Hey, there! Holiday romance lover. Be sure to check out this year’s list of the 15 best Christmas romance books for 2019.
I absolutely love the Christmas season and find it the most romantic time of the year. Forget Valentine’s Day! Maybe it’s the themes of kindness and cheer, of homecoming and the second chances it brings, or the mischief matchmaker of mistletoe, but give me a Christmas romance novel and I’ll binge read it on a cozy afternoon. Who wouldn’t want to steal a kiss in the snow?
Fortunately, there are more holiday romance books being published than ever, enough to warrant a brand new post about the best Christmas romance novels to read this year. My last post on this a few years ago of the best Christmas-themed chick lit and women’s fiction found an audience in readers who, like me, craved Christmas love stories. Here are 10 more Christmas romance books to add to your TBR in 2018. Grab a blanket, some cocoa, and snuggle in for epic love, second chances, small-town charm, and sweeping passion!
1: Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan (2018)
British author Jenny Colgan is one of my favorite authors period, and I’m so glad her work is being published here in the US so it’s easier to find. You’ve probably seen her novels by now, or will soon. Christmas on the Island is a nice place to start. This standalone novel is set in the picturesque, secluded, and windswept Scottish island of Mure. It’s here that Flora seeks refuge back home while she tries to sort out an unexpected pregnancy and where it leaves her with Joel, her ex-boss and the father of the baby. Meanwhile, Saif, a Syrian refugee and doctor, has been relocated with his sons on Mure but finds it hard to relax knowing that his wife is still missing. With a winter storm bearing down on the island, will this cozy community be the safe harbor for new and old love to unite? This holiday romance novel would make even the Grinch’s heart beat with hope.
Add Christmas on the Island to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
2: One Day in December by Josie Silver (2018)
I can’t wait to read this contemporary holiday romance that has shades of One Day, The Light We Lost, and The Versions of Us, and apparently I’m not alone as the novel is already an international bestseller. One December, Laurie falls in love at first sight with a handsome man she sees through a misty window on a London bus. Convinced he’s the one, Laurie tries to track him down throughout the bus stops of London only to be reunited with him again at a holiday party. Turns out he’s her best friend’s new boyfriend, Jack. Over ten years of friendship, Laurie and Jack find themselves coming close to becoming a couple only to have fate thwart thitngs yet again. Will it be any different this year? You’ll race through the pages to find out.
Add One Day in December to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
3: Exmas by Winter Renshaw (2018)
Winter Renshaw’s contemporary holiday romance had me at the tagline: This Christmas, I’ll be getting a visit from a man in a suit, only it won’t be Santa. A second-chance romance between two former coworker friends with benefits, Exmas is a sweet, fun love story to warm you up on the chillier days. Rather than work for Reed York, an arrogant alpha who was dynamite between the sheets, Joa Jolivet transferred to the company’s Chicago branch 2,014 miles away. When Reed visits the office the week between Christmas and New Year’s, he appoints Joa his personal assistant. Can the two lovers get over the wedge that drove them apart? With a little help from the holidays, they might finally close the distance between them.
Add Exmas to Goodreads and purchase on Amazon. (No library record in WorldCat for this one.)
4: Carols and Chaos by Cindy Antsey (2018)
For YA fans, try Cindy Antsey’s adorable Carols and Chaos. If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey like me, add this regency holiday romance to your list of books to read for Downton Abbey withdrawal. Set in 1817 on the Shackleford Park countryside estate, Carols and Chaos tells the story of a burgeoning romance between a lady’s maid and a valet who have long been pining for each other. This Yuletide season, it’ll be hard to resist their attraction any longer, but will it survive a counterfeiting scandal whose intrigue sweeps through the house? One thing I love about this novel is its setting in 1817 before Christmas is what, well, it is today. Antsey does a great job of transporting you back in time to “Yuletide” and the emerging holiday traditions—like mistletoe—that make this season so romantic.
Add Carols and Chaos to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
5: How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology by Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, and Joanna Shupe (2018)
It’s the year of the duke! So many great books with duke titles were released this year (Alyssa Cole’s Duke by Default and Kerrigan Byrne’s The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo), with two (The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham and The Duke Who Ravished Me by Diana Quincy) making The Washington Post‘s 5 Best Romances of 2018. This Christmas, if you’ve got duke fever, cool your heels with How the Dukes Stole Christmas, an anthology of short historical holiday romance stories by an all-star lineup of the best authors today: Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, and Joanna Shupe. Though each of these stories are in a different setting and different era (Regency, Scottish highlander, Gilded Age New York, etc.), they are all tied together with a recurring theme of magical shortbread and duke characters. This collection is filled with dreamy, steamy fiction in easily digestible stories you can devour in a single day or spread over the season.
Add How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
6: Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis (2018)
Jill Shalvis is one of the queens of contemporary romance, and Hot Winter Nights has her operating at peak powers. In this festive romance novel packed with zingy dialogue and sizzling sensuality, investigator Molly Malone is ready to be a little naughty this Christmas. A holiday hookup with wicked Lucas Knight should be just the thing, especially as her first case is looking into how he got shot on the job. But is Lucas really telling the truth when he says he can’t remember their night together? Keeping the lid on this forbidden romance so Molly’s overprotective brother doesn’t find out will be tough when this undeniable spark is so unforgettable…
Add Hot Winter Nights to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
7: A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews (2018)
True fact: I was a Victorian fiction nerd in college. I did a concentration on 18th and 19th century British fiction in my English major just so I could read as much of it as possible. So I was so excited to see A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews, a Victorian specialist who weaves her passion for the gaslight era into toe-curling romance. A Holiday by Gaslight is an excellent place to jump in on the fun. This novella features a “last chance romance,” which in my opinion is an overlooked trope. In Holiday by Gaslight, Sophie Appersett is determine to save her family, even if it means marrying outside her social class to the icy, grim, and totally stoic Mr. Edward Sharpe. But after several months of being shut out of Mr. Sharpe’s heart, Sophie’s had enough. She invites him to spend Christmas together, hoping that this last chance to woo her will win her over before ruin.
Add A Holiday by Gaslight to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
8: First Flurries by Joanne DeMaio (2018)
This comfy Christmas story from New York Times bestselling author Joanne DeMaio is small-town romance at its best. Lindsey Haynes follows her beloved father’s advice to ask a snow globe : “Unsure where to go? Give a little shake… and your heart will always know.” And her heart leads her to Addison, a quaint New England town where she starts her life over. A chance encounter with steamy doctor Greg Davis shakes up Linsey’s reluctance to date. With the quirky and endearing townspeople rooting for the couple and the sparkling snowy streets making the perfect backdrop to love, can the pair resist a romance that feels like the real thing?
Add First Flurries to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
9: Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel by Karen King (2018)
Another British holiday romance novel set seaside, this time in picturesque Cornwall, Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel is maximum cozy. Saffron Baxter’s chance for a normal Christmas is cancelled when her sister calls in a panic. Since she’s held up abroad and can’t make it back home to Cornwall, can Saffron (“Saffy”) matnage the single parents holiday dinner her sister always puts on? Saffy agrees, and finds an unexpected attraction spring up with the hot single dad next door. But no matter how amazing the romance feels, it’s not in Saffy’s plans. As Christmas approaches, Saffy will have to decide: take a chance on love, or let this fire die out with the New Year?
Add Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
10: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz (2017)
I’m a big fan of Jane Austen retellings, especially my favorite Austen, Pride and Prejudice. In Melissa de la Cruz’s gender-swapping contemporary version, the romance that blossoms between Darcy Fitzwilliam, a 29-year-old hyper-successful woman with a nonstop power dating schedule who’s moved on from to the big city from her childhood in quiet Pemberley, Ohio. Reluctantly, this year she’s coming home for Christmas to help take care of her sick mother. That puts her squarely in line with 32-year-old sexy carpenter Luke Bennet, the obnoxiously, undeniably, hopelessly attractive guy who never left town. It’ll never work between these two, whose personalities clash like oil and water, but will an impulsive one-night stand melt the ice between them? This charming and witty holiday romance novel is a quick hit at 240 breathless pages and is being adapted into a Hallmark movie.
Add Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe to Goodreads, purchase on Amazon, and find in your library through WorldCat.
