Welcome to my final Christmas Reads blog of 2024. This week I’m featuring The Night Before Christmas by Nicola Knight. This is Nicola’s first festive romcom. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Nicola about her book and her favourite Christmas traditions.

Blurb

Felicity Brooks hates Christmas. But when she meets a man dressed as a giant penguin on Christmas Eve, could it spell a change of heart, in this laugh-out-loud festive romance?

The ridiculous music. The excessive presents. The stupid Christmas jumpers. Felicity wants nothing more than to escape it all, and pounces on the chance to work shifts over the festive period, at an animal rescue centre. After all, it’s the only place that brings her true happiness.

But her evening is disturbed by a stranger, James, dressed as a penguin and cradling a weak kitten. As Felicity and James work together to nurse the sick feline back to health, it gives them the perfect excuse to bond over their mutual dislike of all things festive. And soon, sparks fly.

But their attraction is interrupted when Felicity’s ex-boyfriend Adam returns to declare his undying love.

And when she is let down by both men, Felicity decides to return to her childhood home for some peace. While there, she uncovers an array of family secrets, and even more about herself, which may just help her to make a choice between Adam and James.

Can the ex outwit the penguin and win Felicity’s heart this Christmas?Some nice reviews
“Romantic, funny, and touching, Felicity’s story of falling in love with Christmas is wonderful. I loved every word. Better than a warm mince pie on a snowy day.” Stephanie Butland, bestselling author of Lost for Words and Found in a Bookshop

‘Could reconnecting with Christmas, lead to falling in love?’ Heidi Swain, Sunday Times bestselling romance author

The Night Before Christmas is available on Kindle (free on Kindle Unlimited), and in paperback and audiobook. Get your copy here: https://amzn.eu/d/dpmMTB4

Spotify playlist for The Night Before Christmas (yes really!) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55U7AgDUHrXHpEpMALM2dO

Welcome to my blog Nicola. Do you have any favourite family Christmas traditions? If so, what are they?

My whole family loves Christmas, especially my Dad, it was devastating to him when us kids found out the Big Secret as he would have happily gone on believing in Father Christmas forever and ever, I think. So even now we are all grown up we do all we can to try and make it as magical as possible.

When we were young the morning always started with Junior Choice on the radio, playing classics like Right Said Fred and Robin Hood and Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West. BBC2 run a special every Christmas morning, now hosted by Anneka Rice, and it’s still one of my favourite parts of the day. My daughter thinks I’m mad.

We always have bacon sandwiches and orange juice for breakfast and then the mulled wine goes on the stove to warm about 12 so we can all have a little toast, plus the house smells amazing (and it makes the cooking go swimmingly ha ha). Lunch is really traditional, turkey with all the trimmings and then a few more trimmings, following by Christmas pudding and yule log, and tea is turkey sandwiches, sausage rolls and mince pies if anyone has any room left.

My Christmas traditions seem to be mainly food-based, now that I think about it!

When do you open your Christmas presents?

Always first thing. My daughter has a stocking which she will bring into our bedroom to open early, before we all troop downstairs to see if ‘he’s been’. This year she’s seven years old and already asking whether it’s just mummy and daddy buying the presents so this may be our last year for the big man! Sad times.

When I was a child, I was the one up at 6am while my sister would sleep in, sometimes until 10am, and I always had to wait to open my presents which was agonising. Looking back I wonder why I didn’t just go and jump on her bed until she got up.

My mum still likes to hide a present for everyone on the tree to open after lunch, so we extend it as long as possible, basically.

If you could invite any author living or dead to share your Christmas lunch, who would it be?

Oh my goodness. That’s an incredibly tough one. There are so many I admire but if I had to choose one it would be C. S. Lewis. He is best known for writing the Narnia series which is a big part of Christmas in itself for me, but he was also an eminent theologian and bona fide genius and I think even spending a few minutes with him would be so incredibly enlightening.

Or Douglas Adams for the giggles. Can I have two?

What book would you like to find in your Christmas stocking?

I’m currently completely obsessed with anything by Janice Hallett, so it would be her latest book The Examiner, or The Christmas Appeal. Her books are so fiendishly clever and funny and so well observed, I can’t get enough.

Meet Nicola

I’m a former journalist and now a chartered public relations professional. In my day job I lead the communications and campaigns department at Redwings, the largest horse welfare charity in the country.

Since embarking on a second career as a novelist in 2021 I have been placed runner up in the Daily Mail First Novel competition, and longlisted both in the Mslexia Novel Prize and with Penguin Michael Joseph. In 2023 I published a chapter which formed part of a collection of stories around mental health called ‘Will You Read This Please?’, edited by Dr Joanna Cannon and co-authored with renowned author Jenn Ashworth.

I live in South Norfolk with my husband, daughter and three chaotic cats* (*number correct at time of going to press)

Contact Links

Website: www.nicolaknightwrites.com

            Facebook: Nicola Knight – Author

            X: @NicolaKWrites

            BlueSky: @nicolaknightwrites.bsky.social

            Instagram/Threads: @nicolaknightwrites

Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today Nicola. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and lots of writing success in 2025.