I know we still have Thanksgiving ahead of us, but I rest firmly on team Thanksgivingmas. I believe in an awesome blending of these holidays into a celebratory season of coziness and beauty and you won't change my mind!
There's a lot going on at my house (we're getting new windows today, and I'm hoping to paint some trim through the week once they're finished), but the tree goes up this coming weekend so I'm ready to talk about Christmas books. If you're not, it's cool - pin this and come back to it later!
Every year I feel like I've read through all the juicy Christmas stories and still want more, and I have to say - this year these authors delivered! There are so many! Will I have time for all of these? Nope. Maybe if I had nothing better to do (I wish!) but I'm going to take down as many as I can and save the rest for next year. Check them out!
Just Like Magic by Sarah HogleThis book sounds so adorable! A socialite named Bettie has lost the means to fund her luxurious lifestyle and is hiding out in Colorado for the holidays. Somehow, after a bit too much to drink, she plays a Christmas record backwards, and it casts a spell that brings her a hunky man-spirit that is perfect for playing the role of her fake fiancé. I mean...how ridiculously perfect is that? I want to read this right now!!! It sounds like there's some obvious lesson-learning that goes down (a la A Christmas Carol), as well as the logistics of hanging onto a spirit that you've been developing feelings for, all with a Christmas vibe and I am so here for it!
All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox
This one is straight out of a Hallmark movie - like, I swear I've seen this before and I don't even care because I will never tire of the same story if you dress it up Hallmark-style. Two contestants on a singing competition show cannot stand each other, but somehow have an on-stage chemistry while performing that fans cannot get enough of. The show wants them to not only continue performing together, but to sell it to the audience that they are together. Oh yes, fake dating celebrities? At Christmas time!? Swoon. All in. (PS - I read Maggie Knox's holiday book last year and adored it, so I expect to love this one just the same!)
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss
Wow - this one has a secondhand bookshop, a freaking castle, and a main character named...wait for it... Elinor Noel. There's not a whole lot of holiday-Christmas mentions in the synopsis, but I dunno... there's snow on the cover and mistletoe above their heads, so I'm holding out hope. Our festively named MC attends a reunion with friends from her old private school, she's confronted with an enemy from her past. This is an enemies to lovers story, and sounds like a bit of a grumpy-sunshine mashup, too - so you can probably guess where this goes. I'm excited to find out!
You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky
Oh my gosh. I'm pretty sure this book takes the grinch, sticks it in a Hallmark movie, adds a queer romance, and sprinkles holiday spirit all over it. This sounds like so much fun, I'm obsessed! First we have a spoiled rich kid that gets sent away for the holidays to a small town where his grandparents live. Some of the locals seem as unenthused by him as he is of their town. That is, until he gets roped into pulling together their charity gala. (I mean, how much more Hallmark movie could it get??) I'm pretty sure the holiday cheer of this town slowly melts his unfeeling heart - because of course it does. This is such a fun premise, I can't wait to check it out!
Once Upon a December by Amy E Reichert
I don't know if I'm fully picking up on the premise of this one, but it sounds like Astra is nursing her divorce grief at an annual holiday fair and runs into a hunky guy who only lives his life in Decembers? Like, actually literally, in the sense that time keeps shifting him from one December to the next with nothing in between. (I think?) So there's some clear Hallmark movie level elements with a Christmas fair and a growing romance after heartache, but with some sort of magic element as well. I'm always down for the magical elements in stories, especially Christmas stories because of the holiday's inherent magical nature. Sounds like fun!
There's Something About Merry by Codi Hall
I saw the word sexy in the description of this one so I'm going to take a guess at this one being the steamy-spicy one of the pile. This story takes place on a Christmas tree farm in a town called Mistletoe, and there's an internet romance with an in person blind date situation with crossover between the two so basically yes please, put it on my list. This sounds super indulgent and rom-commy in the best Christmasy way.
Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh
Ah, okay, this has one of my favorite tropes - friends to lovers. Molly and Andrew are long standing friends with a decade long tradition of traveling to Ireland for the holidays. This year, a snow storm has them stuck in America, but Molly wants her very Christmas - minded best friend to get what he wants most and make it to Ireland despite the weather. She comes up with a plan to get them there, which of course has its hurdles. This sounds like a really fun adventure with travel hijinks, holiday vibes, and best friends finally considering the possibility that they could be something more to each other. This sounds like so much fun, I can't wait to read it!
So This is Christmas by Jenny Holiday
This one is actually the third in a series. I've read the first one (and found it super cute), but I didn't read the second one. I'm not sure how imperative it is that I read that before I get to this one? But this story, obviously centered around the holidays, is another royally-inspired book. I am a sucker for this trope - the average girl falling for the prince (or you know, any sort of normie-royalty pairing). This book in the series actually focuses on the King's advisor rather than an actual member of royalty, and an American management consultant that was brought into help get the King's affairs in order. The story takes place in the kingdom of Eldovia, and the pair are tasked with making it shine for the holidays while trying not to fall in love in the process. Sounds perfect to me!
The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park
Want to spend Christmas at the mall? You can with this story, that sounds so adorable! Rival families that own competing restaurants in the mall's food court clash even further when the teens from these families get holiday jobs in other parts of the mall. Chloe is a photographer for Santa Land, and Peter works at the VR experience featuring a virtual North Pole. Things between them start out expectedly hostile, but when they find out that the mall is being sold to condo developers and both of their families' businesses are on the line, they have to come together to help find a solution. I love the nostalgia of this premise - malls have been going the way of the dinosaurs for a while now, but growing up, it didn't feel like Christmas until we wandered around the decorated mall with peppermint coffee, seeing that Santa was available for photos. I'm super excited to revisit that experience in this book!
What's wild is that there are so many more to check out this year! These are the ones that excite me the most, but there are still lots of other great titles to check out. Some of them being: Whiteout, A Merry Little Meet Cute, The Christmas Wish, In the Event of Love, The Holiday Trap, One Last Gift, and Talk Santa to Me.
That's not an exhaustive list - there's just so many this year! Let me know which one you're most excited to check out, I can't decide where to start!
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