Romance is an ever-expanding genre, with each new release adding stories that reflect its diverse readership. Holiday romances are no exception. This popular subgenre — which shares many hallmarks with its cinematic counterpart, the holiday rom-com — has exploded in recent years. Choose from a plethora of new festive offerings that center the many ways we celebrate our seasons and one another.
Make the Season Bright
By Ashley Herring Blake
When Charlotte Donovan agrees to celebrate Christmas at a friend’s family home in Colorado, the last person she’s expecting to see is her former fiancée, Brighton Fairbrook, who left her at the altar five years ago. At first, the musician ex-lovers pretend they’re strangers, but as holiday events keep throwing them together, their frosty ruse starts to melt.
Love You a Latke
By Amanda Elliot
Abby Cohen owns a cafe in rural Vermont, where she’s one of only two Jewish people in town. When she’s tasked with planning the area’s first Hanukkah festival, she learns that the other one is her annoying, perpetually sunshiny regular, Seth. Abby agrees to help Seth get his parents off his back by posing as his girlfriend at his family’s Hanukkah celebration, in exchange for his help making the festival a delicious success. Their pretend relationship only needs to last eight nights — but the flame of their connection can’t be doused that quickly.
The Nightmare Before Kissmas
By Sara Raasch
This charming fantasy brings together Nicholas “Coal” Claus, son of the reigning Santa, and Hex, the Prince of Halloween. When Coal spent a drunken night making out with a stranger, he was looking to escape. But reality comes crashing in when the stranger turns out to be Hex, and he challenges Coal for the right to marry Iris, the Easter Princess — a union neither man actually wants. Spicy chemistry, a forced competition and the fate of the holidays in the balance? What could possibly go wrong!
The Merriest Misters
By Timothy Janovsky
Patrick Hargrave and Quinn Muller’s once-passionate relationship is crumbling after less than a year of marriage. After Patrick mistakes Santa Claus for a burglar, accidentally knocking him unconscious, the couple takes the reins to salvage the night. Then the sleigh brings them back to the North Pole, where they must take on the roles of Santa and the Merriest Mister for a year in order to save Christmas — and their relationship.
I’ll Be Gone for Christmas
By Georgia K. Boone
“The Holiday” fans, this one is for you. Bee Tyler and Clover Mills agree to exchange houses for the holidays. In Clover’s cottage in a Christmas-obsessed Ohio town, Bee is charmed by Clover’s ex-fiancé, Knox, while in Bee’s modern San Francisco apartment, Clover keeps running into Beth, Bee’s gorgeous sister. The spark of temporary connection becomes a glowing warmth for everyone, but holidays, and house swaps, can’t last forever. Figuring out what’s next is the real challenge.
Grimm Curiosities
By Sharon Lynn Fisher
The year is 1851. Since her father’s death, Lizzy Grimm has struggled to keep his antique shop in York, the most haunted town in England, afloat. A snowy December night brings Antony Carlisle to her door, seeking answers for his sister, who, like Lizzy’s mother, has been unresponsive since encountering a ghost. The duo find hope inside rare books about the history of Yule, but a sinister collector and a dark entity threaten to leave their families silent, and their future dark and cold.
Most Wonderful
By Georgia Clark
In this holiday rom-com, three queer half-siblings travel to their famous mother’s Catskills manor for Christmas. Each one is struggling with professional and romantic upheavals, while their mother has her own secrets, and they’re determined to swear off love for the season. But of course, romance finds them anyway, with many hilarious high jinks and quirky family traditions along the way.
Only Santas in the Building
By Alexis Daria
This short story by the author of “You Had Me at Hola” is part of a collection of five December romances by various authors. Evie Cruz, a comic book illustrator, is not feeling the Christmas spirit, but she is feeling a massive crush on Theo, her helpful upstairs neighbor. A sprig of mistletoe at their building’s holiday party gives her an opportunity for a very happy holiday, with an even more festive ever after.
Last Christmas Crush
By Mia Heintzelman
After a breakup, Chiara Fortemani is focused on herself, and on growing her family vineyard’s brand at the upcoming Napa Christmas food and wine festival. Sparks fly when she reconnects with Jameson West, her ex’s extremely off-limits best friend, who has harbored a secret love for her since grade school. Luckily for Jameson, his family makes the casks for Chiara’s vineyard, so there are plenty of reasons for them to spend time together, and for him to convince her to give them a chance.
The Most Wonderful Time
By Jayne Allen
Ramona Tucker has been lying to her family about her broken engagement, but she worries her secret may come out at her mother’s extravagant Christmas Eve party. Chelsea Flint, an artist whose rising star has started to plummet, is struggling to pay the bills on the Malibu beach house she inherited from her parents. When the women decide to trade homes instead of enduring holiday drama, they each find new perspectives and unexpected romantic possibilities.
The Wedding Witch
By Erin Sterling
The third book in the Graves Glen series finds Bowen Penhallow, a taciturn Welsh witch, attending a Yuletide wedding at the haunted Tywyll House. Tamsyn Bligh, a morally flexible procurer of magical artifacts, is also attending (technically, crashing) the wedding, and trying to keep her salacious thoughts about Bowen to herself. When they’re both thrown back in time to Yuletide 1958, they must navigate hauntings, suspicious witches and a bonfire-size attraction to return to the present.
Christmas in Spite of You
By K.C. Mills
An Airbnb reservation gone awry leaves Noel Anderson, a Christmas fangirl, and Kanton Joseph, a certified Scrooge, stuck together for the holidays. Kanton is there to close a business deal, not fall in love with Noel. But she is equally determined to show him the magic of the season, before their week together ends.
Kiss Me at Christmas
By Jenny Bayliss
When her college-age daughter decides not to come home for the holidays, Harriet Smith finds comfort in several mugs of mulled wine, and in the arms of a handsome stranger. After covering for some students who break into the town theater, Harriet agrees to help the owner out by directing a production of “A Christmas Carol.” Her co-director: James Knight, the owner’s unamused lawyer, and Harriet’s one-night stand.
Only for the Holidays
By Abiola Bello
In this young adult romance, Quincy Parker’s family farm has been selected to host his town’s Winter Ball, but he’s suddenly dateless after his girlfriend cheated on him. Tia Solanké wanted to stay in London and get her ex-boyfriend back, not get dragged out to the countryside by her mother to endure manure mishaps and battle determined sheep. Quincy and Tia agree to pose as a couple and make their exes jealous. But when a massive storm threatens the Ball, their pretend emotions become very real.
A Minotaur Tale
By Kass O’Shire
Monsters are having a moment in romance, and this novella is a sweet and medium-spicy introduction to the subgenre that blends fantasy with a Dickensian classic. Cora, a shy librarian nymph, is wooed by Asterion, a Minotaur diplomat who presents her with three gifts over the course of one Yuletide night to demonstrate how much he truly sees, and wants, her.
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