Miracle on Christmas Eve [Harlequin Romance Series #3990] by Shirley Jump

Product Details

Synopsis

Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is a family...

Jessica Patterson has tried to put on a brave face, but she misses the joy that love can bring at Christmastime. Until a handsome stranger in need of a Christmas miracle touches her heart...

Single dad C. J. Hamilton has discovered fatherhood is a little harder than bachelorhood! But he's mesmerized by Jessica's enchanting beauty and sincerity. She's perfect with his daughter--is it possible she's perfect for him?

It's lucky that Jessica can't resist a plea for help, because C.J. has a twinkle in his blue eyes that suggests her Christmas dreams will come true...

Biography

Shirley Jump didn't have the willpower to diet nor the talent to master undereye concealer, so she bowed out of a career in television and opted instead for a career where she could be paid to eat at her desk—writing.

She started out in journalism, selling her first article at the age of eleven and dreaming of being the next Jane Pauley. She hosted two of her own shows on the local cable channel and was the co-host of a late-night comedy show for two years. After writing 3000 articles and two nonfiction books, Shirley grew too dependent on her robe and fuzzy slippers, though, and decided a career as a freelance writer suited her better.

Then she got married. And had two kids.

Humor became the only thing that got her through the mashed potato fling-fests and toilet paper decorating sprees. At first, seeking revenge on her children for their grocery store tantrums, she sold embarrassing essays about them to anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Working Woman's Soul and Chocolate for Women II. However, it wasn't enough to feed her growing addiction to writing funny.

So, she turned to the world of romance novels where messes are (usually) cleaned up before The End and no one is calling anyone a doodoo-head. In the worlds Shirley gets to create and control, the children listen to their parents, the husbands always remembers holidays and the housework is magically done by elves.

She sold her first book to the Silhouette Romance line in 2001. That novel, The Virgin's Proposal, won the Booksellers' Best Award for Best Traditional Romance of 2003.

Shirley now writes stories for Silhouette and Kensington about love, familyandfood—the three most important things in her life (if she's being honest, though, there are many days when the order is reversed), using that English degree everyone said would be so useless.

Though she's thrilled to see her books in stores around the world, Shirley mostly writes because it gives her an excuse to avoid cleaning the toilets and helps feed her shoe habit.

Read excerpts, see reviews or learn more about Shirley on her web site.