Just in time for Christmas! This week Cherish author Kate Hardy visits the blog to talk about her latest romance, Her Festive Doorstep Baby. 

I love writing baby books – I’ve had so much joy from my own children that it’s a subject I’ll never tire of – but when I came to write this year’s Christmas romance, Her Festive Doorstep Baby, I wanted to write an unexpected baby story with a difference.

Supposing my heroine couldn’t have children, and what she really wanted most of all was a baby? And supposing a baby appeared on her doorstep on Christmas Eve? Obviously the first thing she would do would be to call the authorities and help them try to find the baby’s mum. But on Christmas Eve, when most people have already left work for the holidays and the local hospital is full of people with viruses that could be life-threatening to a newborn, it might just mean that my heroine has to step in to the rescue and look after the baby – just for Christmas…

And that led me to thinking, how do you cope with an unexpected newborn all on your own? Especially when you don’t have anything at all for the baby, the shops are about to close, and everyone you know is away so there’s nobody to ask for advice? 

That’s where my hero comes in: a man who doesn’t think he wants children and has stopped believing in love. But Josh still has enough Christmas spirit to agree to help his neighbour when he walks into the lobby to find her looking after the baby who’s been left on their doorstep. Between them, Josh and Amy learn to muddle through the first days of parenting a newborn – and they discover in the process that, just like their doorstep baby, love turns up in the most unexpected places.

The baby herself: well, I had to call her Hope. Because that’s exactly what she brings to Amy and Josh. Her very helplessness makes them face up to the problems in their past and learn to overcome them, together.

And what about the baby’s mum? Why did she choose that particular doorstep? (You’ll have to read the book to find out!)

Her Festive Doorstep Baby is available now! 

By The Mills & Boon team