CHRISTMAS TREE BOOK BATTLE

Maria Del Camino grew up in Washington Heights- where the music’s loud, love cuts deep, and corner bodegas feel like home- until her brother is gunned down and the fog comes.

One moment she’s crossing the George Washington Bridge, the next she’s spinning through time. With every jump, it brings her closer to the hand that pulled the trigger — and the truth waiting in the fog may be more dangerous than the bullet that killed him.

He wasn’t supposed to fall for her.
She wasn’t supposed to need him.
But sometimes love shows up when you least expect it.

Claire Kaminski teaches spin with grit and passion, pushing her riders harder than she pushes herself. She’s worked hard to rebuild her life — staying grounded, avoiding risk, and never, ever getting involved at work.

Gavin Briggs is the future of his family’s nationwide fitness club franchise. He plays by the rules, including the one that says no dating employees.

But when a late-night emergency forces Claire into his guest room and into his heart, they’re both in for the ride of a lifetime.

What is Butterball the Poodle up to now?

She helps to prepare for Christmas and sees shiny balls on the Christmas tree but Butterball cannot stop thinking about those shiny balls.

Will she make a mistake? Will Butterball get her surprise?

A retired school teacher, Mildred Budge just wants to live a quiet life in her hometown of Cloverdale. But retirement does not mean she can say no to a friend–not a friend in trouble. Mildred Budge knows how. A disciplined woman, Mildred can breathe the word “no” to a second cup of ice cream. Can resist drinking too much champagne. But when it comes right down to a friend needing a favor, she may say no first, but if someone really needs her — really needs her! — she always said yes.

That’s how Mildred ended up with strangers camped out in her spare bedroom while helping her friend Fran to start a new business at the antique emporium.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 had dealt a catastrophic blow to the United States Navy, but it had not knocked out all of the U.S. carriers. That was an omission that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan’s fleet commander, intended to rectify by invading a site close to Pearl Harbor. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor had worked out well for the Japanese — why not try another one on Midway Island? What Yamamoto didn’t know was that Japanese fleet codes had been broken and Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Chester Nimitz, privy to what the Japanese planned to do, was able to place the American carriers where they would catch the Japanese off guard as they prepared to launch air strikes on Midway Island.

After the Battle of Midway, the Japanese were forced into the position of trying to defend the territory that they had previously taken; their dreams of expanding their acquisitions and becoming the dominant power in the Pacific were gone. The tide of war in the Pacific had shifted.