With Christmas quickly approaching 041BOOKS columnist Lauren Hewitt rounds up some more must-read Christmas trope books!
I had such a great response to my request for Christmas books I had to split my article into two parts, with just over a month to go until Christmas, you’re sure to find a great Christmas trope book.
Jodie Homer
I absolutely love Christmas. I love Christmas music more than any other music and when the shops have all their cards in them with the music playing it’s my favourite time. This all started when I was younger and every year we would go to my Nan’s for Christmas. We’d leave our house on Christmas Eve and my Nan would have a table full of goodies laid out for us all to have and that would be chocolates, nuts just all sorts of things. Christmas morning I would have a huge stocking at the end of my bed full of presents which I bring downstairs and open with the family and then we would have dinner in the backroom. My Nan’s Christmas dinners were always the best.
Later on in the day the rest of the family would come around and I would see cousins and aunties and we would just celebrate us all being together.
A magical Christmas on the Isle of Skye
A village called Christmas
Sophie-Leigh Robbins
I’m a USA Today Bestselling author of feel-good, lighthearted, swoony romances. I love writing Christmas romances because the holidays have such a heartwarming, cosy vibe. It’s the perfect time of the year to curl up with a good book—and meet a new book boyfriend.
Snowflakes and Sparks: https://www.books2read.com/snowflakesandsparks
Snowed in With You: https://www.books2read.com/snowedinwithyou
Georgia Hill
I write warm-hearted romance often set in small towns just like the one I live in on the south coast. Lullbury Bay, where New Beginnings at Christmas Tree Cottage is set, goes all out for Christmas with best decorated beach hut competitions and a German Market, along with traditional carol singing and much, much more. I love Christmas but wanted to write about a character who has good reason to hate it – and how he could learn to love the season again. Thus the lovely but troubled Jago was born. It’s very much a book about new beginnings and finding yourself – and tinsel, cheesy Christmas pop, lashings of mulled wine and mince pies thrown in too!
Buying link geni.us/ChristmasTreeCottage
Rebecca Paulinyi
Book: The Worst Christmas Ever?
Link: mybook.to/worstchristmas
The Worst Christmas Ever? is set in Totnes, a quirky town in the South West of England. I grew up in the area and when driving home to visit family was struck with the idea of a big city lawyer arriving there heartbroken – and finding it the answer to her problems! And, as a big fan of Christmas, it had to be a festive story 🙂
Ella Cook
Summer’s Christmas is the first in my new Broclington (the village’s name) series – where the community come together to save the life of a little girl, by bringing the magic of Christmas firmly into summer. (Though don’t worry, they still have Christmas in December as well!).
What inspired this story/what I love about Christmas:
I’ve always loved Christmas – all the glitz and sparkle (and amazing food!). But more than that, I love the sentiments behind the season: I love that we still adopt the ancient Celtic (Yule) traditions of bringing greenery and light into our homes to light up the darkest parts of the year, of bringing friends and family together, and sharing hope for the coming months. And I love the spirit of Christmas: when we think of others, and people try to be a bit kinder to each other.
To me, it’s the time of year when it’s a bit easier to believe in magic and question – even just for a heartbeat or two – if miracles might really happen. I’m always a bit sad when the decorations come down in January, and sometimes that goodwill seems to melt – so I try to keep that magic of Christmas alive well into the following months. That’s what inspired Summer’s Christmas – the idea of a whole community finding the magic of Christmas in the middle of summer, right when a bit of a miracle is needed.
Hannah Langdon
I started writing Christmas With The Lords to submit to a Penguin Books competition; it was shortlisted for the final stage and although it didn’t win I liked it so much I carried on writing it: I confess that I fell in love with the eccentric Lord family. It was the book that saw me through the pandemic, and became a place of fun and respite for me. It gave me an escape both from working as a teacher at the most difficult time I’ve experienced in my career and from the worldwide horrors unfolding daily. True Christmas magic!
GL Robinson
I’m a British born American. I met my American husband in Europe in the 1970’s and I’ve lived here over 40 years. I’m a retired French professor.
I began writing historical Romances in 2018 when my sister died unexpectedly.. We were in boarding school together (in Bournemouth) when we were young and used to read Georgette Heyer under the covers after lights out. The day after her funeral I woke up with this entire Regency Romance came into my head. I wrote it in two weeks and that was the beginning!
Since then, I’ve published 16 Regencies, 3 contemporaries and 2 children’s books. It just pours out of me!
I love Christmas! When we were at the boarding school, we usually spent the holidays with our grandmother. It was magical to come home and see the tree all lit up in the front parlor. We never went in there except on high days and holidays and it was always cold – but the smell and sight of the tree has remained with me all these years.
It was interesting to see how American traditions differed from the ones I grew up with. They do “hang the stockings by the chimney with care”, which is something we never did. Father Christmas delivered our present in pillow cases at the end of our beds! Presents from family members were hung on the tree. Here, Santa Claus fills the stockings with small things and puts the rest under the tree. They don’t have Christmas pud, mince pies or crackers, and they don’t eat with silly paper hats on their heads! They do have all sorts of cookies. They don’t have Boxing Day. Most people go back to work on 26th December.
I sat down a couple of years ago to write a Christmas Regency, but it came out as a short story. So I kept on going and added four more short stories, then published the lot as The Kissing Ball, a Regency Christmas and Other Short Stories. I am pleased with the way it came out. The stories are each short enough to read in a sitting, and I think that’s good for a time of the year when we’re all so busy we don’t have time to invest in a full-length novel. It will be on Amazon for .99 cents for the month of December.
:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08LDZZ7NX (UK)
or: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LDZZ7NX (US)
I’d love you to check out my website. I’m offering a free short story and there is also the link to a free full-length novel,
https://romancenovelsbyglrobinson.com
I hope this is what you want, and thanks for the opportunity!
Leave a Reply