Happy Holidays! Welcome to my – author, Susan Gooch’s twelve books of Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year to lose yourself in a holiday romance. And that is exactly what I have been doing. While everyone else has been cooking and getting their houses ready for the holidays, I have been making a huge dent in my holiday romance TBR list, and I’m excited to share them with you. It’s time to bust out the hot cocoa, curl up with your favorite blanket, and get in the holiday spirit!
1. Snowed in For Christmas by Jaqueline Snowe
I kicked off my holiday reading with Snowed in For Christmas by Jaqueline Snowe. If you like forced proximity stories with a touch of snark and sass, this is a good read for you. Sorority Mom Becca finds herself in a precarious position of seriously underestimating how dangerous a major snowstorm could be. When her power goes out, she is forced to seek help from her gorgeous next-door neighbor with whom she shared a great date, followed by an amazing kiss, only to be ghosted two years before. Can you say awkward?
Overall, this is a sweet little story. I liked the chemistry element. And Becca and Harrison have it in spades. When Harrison says to Becca, “…I know what love is and what it can do for two people. You’ve infiltrated every single thought I have, and I want to do life with you,” he had me. In the story, Becca’s lip trembled, and I swear mine did too! I all but swooned! Be forewarned, this book is rather spicy, but that makes sense. Think about it: it is a story about two people who are stranded in a raging snowstorm with no power and nothing to do but use their body heat to keep each other alive. Of course, it is going to get juicy. Overall, I enjoyed the book and gave it four stars.
“…I know what love is and what it can do for two people. You’ve infiltrated every single thought I have, and I want to do life with you,”
2. How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn
I devoured How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn. The book centers around childhood friends Storee Taylor and Cole Black, who lost touch more than a decade before after their friendship ended badly. Forced to return to Kringletown to care for her elderly Aunt Cindy, who has recently broken her hip, Storee finds herself in fierce competition with Cole for the Christmas Kringle contest. To me, this was The Grinch meets How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days.
As the competition between the two heats up, so does the chemistry between them. This is a slow-burn romance that, once it catches fire, turns into a super spicy read. Be advised that it is quite explicit in parts. The best part of the book is the snappy, quick writing and the snarky, hilarious banter between the characters. Quinn did a fabulous job with character development. I felt that I knew the characters and was rooting for them to find their happy ever after. When you learn Cole’s backstory, it is easy to see why he is so guarded and works so hard to protect his heart from being broken again. I knew his heart was starting to thaw when he said, “If you allow fear to take over your actions, then you’re never going to accomplish anything.” How true is that in everything in life? Reading that, I had to take a beat and think about what fears in my life were keeping me from accomplishing all the things I hoped to. When a book stops you, and the words move from being just a cute story in a book to making a shift in your thinking or your life, that is when it becomes art. For me, that was the strongest line in the book. I enjoyed reading it and gave it four stars.
“If you allow fear to take over your actions, then you’re never going to accomplish anything.”
3. The Christmas Letters by Jenny Proctor
Next up was The Christmas Letters by Jenny Proctor. I really liked this sweet little story about Tess and Drew. A super quick read; I read it in like an hour and a half. It was sugary, sweet, and squeaky clean. Sometimes, I need to add a little sweetness to all the spice, and this one delivered! I liked that Tess was a strong woman who knew her own mind and was determined to forge her own future on her terms. Full disclosure: the story is a little too predictable in places, but if you like a good Hallmark movie, you will love this book.
One of my favorite parts of the book is when Tess realizes that just being around Drew fills her in a way that she has never felt before, and she is trying to make sense of it when she asks herself, “So why is my body reacting like he’s the sun and I’m a freaking sunflower.” I love that and made such a connection to it. Truly, there is no better feeling than basking in the glow of the attention of the one you love.
This is a no spice read. I gave it five stars. Sometimes it is nice to just curl up with a sweet little read, even if you can predict how it is going to end. There is a certain level of comfort in that. It is like a nice warm blanket on a cold night, knowing everything is going to be alright and only good things are coming.
“So why is my body reacting like he’s the sun, and I’m a freaking sunflower.”
4. Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh
A holiday romance reader herself, my daughter Alex, recommended Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh and insisted that I read it. The premise of the story is that two friends, Molly and Andrew, take the same flight every year back to Dublin to celebrate the holidays with their families. While the two text and see each other occasionally during the year, the crux of their relationship is centered around their yearly flights back home each year. In the ninth year, a terrible storm challenges them to find an alternate route home after their flight is canceled.
The bulk of the book is dedicated to them flying all over the world, working their way back to Dublin. Their exhausting, never-ending quest to get home to their loved ones is a metaphor for their relationship and the book overall. Andrew was my favorite character. I liked the book even though it is a true slow burn, like a nine-year slow burn, which is not really my jam. Personally, I like my characters to move a little faster than that, but it worked. The book took off for me when Andrew declares his love for Molly, and when she tries to shrug off his feelings, he responds, “Don’t tell me I don’t know what this is. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I want.” Of course, these words send Molly’s heart (and mine!) into overdrive. This is where I knew they were finally going to get it going, and after nine years, it was well overdue! This is a no-spice book. I gave it four stars.
5. One Sweet Holiday by Lucy Day
I goofed and read this book, the third in the series. Oops! Oh well, I had no idea. It stood on its own. This story focuses on baker Gwen Griffin, who was recently dumped just a few weeks before her wedding, preparing to survive her little sister’s wedding, with everyone pitying her and wondering if she will fall apart any minute. Enter Logan Fyfe, one amazing Scottish hottie. (And who doesn’t love a Scottish hottie? Jamie Fraser, anyone?) Anyway, Logan rents the cottage next door, and before you can say, “Aye,” the two of them are flirting and falling for each other hard.
Logan is by far my favorite character. My love for him was cemented when Gwen told him all the reasons a relationship between them did not make sense, and they would both end up regretting it. In response, he said, “When I get old, I want to regret the things I did. Not the things I was afraid to do.” His words were spot on, and not only as a counterargument to her reasons but as a life mantra. Later in the novel, Logan again slays with some killer life advice when he says, “…it is your duty to live your one life in a way that means spend your last moments feeling gratitude and not regret. It is your duty to love fiercely and to keep learning and to leave this world a little better than you found it.” Wow! Just wow! Who says you can’t grow from reading romance? This super, clean, no-spice novel is a slow burn, chocked full of chemistry and witty banter. It would make a great Hallmark movie. I gave it four stars.
“When I get old, I want to regret the things I did. Not the things I was afraid to do.”
“…it is your duty to live your one life in a way that means spend your last moments feeling gratitude and not regret. It is your duty to love fiercely and to keep learning, and to leave this world a little better than you found it.”
6. If You Give a Grump A Holiday Wishlist by Ann Einerson
The sixth book I read was If You Give a Grump A Holiday Wishlist by Ann Einerson. I loved this book as I can never resist a boss/employee story. (In the age of #MeToo, such stories have to be so careful, and Einerson did a great job of juggling the troupe with what is appropriate.) When her boss pressures her into letting him come home with her for the holidays, with the promise of helping her check off all the items on her holiday wishlist, Presley Stafford has no idea how her life is about to change. Before you can say, “Happy Holidays!” Jack Sinclair, the most overbearing boss in the world, tells her whole family that he is her boyfriend, which prompts her mom to put them in her childhood bedroom, sharing a bed.
The banter and the chemistry are just right. One line that really stood out to me was when Presley tries to back out of getting kissed under the mistletoe, the last item unchecked on her holiday wishlist, and Jack persuades her to let him kiss her by saying, “You deserve a magical kiss under the mistletoe, and I’m the one who is going to give it to you.” Sheesh! Those are swooning words! There is not a romantic alive who wouldn’t kill to have someone lay one on them after hearing that.
That was not the only time Jack won the Smooth Talker Award. Later, when he declares his love for Presley, he says, “You have captured my heart piece by piece, weaving your way into my very soul, and before I knew it, you have claimed all of me.” Poor Presley (or any other woman for that matter) didn’t stand a chance, and why would she want to? Any man who is smooth is worth the risk. To say I fell a little in love with Jack would be an understatement! On a side note, I really loved the over-protective big brother aspect of the novel. We should all be so lucky to have big bros like the Stafford brothers. Full disclosure: the second half of the book is spicy, so be prepared for that. The book goes from no kissing or hand-holding to all-out spice really quickly. I liked this book and gave it five stars.
“You have captured my heart piece by piece, weaving your way into my very soul, and before I knew it, you have claimed all of me.”
“You deserve a magical kiss under the mistletoe, and I’m the one who is going to give it to you.”
7. A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh
I love a good brother’s best friend story. Combine that with a forced proximity angle and a couple with history, and I am in. A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh has all that and more. The story focuses on a week-long trip across the country for Lauren and Will, who are going from LA to Chicago to be with their families for the holidays. The banter between the two is spot on. I love how kind and accepting Will is. I also love his spontaneous nature. He helps Lauren loosen up and relax long enough to enjoy the trip.
While the whole story takes place over one week, it feels much longer, given the adventure the characters experience. One of the best lines from the book comes from Will when he asks Lauren, who keeps insisting they skip the sights and just drive straight through to Chicago so they can get there faster, “Do you know how much you’re missing in the moment by always wishing you were somewhere else?” I loved this question because it made me stop and contemplate my own life. It addresses a universal issue that everyone struggles with. It can be really hard to be present and enjoy the moment without wasting a ridiculous amount of energy wishing you were somewhere else, whether that place has to do with our lives, careers, or relationships.
Will wasn’t done making me think. Later, he did it again when he said, “So it’s not what you thought it was going to be – that doesn’t mean it can’t still be something amazing.” Truth! A simple reminder to all of us to not miss the joy in our existence because we are too focused on the pain of not having it all, just the way we think it should be. Life truths in romance books always make me smile!
The road trip and book feel like metaphors for how deep and meaningful relationships develop over time. This is a clean, no-spice read. Walsh does a nice job of taking the reader on the cross-country journey with Lauren and Will. I felt like I saw and visited all the cool and amazing places they did.
“Do you know how much you’re missing in the moment by always wishing you were somewhere else?”
“So it’s not what you thought it was going to be – that doesn’t mean it can’t still be something amazing.”
8. One Foggy Christmas by Kortney Keisel
Without doubt, my favorite from my holiday TBR was One Foggy Christmas by Kortney Keisel. I was sad when I finished it because I was not going to have more time with Nash and Sadie. Nash Carter is my new book boyfriend! I am in love! He is so kind, funny, smart and caring. I fell as hard for this book as Nash fell for Sadie. This book broke my heart. I hurt for Nash and Sadie as they tried to navigate their new reality after an accident took all of Sadie’s memories of Nash and their life together.
As a true romantic, I believe that life is all about making memories because when all is said and done, that is all we are left with. The memories of our life and those we love are the ropes that tether us to our past and guide us to our future. To think you could lose precious memories and find yourself adrift in a world without a past and no clue how to move forward sounds terrifying. Reading Sadie and Nash’s story and experiencing their heartbreak and loss of their life gutted me. I could not help but bleed for Nash. When he told her, “My love for you isn’t a transactional thing. It’s constant. No matter what,” that shot an arrow straight through my heart. Something else that touched me was when he said, “Life moves on when you don’t want it to. I’ve learned that grief and happiness happen at the same time. It doesn’t make sense. It just works – both feelings equally take up space in your mind and heart.” Once again, romance books speak the truth. Life does move on for all of us, regardless of what is happening around us.
It wasn’t all seriousness and big life statements. The banter between Nash and Sadie was funny, quick and on point. This book brought me to tears from laughter and sadness.This was a super clean, no spice book. But, don’t be fooled, Nash and Sadie had great chemistry and Keisel did a great job of letting the reader feel the heat without actually taking us into their intimate moments. I gave this book five stars and highly recommend it.
“My love for you isn’t a transactional thing. It’s constant. No matter what.”
“Life moves on when you don’t want it to. I’ve learned that grief and happiness happen at the same time. It doesn’t make sense. It just works-both feelings equally take up space in your mind and heart.”
9. All By My Elf by Olivia Dade
Sometimes, we need a short audiobook to finish out our #goodreadschallenge, am I right? This is actually a short story, but it was so darn cute I decided to include it in my 12 Books of Christmas. Nina and William are adjunct college professors, which means they are woefully underpaid and need to find a way to supplement their income. To do that, they, along with Nina’s bestie, Claudia, take jobs working in a Mincemeat Mobile, which was actually a repurposed hotdog mobile, selling mincemeat pies in a traveling food truck. Nina has an all-out crush on shy, introverted William, which started the first time she saw him on campus. On Christmas Eve, after dropping Claudia off at her parents’ house for the night, they find themselves stranded in a raging snowstorm.
This short, funny, slightly over-the-top story is a super quick read and a little spicy. The line that stuck with me came after Nina realized William likes her, and she said, “How often in one’s life does a person get exactly what one wants? In her experience, never until now.” I got that. I think we all have wanted things, but life has taught us that what we want often has very little to do with what we get. A laugh out loud book, I enjoyed listening to this story full of over the top innuendos and puns. It would be the perfect little story to listen to on a short car ride home for the holidays or while wrapping gifts. I gave it four stars because, if nothing else, after listening, I felt like I had actually been inside one of those hot dog mobiles, and I have always wanted to see inside one!
“How often in one’s life does a person get exactly what one wants?”
10. Off the Market at Christmas by Chelle Sloan
This super short romance (102 pages) is a quick, feel-good read. Gavin and Presley are childhood friends who meet after twenty years. Gavin and Presley are complete opposites. He is in finance banking. She is a professional cheerleader for the Nashville pro football team. A true nerd and gorgeous girl story! Surprisingly, it was a little spicy. My favorite line was how Gavin described Presley, “Beautiful and fearless. That’s the kind of girl you don’t let get away. That’s the girl you marry….She’s the one you keep. The one you move heaven and earth to be with.”
I enjoyed this cute little meet-cute again. Sometimes, you just need a quick read while sitting on the couch or waiting in an airport terminal while traveling home for the holidays, and this is the ticket! It’s four stars for me and two peppers on the spice rating.
11. This Is Not A Holiday Romance by Camilla Isley
If enemies to lovers is your jam, you are going to love this book. Tristan Montgomery and Nina Thompson hate each other. And with good reason. Tristian and Nina’s brother, Dylan, have been best friends since they played freshman basketball at Duke ten years earlier. Nina and Tristian have hated each other just about as long. Tristan sees Nina as a pesky, messy, irritating kid sister of his best friend. Nina sees Tristian as her life’s mortal enemy and does all she can to make his life as miserable as possible. So when Tristian shows up with Dylan to spend the Christmas holiday, Nina is less than thrilled.
Snowed in and forced to spend time together, at first, the claws come out, and each of them gives as good as they get with a view to ruining the other’s holiday. However, when a broken family heirloom brings them both to their breaking point, they both realize that their passion for destroying each other has turned into a different sort of passion. Before they know it, they sneak around and learn that the line between love and hate is really quite thin.
I loved the banter and the imaginative way they each one-upped each other over and over again. I found myself leaning more toward team Tristian. I loved how he could be vulnerable with Nina while still being self-assured. One of my favorite lines of his was when Nina was questioning what was happening between them and if they had a future, and he responded by saying, “We’re falling, Nina…Falling into something that is real, something that scares the hell out of me, but something that I can’t resist.” Man! What woman could resist that response? The other great line from the book comes from Nina when she gives Tristian an ultimatum and explains what it is going to take for them to have a future. “When you love someone, you don’t leave.” I totally love that line.
Once again, a romance book gets it right. As a person who has been in a committed relationship for almost forty years, I can honestly tell you that is the magic bullet to making a relationship work. That one line gave me a connection to the novel that I would otherwise have never had. I loved this book and walked away from it, a huge Camilla Isley fan. I gave this book five stars!
“When you love someone, you don’t leave.”
12. Fool Me Twice by Camilla Isley
After reading my first Camilla Isley novel, I decided to finish out my deep dive into my Holiday Romance Reading Extravaganza by reading another holiday book by her. I was not disappointed. Fool Me Twice is an adorable little romcom about two graduate students, Kate and Chuck.
Childhood sweethearts who dated for almost ten years return home for the holidays planning on telling their parents about their recent breakup, but their efforts are thwarted at every turn. Instead of making the big breakup announcement, in a crazy set of events, Kate and Chuck find themselves not only engaged to be married over the holidays but all of their family believing they are expecting a baby. One hilarious mishap after another finds Kate and Chuck further down the rabbit hole of lies they have told with no end in sight. The harder they try to come clean and tell everyone they are no longer together, the more entangled they become.
This is a laugh-out-loud little book that, while somewhat unrealistic, made me feel all warm inside. Maybe it is because I married my high school sweetheart, and we, too, had our own version of a break between our first and second engagement, but I really connected with this book. There weren’t a lot of profound emotional moments in the book, but the best was when Chuck explained how they argued. He described it this way. “Kate is very passive-aggressive, Pastor. Whenever something bothers her, she doesn’t outright say it. She gets sulky and makes all these subtle comments, expecting me to divine what she’s mad about. And when I don’t read her mind, she gets even madder on the inside but quieter on the outside. If I ask her what is wrong, she repeats, ‘nothing” a million times, and then a week, a month, a year later, she explodes at me with all the stuff she’s been keeping bottled up.” Wow! If that is not the perfect description of how I, and almost all the other women I know, deal with conflict, I don’t know what is. I really liked this book and gave it five stars!
So, there you have it, twelve amazing books of Christmas just waiting for you to add to your TBR list. I hope you check out these fun, holiday reads and enjoy them as much as I did! Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!
Susan Gooch, author of The Carrington Affairs, A Novel About Dirty Little Secrets, is a lover of romance and history in any form, be it a book, a movie, or in real life. A passionate educator, she has spent over twenty years cultivating a love of reading and writing in children. Married to her high school sweetheart, she is a mother, a Mimi, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and the life of every party she has ever attended. A small town girl who has lived all over the world, she is a true homebody. Her favorite place is at home in her pajamas, curled up with a good book.
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