The Christmas Wedding - Hardcover

Patterson, James; DiLallo, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031609739X ISBN 13: 9780316097390

Verlag: Little, Brown and Company, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married--and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day--she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.

But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise--she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James Patterson has had more New York Times bestsellers than any other writer, ever, according to Guinness World Records. Since his first novel won the Edgar Award in 1977 James Patterson's books have sold more than 300 million copies. He is the author of the Alex Cross novels, the most popular detective series of the past twenty-five years, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. He writes full-time and lives in Florida with his family.

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The Christmas Wedding

By Patterson, James

Little, Brown and Company

Copyright © 2011 Patterson, James
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780316097390

The Christmas Wedding

THE INVITATION LIST

THE BRIDE

GABY SUMMERHILL, fifty-four, teacher, mother of four, widow for three years, lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

GABY’S FAMILY

CLAIRE DONOGHUE, Gaby’s daughter, thirty-five, married, lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

HANK DONOGHUE, Claire’s husband, thirty-four

GUS, their son, fourteen

TOBY and GABRIELLE, their

eleven-year-old twins

EMILY SUMMERHILL, Gaby’s youngest daughter, twenty-nine, lawyer in Manhattan

BART DeFRANCO, Emily’s husband, twenty-nine, resident in neurology

SETH SUMMERHILL, Gaby’s only son, twenty-six, novelist, lives in Boston

ANDIE COLLINS, Seth’s girlfriend, twenty-four, commercial artist

LIZZIE RODGERS, Gaby’s daughter, thirty-four, married, works part time at Walmart, lives near Gaby

MIKE RODGERS, Lizzie’s husband, thirty-six

TALLULAH, their daughter, eight

GABY’S SUITORS

TOM HAYDEN, fifty-four, owns a farm, former pro hockey player, grew up with Gaby

JACOB COLEMAN, fifty-two, rabbi at a temple in Stockbridge

MARTIN SUMMERHILL, fifty-five, Gaby’s brother- ?in-law

PROLOGUE

You’re Invited,
or Else

GABY’S FIRST VIDEO

Only twenty-four days until Christmas, and this Christmas is going to be one you won’t forget.

Need proof? I think I can give you proof.

I want all four of you to take a good, long look at the screen and your mom.

Everybody watching? Emily? Claire? Seth? Lizzie? Emily? You see anything unusual or, well, kind of stunning?

Okay. Let me turn around for you…Turning…?Turning again.

Yes. Your eyes tell the truth. I have lost twelve pounds and several ounces.

Stop, stop! No worries, no frets or fears. No neurotic theories about my health.

I’m not sick or anything like that. Maybe a little sick in the head. As always. Part of my charm.

I just gave up Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and the occasional beer before bedtime. And I banished mayonnaise—low-fat or otherwise—from the house. And white bread. Dunkin’ Donuts for sure. It made me somewhat miserable…and hungry. But it also made me thinner. And, I must admit, happier. Yes, I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.

I needed a big change. Everybody needs a change. If you don’t change, you’re stuck in a rut.

I know that people around here always say, “Oh, Gaby, you lead such an interesting life…You run that farm of yours pretty much by yourself. You write a food blog that isn’t too egotistical or boring. You teach the local kids to read and write.”

Oh, yes, I do…and I love it…but honestly, it just wasn’t enough for me.

I was in a life rut that was only getting deeper. R-u-t. Put on boots and a loden coat the morning after a snowstorm and trudge to the henhouse to collect four eggs. Start adding nutritional facts to the recipes on the blog and people you never even met accuse you of being a nutrition Nazi.

Teach English, or at least try to make the kids love reading. I know this is going to come as a bit of a shock, but most teenagers think that Great Expectations—to use a phrase—“blows,” but that any book with a vampire in it is brilliant. Especially if the vampire is darkly handsome and promises eternal love with every bite. Great Expectations does kind of blow, by the way.

So anyway, I promise you, I’m not going through the dreaded midlife crisis. I’m not even at my midlife.

And, hey, the first one of you who makes a crack about my being way past midlife gets tossed out of the will. I’m serious, kiddies.

I do need some excitement, though. I think the wildest thing I’ve done in the last three years is to ask your kids to call me by my first name. I disliked being called Grandma. Made me itchy all over.

Back to the subject…I’ve lost twelve pounds.

After all…

I want to be able to fit into my wedding gown.

Anyone who’s fainted should please get up off the floor. And don’t start telephoning one another until this video is over.

Yes, you heard right. I said wedding gown. As in wedding. As in bride. As in wedding in our barn.

You’re looking at the bride right now, and she’s actually smiling. She’s happy. Very much so. You know I don’t complain, but there was a long, dark time after your father died and I’m finally out of that black hole.

You’re probably wondering who the lucky groom is. Well, as you used to say when you were just little brats, that’s for me to know and you to find out.

Everybody is coming home to Stockbridge for Christmas. Claire, Emily, Seth, and Lizzie. You and your children, your spouses, your lovers, dogs, cats, whoever and whatever. We haven’t been together as a family since your dad died.

So it’s Christmas in Stockbridge.

Then you’ll find out who the lucky man is. Till then. I love you. And I’m so happy I almost can’t believe it.

See you at Christmas…when all will be revealed.

BOOK ONE

Christmas Dreaming

Chapter 1

CLAIRE AND HANK

Claire Donoghue, Gaby’s eldest daughter, had just finished her mother’s video, and, well, wow. Go, Gaby! For the moment, though, Claire was paying her household bills, and bill paying was kind of like playing “I love you, I love you not” with hand grenades. Sooner or later, Claire knew, one of them was going to blow up in her face. In everybody’s face.

“I love you, South Carolina Electric and Gas,” she said, placing that bill in the stack she intended to pay.

“I love you not, emergency root canal.”

It was as good a system as any for deciding how to parcel out their slim income to pay the usual fat stack of bills. It was only during the luckiest of months that Hank’s money from construction work, and Claire’s income from tutoring, covered most of the bills. This was not one of those months.

Claire sat at a small, wobbly oak table in the chilly sunroom. She wore two Shetland sweaters in two different shades of dark blue, white painter’s pants, and fingerless woolen gloves....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Little, Brown and Company
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 031609739X
• ISBN 13: 9780316097390
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Terminal Video; n.pederzini@terminaldistribuzione.com; ; Via Bruno Buozzi, 24/26,; Granarolo dell'Emilia BO,; Italien