18 Winter Romance Books to Swoon Over This Season

Ghost of Christmas Past Nolan intends to spend this holiday haunting like every other. But when he’s faced with Harriet, he suddenly finds himself wishing for a future. Harriet has no idea why she’s being haunted. But as she and Nolan begin to examine her past, they discover there are threads that bind them together. Will they find the key to their futures in each other’s pasts? Or will they stay firmly in the present, indulging in their unexpected, spirited connection?

Alix Morgan just got her big break as the ghostwriter of a memoir by a former member of the boy band True North. She was one of the last people to interview former front man Jett Beckett before he disappeared, and fans are desperate to know the full story. But Alix also has time for fun at the luxurious ski resort she is working from, where she begins ski lessons with a handsome instructor named Tyler. As Alix and Tyler fall in love on the slopes, Alix’s work takes a complicated turn—and the mystery of True North’s downfall may be hers to solve.

Atlas “Max” Maxheimer is trying to keep his family’s Christmas tree farm from imploding. Enter Betty: new in town, full of holiday cheer, and helping her uncle open a rival tree farm next door. Max is convinced she’s out to destroy everything Evergreen Farm stands for. Between blizzards, wildly misguided romantic plots, and one stolen ornament with a seriously tragic backstory, this small-town war turns into something far messier―and much more delicious―than either of them expected.

Melanie hasn’t had a good year. Finn, the man she was sure was the love of her life, dumped her. So when he shows up at Mel’s doorstep, her first instinct is to slam the door in his face. But he has a proposal for her: All Mel has to do is come with him on his family Christmas vacation and pretend they’re back together. Mel may hate Finn, but she loves his mom. Mel can pretend to still be in love with Finn for one week, surely. Except as the festivities bring her closer than ever to Finn and his family, Mel starts to lose track of which feelings are fake and which are for real.

All Clara Davenport ever wanted to do is climb the ladder at her family’s toy business—until the company is accused of stealing a design. Clara is tasked with charming the locals of the small town to solve the PR nightmare. Jack Kelly would be happy to never hear the name Davenport ever again. The company that once claimed they wanted to sign him has copied his design. So when Clara prances into town, Jack is determined not to be fooled twice. But Clara begins to realize that beneath Jack’s frosty demeanor lies the key to the town’s heart—and maybe her own.

Nearly a year after Grace and Henry both lost their spouses, the first holiday season approaches. It’s clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they are going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born. When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon—once a tradition for him and his wife—Grace offers to watch some films with him. With each movie, Grace and Henry’s shared grief eases. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them uncertain about their future together.

A sudden break-up has left Henry hopeless right before the holiday season, and wishing for “The Perfect Man.” The next morning, he finds one of his shop’s male mannequins has sprung to life. If he doesn’t experience true love before midnight on New Year’s Eve, he will turn back into a mannequin. But this new man―Aidan―knows nothing about being a human. Henry has one month to teach Aidan how to be a functioning person and the swoony boyfriend that will win over his family. It draws them close together…but can their love ever really be true?

Evelyn has the perfect Hanukkah planned: jam-packed days producing a live-action musical. That is, until an accident on set lands her in the medical bay with her ex-husband, David. It’s been two years since David walked away from Evelyn, and his ex-wife is still the same workaholic. But when Evelyn begins hallucinating “ghosts” tied to her past heartbreaks, he finds himself spending much more time with her than he anticipated. As Evelyn revisits her ghosts of Hanukkah past, she and David both begin to wonder if they can have a Hanukkah future.

In a heart-wrenchingly beautiful tale about love and loss, Always, in December starts off with the heroine Josie, who, every year on Christmas night, leaves a letter to her parents (whom she lost nine years earlier) in the postbox of her childhood home. But this year during her drop-off, she collides with a handsome stranger. Josie feels hopeful about their connection after they spend the entire holiday together, but then Max completely disappears without saying a word. Max and Josie continue to run into each other during the year that follows, but can Josie hope that it’s still fate after what happened?

A trip to Dubai for Diwali sounds dreamy for teenage photographer Nikki, but the boy next door whom she particularly hates, Yash, will also be joining in for the adventure. With encouragement from Nikki’s matchmaking family, she spends her 12-hour flight with Yash getting to know him while they travel from one continent to another. It’s clear from the start that these two teens may be in for a lot more than a shared trip during the Festival of Lights.

How could any romance fan resist a holiday fake dating scenario? B.K. Borison’s Lovelight Farms presents the perfect holiday setting: a Christmas tree farm. Stella Bloom’s farm needs some serious financial rescuing, so she enters a social media contest for a $100,000 cash prize. The only problem? She said she runs it with her boyfriend…you know, the one that doesn’t exist. So when she asks her best friend Luka Peters to step in, the lines become blurred between what is fake and what is real.

If your idea of a holiday romance involves a little (or a lot) of spice, Wreck My Plans is about to be your favorite new Christmas treat. Meadows’ recent release follows the story of Lena, who is reunited with her brother’s best friend during her week home for the holidays. But even in their best effort to try and stay just friends this holiday season, Lena and Gavin can’t help but watch as their best-made plans seem to get, well, wrecked.

This adorable YA Hanukkah romance book follows two teens who are trying to save a Jewish deli in a small Texas town. The only problem? They couldn’t be more different. Hannah Levin is stuck in Rosenberg with her grandmother (and all the family drama that comes with it) after a freak snowstorm. When she meets Noah at the local Jewish deli—one of the only Jewish establishments in the entire town—the two pair up to try and save the deli from closing. Despite her best efforts to ignore it, the joy and magic of Hanukkah may be exactly what Hannah needs.

The Christmas Swap has the makings for a classic holiday rom-com. Margot decides to pose as Ben’s girlfriend for the holidays while the two escape from London to a picture-perfect manor for two weeks. It seems like what all fake-dating rom-com dreams are made of until Margot falls in love with Ben’s sister, Ellie.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… but not for Maelyn Jones. This is the last Christmas Mae will spend at the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born. As she unwillingly leaves, a car crash changes everything. When Mae gasps awake, she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Told in the intimate voices of complex, endearing characters, Five Tuesdays in Winter explores desire, loss, jolting violence, and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A reclusive bookseller begins to feel the discomfort of love again. Two college roommates have a devastating middle-aged reunion. A proud old man rages powerlessly in his granddaughter’s hospital room. Romantic, hopeful, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, this wide-ranging collection is the perfect sad girl romance compilation.

Through a bus window one snowy December day, Laurie sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him until they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend, Sarah, giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. What follows is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered.

Bowen Penhallow has always been a loner, studying dark and ancient magic on a mountaintop. But when his friend asks him to attend a Yuletide wedding, Bowen reluctantly agrees. Tamsyn Bligh is not a witch, but she makes her living off of them as a procurer and seller of magical items. She’s finagled an invite to the Witchy Wedding of the Century, but Tamsyn isn’t the only one sneaking about in Tywyll House. A spell transports Bowen and Tamsyn into Tywyll House’s past, to the Yuletide Celebration of 1958. As they work together to get back to the present, they must face off with the origins of Tywyll House’s haunting, the suspicions of their fellow witches… oh, and the fact that they might be falling in love.

Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. Her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby’s been charged with planning their Hanukkah festival. Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help and discovers her answer: Seth. If Abby can survive his irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the festival vendors she needs. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.