lyons 2013

Annie Lyons 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 2013 ISBN: 9781472083838

Version date: 2018-07-23

Annie Lyons

decided, after leaving university, that she ‘rather liked books’ and got a job as a bookseller on Charing Cross Road, London. Two years later she left the retail world and continued rather liking books during an eleven-year career in publishing. Following redundancy in 2009 she realised that she would rather like to write books and having undertaken a creative writing course, lots of reading and a bit of practice she produced Not Quite Perfect . She now realises that she loves writing as much as coffee, not as much as her children and a bit more than gardening. She has since written another novel and is about to start work on her third. She lives in a house in south-east London with her husband and two children. The garden is somewhat overgrown. One day she hopes to own a chocolate-brown Labrador named John and have tea with Mary Berry.

Thanks to Sally Williamson, Nicky Lovick, Lucy Gilmour and all at Carina for pulling out the stops on this one – you are wonderful people.

Many thanks to Jane, my eagle-eyed friend for helping me with the final checks.

Thanks and love to my children for finding it amusing to tell me that their dinner or my outfit is, ‘not quite perfect,’ and special thanks to my daughter, who encouraged me to write this story and who isn’t really like Lily from the book apart from being the spirit of Christmas in small girl form.

Finally, thanks and love to Rich for everything else.

For everyone who read and enjoyed Not Quite Perfect – thank you.

Contents

Cover

Blurb A Christmas fairy tale in New York? This Christmas, Emma Darcy has decided, is going to be perfect ! Not only has she exchanged her glamorous London life to jet out to the even more glitzy New York, but she has her gorgeous boyfriend finally by her side, and her dream job comes with an invite to their super-dazzling Christmas party. Ooooh, what to wear?! To celebrate, this year she’s planning a Christmas like you see in the movies; her tinsel-topped to-do list includes ice-skating outside Rockefeller Center, strolling around a snow-covered Central Park and Christmas (window) shopping at Tiffany. That plan goes slightly out the window with news that her Mum, sister and niece Lily will be visiting her – that’s a lot of Darcy women, even in the Big Apple! With family drama and a work disaster to avoid too, this might not quite be the picture-perfect Christmas she’d had in mind…! A Not Quite Perfect short story.

Book List

Title Page Not Quite Perfect Christmas Annie Lyons

Copyright Copyright Copyright Author Bio Acknowledgement Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Excerpt Endpages About the Publisher HQ An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2013 Copyright © Annie Lyons 2013 Annie Lyons 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 2013 ISBN: 9781472083838 Version date: 2018-07-23

Author Bio Annie Lyons decided, after leaving university, that she ‘rather liked books’ and got a job as a bookseller on Charing Cross Road, London. Two years later she left the retail world and continued rather liking books during an eleven-year career in publishing. Following redundancy in 2009 she realised that she would rather like to write books and having undertaken a creative writing course, lots of reading and a bit of practice she produced Not Quite Perfect . She now realises that she loves writing as much as coffee, not as much as her children and a bit more than gardening. She has since written another novel and is about to start work on her third. She lives in a house in south-east London with her husband and two children. The garden is somewhat overgrown. One day she hopes to own a chocolate-brown Labrador named John and have tea with Mary Berry.

Acknowledgement Thanks to Sally Williamson, Nicky Lovick, Lucy Gilmour and all at Carina for pulling out the stops on this one – you are wonderful people. Many thanks to Jane, my eagle-eyed friend for helping me with the final checks. Thanks and love to my children for finding it amusing to tell me that their dinner or my outfit is, ‘not quite perfect,’ and special thanks to my daughter, who encouraged me to write this story and who isn’t really like Lily from the book apart from being the spirit of Christmas in small girl form. Finally, thanks and love to Rich for everything else.