Forbidden Fruit — Kerry Greenwood

Corinna Chapman, owner of the bakery Earthly delights, detests Christmas. The shoppers are frantic and the heat oppressive in Melbourne, Australia, where Christmas is summer festival. Corinna loathes the festival and the heat. She is a perfect size 20 with a genius for baking bread. And muffins . And while dreaming of air conditioned comfort she finds herself dealing with a rose-addicted donkey named Serena, a maniacal mother with staring eyes, a distracted assistant seeking for the definitive glace cherry recipe, her friend the fearless witch Meroe and the luscious Daniel with whom she would like to spend a lot more time.

But Daniel is on the track of two runaways, Brigid and Manny. This Romeo and Juliet romance is not as straightforward as it seems and the pair will go a long way to avoid being found. With the help of a troupe of free-spirited freegans, three very clever internet hackers and a bunch of singing vegans, Corinna and Daniel go head-to-head with a sinister religious cult on a mission and a band of Romanies out for revenge in a wild and wonderful chase against the (biological) clock.