Tag Archives: Christmas at Embthwaite Farm

Judging Books By Their Christmas Covers: Kate Hewitt’s Holiday Charm

October 25, 2024 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Calling all book cover art fans! If you’re excited by book covers with painted designs and charming landscapes, you’re in for a treat! With winter’s chill settling in, it’s the perfect time to snuggle up with an aesthetically cozy, heartwarming holiday read. And Tule author Kate Hewitt has just the thing– a special talent for drawing us into charming worlds, especially through her enchanting book covers. From snow-dusted landscapes to cozy village scenes, her holiday titles exude warmth, comfort, and a touch of Christmas magic. Each cover not only sets the mood for her beloved stories but also invites us into that cozy, festive atmosphere we all crave this time of year. Let’s discover how Kate Hewitt’s holiday book aesthetics bring to life the essence of the season, inviting us to curl up and lose ourselves in the simple joys of Christmastime.

Christmas at Embthwaite Farm (The Mowbray Sisters series)

Welcome to Embthwaite Farm, a charming English home in North Yorkshire, belonging to the fractured Mowbray family…

~Cover Art~: A thick layer of snow carpets the path, sits heavy in the pine trees, and covers the cottage up ahead; a couple in red and green long coats that match the mistletoe above them is nestled arm and arm, a chocolate pup by their side…nothing says home for the holidays more than this cozy cover!

With older sister Rachel home to help run the family farm and navigate their father’s terminal illness, Harriet Mowbray feels untethered, yet surprisingly free. She wants to embrace her future but continually trips over the insecurities and hurts from her fraught family relationships. When a mysterious millionaire purchases a derelict manor home to renovate into a hotel set to open before Christmas, Harriet pushes herself out of her comfort zone and approaches the owner to become a client for her fledging bakery business.

Former gaming entrepreneur Quinn Tyler has sunk everything into this new venture, and Harriet finds him utterly unexpected. Confident, impulsive and fun, he sweeps Harriet off her feet and their friendship blossoms to Harriet’s surprise and delight. As they work together on the hotel’s finishing touches, Harriet and Quinn battle their insecurities and demons and make surprising revelations as they build their fledgling relationship.

As Christmas looms, will they have the strength of conviction to fight for the hotel—and their newfound love?

Embrace the warmth of love and family this season—order Christmas at Embthwaite Farm today! Plus, be sure to check out the rest of the beautifully, seasonally designed Mowbray Sisters series covers here!

A Casterglass Christmas (Keeping Up with the Penryns series)

To save Casterglass, all the Penryn children will need to return home, rebuild their lives among the ruins, and find love that has proved elusive…

~Cover Art~: A snow-covered English castle, white caps covering the channel, and a colorful, bundled up couple in jackets and scarves, all surrounded by fresh reds and greens of holly…it’s giving all the exciting chills of a Christmas castle family drama!

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, patriarch Walter Penryn resists selling his birthright and family legacy until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Well-heeled Londoner Althea Penryn doesn’t expect a divorce and job hunt over the Christmas holidays, but her husband claims he’s done and the prenup is solid. She packs up her reluctant teenage children and heads home to Casterglass Castle to confront the ghosts of her past—including the real one her mother claims lives in the old guard tower. And then there’s her unexpected romance with local sheep farmer, John Braithwaite, who is everything her adulterous, solicitor ex-husband isn’t.

This Christmas, amid the renovation and potential heartbreak of losing her family home, can Althea find a new purpose and the happiness that has so long eluded her?

Spend this Christmas in the Casterglass castle by ordering your very own copy TODAY! Then, feast your eyes on the enchanting book covers of the entire Keeping Up with the Penryns series for more cozy castle charm!

A Cotswold Christmas (Willoughby Close series)

Welcome to Wychwood-on-Lea… a not-too-quaint village where frosty evenings, welcoming fires, and second chances will make this a Christmas you’ll never forget…

~Cover Art~: A cozy manor coated in snow, yellow warmth twinkling in the windows, and frosted pine trees catching the endless snowflakes falling all around…could the setting for this forced-proximity Christmas get any cozier?

Anna Vere has escaped to the Cotswolds for Christmas to try to heal from her broken engagement and, far worse, her broken dreams. When her reserved room at a bed & breakfast is flooded, she takes up the offer of camping out in Willoughby Close, the converted stables of the nearby manor house… and is taken under the wing of sexy local carpenter Colin Heath.

What starts out as merely helping a neighbor in need turns into far more as Colin and Anna share a surprisingly intense and emotional connection, weaving their own Christmas magic as they spend the holiday together. But Anna has a secret she’s scared to reveal, something that could destroy the fragile bond they’ve just created, and Colin knows she’s only in England for a short time. Can these two sudden soul mates risk their hearts for a love that has yet to be tried and tested?

Get the full cozy cottage experience with your own copy of A Cotswold Christmas NOW! And look forward to four more charming book covers illustrated in the Willoughby Close series, where everyday miracles and happily-ever-afters are guaranteed!

Cupcakes for Christmas (Return to Willoughby Close series)

Welcome back to Willoughby Close, with four new residents and happy endings to deliver…

~Cover Art~: A small-town bakery filled with treats and tea, brushstrokes painting the storefront with bright reds and greens…there can’t possibly be a sweeter place for romance to brew during the season of love!

Olivia James has always been happy running a tea shop and bakery in the Cotswold village of Wychwood-on-Lea, and helping her friends find their happily-ever-afters, topped by the perfect wedding cake. But as Christmas approaches, Olivia is home alone and questioning her choices while eating too many of her own specialty confections.

When Simon Blacklock, a handsome, whimsical stranger, breezes into her shop and buys a cupcake and then returns the next day and the day after, Olivia begins to dream. Can romance blossom amidst the sugar and flour? And after a lifetime of living on the side lines, is she brave enough to star in her own story? Simon may be hiding a painful secret, but Olivia harbors secrets of her own. If they can dare to risk their hearts, this Christmas might be the most magical yet!

Treat yourself to a sweet holiday romance—order Cupcakes for Christmas TODAY and indulge in a delicious read! Then, satisfy your craving for more cozy book art by exploring the rest of the heartwarming Return to Willoughby Close series!

A Vicarage Christmas (The Holley Sisters of Thornthwaite series)

Welcome to Thornwaite, a quaint village tucked up in England’s beautiful but rainy Lake District… where homecomings happen and surprises are in store for the four Holley sisters…

~Cover Art~: A quaint village with pastel-colored cottages and forest green pines, all blanketed in mountains of snow–this is quite the charming invitation to a small-town English Christmas!

Welcome to Thornwaite, a quaint village tucked up in England’s beautiful but rainy Lake District… where homecomings happen and surprises are in store for the four Holley sisters…

Anna Holley, the third of four sisters, has always felt a little bit forgotten. A family tragedy when she was a child had her retreating deep into shyness, and social anxiety kept her on the fringes of the cozy chaos of the busy vicarage.

After several years away from home, Anna returns for Christmas… and an important announcement from her father. As much as she once loved the village, coming back is hard and puts Anna’s social capabilities to the test.

Avoiding her sisters’ bossy questions, she heads out to the local pub one night, and meets a handsome stranger nursing a pint. Somehow, unburdened by expectations, Simon seems like the perfect person to spill all her secrets to—including a hopeless, long-held crush on her sister’s boyfriend. Confident she’ll never see him again, Anna returns home… only to discover the next day that Simon is actually her father’s new curate!

Unwrap the charm of unexpected love this season with A Vicarage Christmas–order NOW! And don’t forget to explore the rest of The Holley Sisters of Thornthwaite series and the quaint village book art depicted in their covers!

It will be December before we know it…so what better way to embrace the holiday spirit than with these charming titles, ones inviting us to cozy up with heartwarming tales of family, romance, and holiday magic? Imagine these hand-painted covers tucked in your lap on a chilly night–the fire is crackling, the smell of hot cocoa fills the air, and your favorite blanket is wrapped around you–I think winter just got a whole lot cozier thanks to Kate!

And from the autumnal hues of Yorkshire to the snow-covered villages of the Cotswolds, each book cover evokes a unique, picturesque winter wonderland. Twinkling lights, festive wreaths, and inviting cottages adorn these covers, all promising a delightful escape into quintessential English countryside Christmases–ones filled with love, redemption, and the sweet aroma of freshly baked treats. 

Cheers!

By: MJ Gryzik, Tule Marketing Intern

Tule Author Kate Hewitt Shares Her Thoughts on Traditional Christmas Pudding!

December 12, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Delicious recipes straight from the kitchens of your favorite Tule authors.

When I moved to the UK twelve years ago, I was a bit taken aback by a lot of things, but nothing quite left me as flummoxed as Christmas pudding, that unique and ubiquitous festive dessert! Brits have an unusual thing about celebratory desserts—traditionally any celebration requires a fruit cake, made with raisins, sultanas, currants, and candied peel. Add a very thick, hard layer of marzipan icing, and you’ve got what people bring out for birthdays, baptisms, anniversaries, you name it! I think, as Great Britain becomes inevitably more Americanized, the tradition of this kind of cake is fading a bit, and the classic vanilla or chocolate sponge is coming more into vogue—but Christmas pudding is still brought out on December 25th!

If you don’t like dried fruit, it’s probably not your thing, but there is something truly magnificent and Dickensian about the Christmas pudding, brought out perfectly molded on a platter and then doused in brandy or rum and set alight—yes, really! My husband has a special silver spoon he heats over a candle until the brandy bursts into blue flame, which he thens pours over the pudding. It’s quite a sight to see. As for eating… well, anything tastes delicious with lashings of brandy butter or cream.

Below I am sharing Mary Berry, the undisputed Queen of British Baking’s recipe for Christmas pudding. I make mine at the end of November, and feed it a tablespoon of rum per week until Christmas. On the day, you boil it for a couple of hours, upend it on a dish, and then, yes, set it on fire! Truly an experience for the senses. 

Ingredients

For the pudding

For the brandy butter

To serve

Recipe tips  |  How-to-videos

Method

  1. Measure the sultanas, raisins, apricots and apple into a bowl with the orange juice. Add the measured brandy (rum or sherry), stir and leave to marinate for about one hour.
  2. Put the measured butter, sugar and grated orange rind into a large bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon or a hand-held whisk until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of the measured flour if the mixture starts to curdle.
  3. Sift together the flour and mixed spice, then fold into the creamed mixture with the breadcrumbs and the nuts. Add the soaked dried fruits with their soaking liquid and stir well.
  4. Generously butter a 1.4 litre/2½ pint pudding basin. Cut a small disc of foil or baking parchment and press into the base of the basin.
  5. Spoon into the prepared pudding basin and press the mixture down with the back of a spoon. Cover the pudding with a layer of baking parchment paper and foil, both pleated across the middle to allow for expansion. Tie securely with string and trim off excess paper and foil with scissors.
  6. To steam, put the pudding in the top of a steamer filled with simmering water, cover with a lid and steam for eight hours, topping up the water as necessary.
  7. To boil the pudding, put a metal jam jar lid, or metal pan lid, into the base of a large pan to act as a trivet. Place a long, doubled strip of foil in the pan, between the trivet and the pudding basin, ensuring the ends of the strip reach up and hang over the edges of the pan. This will help you to lift the heavy pudding basin out of the pan of hot water when it has finished cooking.
  8. Lower the pudding onto the trivet and pour in enough boiling water to come half way up the side of the bowl. Cover with a lid, bring the water back to the boil, then simmer for about seven hours, until the pudding is a glorious deep brown colour, topping up the water as necessary.
  9. For the brandy butter, place the butter into a mixing bowl and cream with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy – or for speed use an electric hand-held mixer. Beat in the sieved icing sugar until smooth, then add brandy, rum or cognac, to taste. Spoon into a serving dish, cover and set aside in the fridge.
  10. When cooked through, remove the pudding from the pan and cool completely. Discard the paper and foil and replace with fresh. Store in a cool, dry place.
  11. To serve, on Christmas Day, steam or boil the pudding for about two hours to reheat. Turn the pudding onto a serving plate. To flame, warm the brandy or rum in a small pan, pour it over the hot pudding and set light to it. Serve with brandy butter.

Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!
Kate Hewitt

About the Author.

Kate Hewitt wrote her first story at the age of five, simply because her older brother had written one and she thought she could do it too. That story was one sentence long—fortunately, they have become a bit more detailed as she’s grown older.

She studied drama in college and shortly after graduation moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. This was derailed by something far better—meeting the man of her dreams who happened also to be her older brother’s childhood friend.

Ten days after their wedding they moved to England, where Kate worked a variety of different jobs—drama teacher, editorial assistant, church youth worker, secretary, and finally mother.

When her oldest daughter was one year old, she sold her first short story to a British magazine, The People’s Friend. Since then she has written many stories and serials as well as novels. In 2007 she received ‘The Call’ from Mills & Boon for her first Harlequin Presents novel, The Italian’s Chosen Wife. Since then she has written over 25 books for Harlequin, and also writes women’s fiction for Carina UK and Lion Hudson Press. She loves writing stories that both tackle tough issues and celebrate the redeeming power of love.

Besides writing, she enjoys reading, traveling, and learning to knit—it’s an ongoing process and she’s made a lot of scarves.

Kate lives in a tiny village on the northwest coast of England with her husband, five young children, and an overly affectionate Golden Retriever.

 

CHRISTMAS AT EMBTHWAITE FARM: Release Day Blog Post Featuring Author Kate Hewitt!

November 8, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

The Joy and Pain of Christmas

There are so many things I love about Christmas—carols, cookies, stockings, decorations, the sense of being cozily tucked up with your loved ones all around. Now that three of my children are out of the house, welcoming them back home is another wonderful part of the Christmas season, and I cherish the days we are together, even if the house does feel a little crowded! 

I also know that Christmas can be a difficult time for many people, when the loss of loved ones can be deeply felt. My father died eight years ago, just two days before Christmas, and so the season now brings the painful and poignant nostalgia of remembering and missing him.

Christmas at Embthwaite Farm is a bit like that—as a story it celebrates the beauty and wonder of Christmas, especially in the North Yorkshire moors, a gorgeous part of England, and there are a lot of Christmas cookies featured in the story! But it also deals with the pain and hurt that the Christmas season can so often bring in terms of relationships whose brokenness can be felt especially in the festive season. 

Harriet Mowbray has always felt as if her father didn’t love her, and that truth becomes painfully real over the Christmas season. Fortunately, she has the gorgeous distraction of Quinn Taylor, the handsome and eccentric hotelier who hires her to bake cookies for his country house hotel’s Christmas party. But like anyone else, Quinn has his own heartaches, and Harriet will have to help him find his Christmas joy this season, as well, with the help of their family and friends. 

Cookies and Christmas trees aside, the Christmas season is about hope—the hope of light coming into the world. Quinn and Harriet both find that light in their story, and I hope you do, as well. 

Happy Reading,
Kate

About the Author.

Kate Hewitt wrote her first story at the age of five, simply because her older brother had written one and she thought she could do it too. That story was one sentence long—fortunately, they have become a bit more detailed as she’s grown older.

She studied drama in college and shortly after graduation moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. This was derailed by something far better—meeting the man of her dreams who happened also to be her older brother’s childhood friend.

Ten days after their wedding they moved to England, where Kate worked a variety of different jobs—drama teacher, editorial assistant, church youth worker, secretary, and finally mother. Read the rest of Kate’s bio here.