Book excerpt: Set on the beautiful Scottish island of Islay, The Christmas Secret is a gripping story filled with emotion from Karen Swan, bestselling author of Christmas Under the Stars. Alex Hyde is the leaders’ leader. An executive coach par excellence, she’s the person the Great and the Good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies. Her waiting list is months’ long, but even she can’t turn down the unorthodox but highly lucrative crisis call that comes her way a few weeks before Christmas, regarding the troublesome – and troubled – head of an esteemed whisky company in Scotland: Lochlan Farquhar is a maverick, an enigma and a renegade, and Alex needs to get inside his head before he brings the company to its knees. It should be business as usual. She can do this in her sleep. Only, when she gets to the remote island of Islay, with the winter snows falling, Alex finds herself out of her comfort zone. For once, she’s not in control – Lochlan, though darkly charismatic, is unpredictable and destructive, her usual methods gaining no traction with him – and with Christmas and her deadline fast approaching, she must win his trust and find a way to close on this deal. But as she pulls ever closer to him, boundaries become blurred, loyalties loosen and Alex finds herself faced with an impossible choice as she realizes nothing and no-one is as they first seemed. 'Fun and great escapism' –Tracy Rees, author of The Hourglass 'I devoured it like a tray of warm mince pies. A delicious winter tale' – Sarah Morgan, author of Moonlight Over Manhattan ‘If you’re anything like us, then a book by Karen Swan has become synonymous with Christmas, and her latest is arguably her best yet . . . smart plots, brilliant characters and juicy romance’ – Heat