WINTER READS 2026
BOOK BLURBS
Please find below the titles that have been shortlisted for our nationwide Book and Pudding Club Winter Reads.
Read the blurb and then choose the one title which you would like your club to read and discuss next month.
Please note the Amazon Ratings and Goodreads ratings are correct at the time of creating this page.
Uplifting Reads:
Can two complete strangers save Christmas?
Christmas has always meant something special to Merry - even without a family of her own. This year, her heart might be broken but her new candle business is booming. The last thing she needs is another project - but when her hometown's annual event needs some fresh festive inspiration, Merry can't resist.
Cole loves a project too - though it's usually of the bricks and mortar variety. As a single dad, his Christmas wish is to see his kids again, so getting the new house finished for when they're all together is the perfect distraction.
But this Christmas, magic is in the air for these two strangers. Will it bring them all the joy they planned for . . . and take their hearts by surprise too?
After all, anything can happen at Christmas. . .
GOODREADS RATING:4.1
AMAZON RATING: 4.6
Seven people, four days and a snowy Christmas on board a luxury sleeper train. This festive season getting away from it all takes on a new meaning…
The Yorkshire Belle is a glamorous steam train all decked out for an escapist festive getaway. It is not supposed to be where a group of people, all trying to get to their destinations for the holidays, will spend their Christmas.
Seven people, each with their own hopes and dreams, secrets and sorrows, board the train as strangers, but as the snow keeps falling and they realise they are going nowhere fast, they are forced to slow down and embrace the present.
This Christmas on board the Yorkshire Belle, will the friendships they make change their lives forever?
GOODREADS RATING:4.34
AMAZON RATING: 4.6
Three years ago, Casey declined her then-boyfriend’s marriage proposal . . . and it went viral. After years of dealing with the backlash online, Casey now leads a quiet life, working as a stock replenisher for a family-owned department store. No risk of public humiliation, no stress, no possibility of a boyfriend.
Until she meets the Spirit of Christmas Present, Margo, who has chosen to sit this holiday out.
Margo offers Casey a bargain: She will use her powers to erase the video that made Casey notorious. There’s just one catch. Casey must witness five of her alternate realities, and if after all five she still wants it wiped, Margo will grant her wish.
While glimpses into other Caseys are fun and interesting, the question remains: What if everything Casey wants is waiting for her in the life she already has?
GOODREADS RATING:3.83
AMAZON RATING: 5.0 (for context only 1 review)
Thoughtful Reads:
In a grand villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, Dulcie’s grandmother nears the end of her glamourous and eventful life. The days pass quietly to the reassuring tick of the Swiss clock – until a visitor comes to their door…
1961
In the streets of Paris, Lise Erlach is in love. Twenty-two years old, the beautiful young Ambassador’s wife enjoys the very best the city has to offer: glittering receptions, a magnificent residence and an address book filled with the numbers of the Parisian elite. She is wanted at every party…and by one man above all. Their affair dazzles them both but in a distant sea, a crisis is brewing that will change their paths forever.
Present day
As snow falls upon the Alps, Dulcie sits by her grandmother’s bed, undisturbed until the visitor arrives. He says he must tell her grandmother something urgently - something that will make Dulcie realise the beloved old woman before her is a complete stranger... With deep family secrets unlocked, can she get the answers she needs before time runs out?
GOODREADS RATING: 4.2
AMAZON RATING: None due to new release
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen―one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.
GOODREADS RATING:4.37
AMAZON RATING: 4.4
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.
His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love - and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.
But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.
GOODREADS RATING: 4.2
AMAZON RATING: 4.3
Thrilling Reads:
ONE WAY IN. NO WAY OUT.
'Deaf teenager goes missing in Esseberg. Mountain rescue are launching a search party but conditions hinder their efforts. The tunnel is being kept open all night as an exception.'
When journalist Tuva Moodyson reads this news alert she knows she must join the search. If this teenager is found, she will be able to communicate with him in a way no one else can.
Esseberg lies on the other side of a mountain tunnel: there is only one way in and one way out. When the tunnel closes at night, the residents are left to fend for themselves. And as more people go missing, it becomes clear that there is a killer among them ...
GOODREADS RATING:4.07
AMAZON RATING: 4.3
In the picturesque village of Kibblesworth, DI Tom Stonem is dreaming of a quiet Christmas alone.
But in the shadow of the Angel of the North, a body lies waiting. The dead man is posed with a child’s Christmas list in his pocket, and the first mysterious item – 1. No angel – is crossed off.
When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem is convinced there’s a grim connection between the crime scenes and the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red partee dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?
As a blizzard rages in the Tyne & Wear countryside, the body count is snowballing. Can Stonem stop the killer before they get everyone on their Christmas list?
GOODREADS RATING:3.94
AMAZON RATING: 4.3
Christmas Eve, 1943. Anthony and Elva Pratt arrive in a snowy English village to run a murder mystery game - and instead discover a real murder.
The Pratts had planned for festive cheer, despite the wartime shortages: with Elva's map of the hotel and Anthony's prop weapons to use as clues, the guests in their parlour game would move through the rooms to figure out whodunnit.
But when Anthony discovers the cook's sister Miss Silver beaten to death, they instead find themselves investigating a shockingly real crime. The hotel manager Mr Browning is trying to keep the peace but the guests are agitated, Colonel Colman is about to take over the hotel for the war effort - and the mysterious Mrs Threadgold hasn't been seen at all.
In games, there's only one victim - but this is real life. Can the Pratts puzzle out this Christmas mystery before it's too late?
GOODREADS RATING:3.6
AMAZON RATING: 4.1