An Upside-Down Christmas

By Loretta Laird

Carrie and Grant have made the tough decision to start a new life ‘Down Under.’ They are living the dream with a pool and two happy boys. The only thing that Carrie cannot get used to is Christmas in the heat. She is used to the cold, biting winter Yuletide festivities of her youth and is homesick. Her and Grant are growing apart and she is reconsidering her life.

Set over four Christmases, join Carrie in this tender story as she embarks on a new career as a writer and as she does, rediscovers herself, her love of life and her love of her husband.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luminosity Publishing LLP
• Release date: Jan 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781910899489

Loretta Laird

My name is Loretta Laird, and I am a romance-aholic! My passion is to write books that I like to read. I love to get lost in a book though seldom get the opportunity being a busy mum. I enjoy cooking, mostly cakes as that’s what I love to eat. My ambition is to buy a cabin by a lake and sit and write all day, creating worlds and stories that are enjoyed by many.

Book preview

AN UPSIDE-DOWN CHRISTMAS

Loretta Laird

Carrie and Grant have made the tough decision to start a new life ‘Down Under.’ They are living the dream with a pool and two happy boys. The only thing that Carrie cannot get used to is Christmas in the heat. She is used to the cold, biting winter Yuletide festivities of her youth and is homesick. Her and Grant are growing apart and she is reconsidering her life.

Set over four Christmases, join Carrie in this tender story as she embarks on a new career as a writer and as she does, rediscovers herself, her love of life and her love of her husband.

AN UPSIDE-DOWN CHRISTMAS

LORETTA LAIRD

WWW.LUMINOSITYPUBLISHING.COM

LUMINOSITY PUBLISHING LLP

AN UPSIDE-DOWN CHRISTMAS

Copyright © December 2015 Loretta Laird

ISBN: 978-1-910899-48-9

Cover Art by Poppy Designs

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this literary work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

The author acknowledges the trademark status and the following trademark owners mentioned in this work of fiction:

Guitar Hero

Christmas 2010

Barbeques with sizzling snags and kangaroo steaks were nice enough Carrie mused, savouring the pungent aroma of the charring meat but it just wasn’t very Christmassy. The flies didn’t help. They just buzzed around getting in one’s face and invading every orifice of one’s body. At least in England the flies had the good manners to stay around the ceiling keeping out of the way.

Her husband, Grant was all for the Aussie Christmas, enjoying being master of the tongs and claiming that it was her year to rest. Alas, after she had shopped for presents to send back to England, five weeks earlier, decorated the tree, made a cake, shopped and wrapped the kids presents, plus his, then made salads, a starter and—if she did say so herself—the most perfect pavlova, she was not feeling very rested. She knew, of course—having spent last Christmas frozen to death in the cosy village of Chorten-on-the-Weld—that the beautiful sunshine that greeted her each morning and the long lazy school holidays that stretched luxuriously in front of her were indeed welcome friends but it just wasn’t Christmas. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Christmas shopping should be done in a dark drizzling high street with shivering carol singers and lukewarm mince pies served with mulled wine by do-gooding church ladies in knitted jumpers wearing flashing Yuletide badges. Carols by candlelight did not have the same appeal when the sweat poured down your neck and the sun shone into your eyes defying the need for any additional light source.

Faced with the truth and looking out at the first-world luxury that surrounded her, Carrie realised that she was homesick. She berated herself for her ungrateful thoughts and tried hard to think about those less fortunate than she was as she gazed out at the sparkling clear water of her kidney-shaped pool and heard the delighted screams of her three boys as they frolicked and played with their new diving masks, snorkels and water guns. A memory of a rain-soaked Christmas morn, when the new bikes sat discarded at the front door and the boys sat miserably in front of the TV, was pushed from her mind as she