A Villain for Christmas (The Holyoake Christmas Series, Book 2)

Sybil 'Billie' Harewicke's life leaves much to be desired, starting with her ridiculously old-fashioned name. She's a rational, dull person - who had the misfortune of being born into a family of local witches. Her main interest in life is the Library Science - and they had just closed the library in her home county of Fleckney. She works in the only bookshop in the county - while everyone expects her to join the family business of fortune telling and potion brewing. Even the one ability that she allegedly inherited from the generations of self-proclaimed psychics, is the least useful out of the Seven Harewicke Gifts!

It's holiday time in Fleckney, which means extra work for Billie, both with her family and at the bookshop. When she's offered to escape both and to work in the Bjornsson Art Fund for two weeks before Christmas, she couldn't be happier. She's always dreamt of getting her hands on the magnificent library of the Bjornsson Hall. Except, it turns out that the job has got nothing to do with bibliothecography - and is a nightmare! And a rowdy, unsophisticated crowd of filmmakers arrive at Fleckney to scout locations and research the scene. The only consolation is that none other than Archie Billingsley is among them. He's everything a celebrity should be: handsome, eloquent, prone to spontaneously quoting Shakespeare, and calling his fans 'darling.' He's just starred in a highly successful Austen adaptation, and there are rumours of an upcoming Chekhov stage play.

Among other guests of the Hall are Billingsley's agent, an eccentric director, a dozen of crew members, and Eric Dair, an actor best known for playing every thug, mafioso, and terrorist in pretty much every latest blockbuster, at home and across the pond.

Billie is hardly enthused at the prospect of interacting with the motley crew - but at least it'll allow her to avoid the local obsession with holiday romance and finding their true love on Christmas! Bah, humbug!