The holidays are right around the corner, but the Christmas books have been hitting shelves since October. I can multitask, so I’m not complaining. It should also be noted that I am a massive fan of syrupy sweet, feel-good holiday-themed romances. Christmas movies, much like Christmas books are my jam. The holidays are stressful enough, I love getting lost in a good book I know will be low angst, and sexy with a heartwarming happily ever after. Here are a couple of suggestions to help get you in the festive spirit!
Wrapped Up in You by Jill Shalvis
Ivy Snow has lived a life on the move, temporary may as well be her middle name. That’s all behind her now. She has an apartment in San Francisco, a very successful taco truck, and a handful of good friends. Ivy has firmly put in place all sorts of blockers that could rattle her hard-fought, new-found roots. She’s certainly not going to invite any more Mr. Wrongs into her life, nope, not gonna happen. She has worked too hard to suppress the unfortunate realities of her past, and she’s not going to risk it by letting a man in. Especially not a dirty-talking, sexy as hell sheriff in town on vacation.
Kel O’Donnell has been burned before, he’s strictly temporary now when it comes to relationships. Too bad Ivy is just the sort of spice he needs to consider opening his heart up again. Of course, he picks a woman with a past just waiting to bite them both in the ass. Maybe true love will win in the end.
“We’re just talking.”
“Un huh,” she said dryly. “But when men talk, they think they’re flirting, and to them flirting leads to everything else, which is always a disappointment. And if I wanted to be disappointed,” she said, “I could just go inside and watch The Bachelor.”
“How do you know I’d disappoint?”
“You’re a man, aren’t you?”
We Met in December by Rosie Curtis
This story follows a year in the life of Jess, an American woman with a new job, a new attitude, and a new residence in London. Alex is one of her flatmates, and she becomes enamored with him almost immediately. This is a slow burn that begins with Alex actually instigating a friends with benefits situation with a different flatmate, not our beloved Jess, much to her chagrin.
Stick with it and remember the words slow burn. Over the course of a year, many things happen, Jess becomes more comfortable in her new life, emotions are up and down and everything in between. We also get a year’s worth of London as Curtis writes the city almost like a secondary character. We start in December and find our resolution the following year. As the cover explains, it really is a year that changes everything!
Christmas and London are a match made in heaven.
There’s a man on the street corner selling hot chestnuts by the bag, filling the air with the smell of cinnamon and vanilla. The ornate wooden windows of Liberty are glittering with lights and decorations. I stop to look at a huge tree swathed in ribbons and hung with a million dancy fairy lights and—
“Watch out!”
A woman crashes into me, giving me a furious look and weaving past, muttering loudly about bloody tourists.
I am not a tourist, I think. I am – or will be, in just a couple of hours – an official Londoner.
25 Days ‘Till Christmas by Poppy Alexander
Kate Thompson has lost her Christmas spirit. In fact, the single, widowed mom can barely stand December at all. Her sadness has taken a toll on her son Jack and Kate decides this is the year to get her Christmas mojo back. It’s time to move on, move forward in her life, and make her own miracles along the way.
Problems upon problems present themselves to Kate as she tries with all of her might to find her Christmas spirit again. Who would’ve thought meeting the loneliest man in the world would make her axis shift right back in line? This is a story with themes of loss, love, motherhood, and friendship that will warm your heart this holiday season.
He wondered if the Christmas Tree Girl would be in her usual spot. This would have been the fourth year, long enough to call it a tradition, him walking past her twice a day, smiling sometimes, and catching her eye. Most days, she had been preoccupied, busy with other customers, so he would end up passing unacknowledged, creating an odd sense of disappointment which hung over his entire day. Then—on a Saturday in early December—there would be the ceremonial “making the visit to buy the tree.”
Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler
This book has Hallmark/Netflix/Lifetime Christmas movie written all over it! Emmie loves Christmas, all of it from the sparkling decorations, to the gingerbread men, and the mistletoe, and she can’t wait to share all of it with her boyfriend. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a bah humbug, so Emmie sets about getting his jingle jangle on by way of a holiday-themed scavenger hunt. The prize at the end of the hunt is Emmie, at a romantic mountaintop rendezvous!
In true Hallmark fashion, signals get crossed, and the man on Emmie’s scavenger hunt trail is not her scrooge-like boyfriend, it’s Sam; an author who thinks his agent arranged this diversion to help him escape his debilitating writer’s block. When Emmie’s actual boyfriend blows her off, she’s left wondering if he was ever going to be Mr. Right. Maybe Christmas delivered an unexpected miracle named Sam to share her Christmas joy and perhaps something so much more!
Let it Snow by Nancy Thayer
Thayer is taking us to Nantucket this Christmas! Christina Antonioni is a shopkeeper who unexpectedly warms cold hearts and ends up finding true love. Replete with a scrooge-like landlord, his sweet young granddaughter, Wink, and Andy, the handsome and charming bachelor determined to give them the best Christmas they could’ve ever imagined Let it Snow is an excellent holiday love story.
There are so many fun options for cheerful holiday-themed books out there, my wish list is overflowing. Stay tuned for more recommendations to help ease you into this most festive season!
