‘Tis the season for warm-and-fuzzy reading!
My tree is up, my wildlings are sufficiently excited by the multiplying boxes with bows appearing beneath it, and I’ve begun to wish I could spend my days drinking hot cocoa by the fire. (Or wine. Wine would work.) Instead of, you know, working and stuff like that.
In the world of romance, it’s the time of year when lots of authors put out special holiday-themed books, and those of us who partake in this publishing tradition also tend to find ourselves captive in front of at least one Hallmark-style holiday movie.
Before you roll your eyes and mutter “cheesy” under your breath, take just a second to think about the reasons so many of us are drawn to these portrayals of the season, most of which have very happy — and, yes, cheesy — endings.
Though the lucky among us get to spend the holidays with those we love, I certainly don’t need to remind anyone that there are plenty who aren’t so fortunate. Maybe our people are far away (raise your hands, fellow military families!), or maybe we’ve outlived our loved ones.
Maybe the holidays are more bittersweet than joyous, reminding us of those we miss.
While lots of us are racing around getting one more gift, there are surely those who have no one to give anything to, and who don’t expect gifts themselves. There are those for whom the holidays are just a couple more regular days — except for the annoyance of shops being closed and strangers being overly merry.
The holiday romances we write and see on television are for everyone. But maybe they’re especially for those who don’t get the perfect holiday in real life. Maybe they’re especially for those who want to escape for a bit, feel a little holiday joy by living vicariously through a story with a happier ending than their own.
It’s for those folks that I offer a little list of great holiday reads worth looking for — based on no one’s rating system but my own! (And there’s one bit of shameless self-promotion in the list, as my new sweet romance pen name released a Christmas book last month.)
My Holiday Reads:
- Love Sparks at Christmas by D.L. Stewart (Amazon Digital Services).
- It Started with Christmas by Jenny Hale (Bookouture).
- The Corner of Holly and Ivy by Debbie Mason (Forever).
- One Day in December by Josie Silver (Broadway Books).
- A Will and a Way by Nora Roberts (Silhouette).
