[Homecoming 01] • Humbug's Holiday Homecoming

It’s Christmastime, and Dr. Mick Mulligan has just arrived back at her childhood home after a five-year absence. She’s determined to help her mother, Leona, care for the house she grew up in and resolved to adjust to life back in Connecticut. After the childhood loss of her father, Mick proclaimed herself a “humbug.” Mick is happier in an operating room that gathering around a Christmas tree. Holidays conjure painful memories for the doctor. The problem is, Leona Mulligan thinks she’s Mrs. Claus.

Ruby Pope has lived next door to Leona Mulligan for five years. Ruby’s become Leona’s family, and Leona has been dubbed “Grandma Lee,” by Ruby’s six-year-old son, Logan. Logan and Ruby are about to challenge everything Mick had convinced herself to be true.

Loss has played a significant role in both Mick and Ruby’s lives. Both spend their days tending to sick people in the hospital; Mick as a vascular surgeon and Ruby as an ICU nurse. Neither could save the person they loved most. Mick has made it her mission to make a difference for families like hers. One day she might save the life of a little girl’s father at Christmas. Ruby has learned that life and death are inevitable parts of the other. She views life through Logan’s eyes with a sense of possibility and wonderment. Can Ruby and Logan help Mick rediscover the wonder of Christmas? What will Mick do when she’s forced to live in her mother’s version of the North Pole?

Humbug’s Holiday Homecoming is a story about finding the strength to love despite the inevitability of loss. It’s a journey of discovery, of letting go, and of learning to hold on again. What could be more magical than falling in love?

J.A. Armstrong is a pen-name for best-selling author Nancy Ann Healy. Nancy is best known for the Alex and Cassidy series of political thrillers that includes: Intersection, Betrayal, Commitment, Conspiracy, and Untold. She is also the author of the best-selling novels, Falling Through Shooting Stars and All the Way Home.

As J.A. Armstrong, Nancy writes several popular series: Off Screen, By Design, Special Delivery, First Course, Open Tab (The Whiskey Springs Series), and the new Journey of Discovery Series of erotic lesbian romance.