8 Holiday Romance Books to Read if You Love Hallmark Christmas Movies

I’ll Be Gone for Christmas by Georgia K. Boone

Avon

Sometimes, finding yourself requires a change of scenery. That’s certainly true for Bee Tyler, who decides to use a house-swapping app to flee San Francisco’s tech scene for the rural charms of Salem, Ohio, a few weeks before Christmas. Bee’s house-swapping counterpart, Clover Mills, is coping with the death of her mother and a broken engagement and can’t wait to trade her too-small-for-comfort town for the big city. As December goes by, Bee embraces cozy cottage life and ends up increasingly close to Clover’s ex-fiancé, Knox. Meanwhile, Clover navigates urban living and unexpected feelings as she crosses paths with Bee’s twin sister, Beth. Based in part on the author’s own coming-out experience, this imaginative double-romance debut is sure to delight readers and fans of classic holiday house-swap film The Holiday in particular. (2024)

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

Like any Hallmark romance worth its weight in eggnog, this romantic novel by Mary Kay Andrews has a festive setting (New York City in December), a fish-out-of-water element, a punny title and even a cute dog. Kerry Tolliver leaves behind her family’s North Carolina tree farm to help out her older brother, who sells Christmas trees out of a tiny vintage camper on a street corner in Greenwich Village. Once there, she quickly becomes entwined with her new neighbors and, of course, sparks up a friendship (or maybe more?) with a single dad who lives on the block with his young son. A former newspaper reporter, Mary Kay Andrews is the best-selling author of 30 novels and a cookbook. (2023)

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

G.P. Putnam's Sons

This zany rom-com was cowritten by two Canadian authors, whose story focuses on two strangers, Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson. They meet when they sit next to each other on a flight to Toronto, as Maryam heads to her sister’s last-minute wedding and Anna travels to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family. Scary turbulence makes them confess their deepest secrets to each other, which sounds safe since they’ll never see each other again — until they find themselves staying at the same snowbound inn after an emergency landing. Befitting a multicultural city like Toronto, where these characters reside, the book incorporates Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan into the story, along with a sprawling cast of characters and a healthy dose of chaos. (2023)

The Twelve Months of Christmas by Sheila Roberts

MIRA

With approximately 50 books to her name (including a historic series set during the British Regency period), Sheila Roberts has written more than a dozen holiday-set romances, including a trio that have been adapted into movies for Hallmark, Lifetime, and Great American Family. This tale follows three women who are all having their own version of a Blue Christmas: Newlywed Sunny doesn’t get along with her stepchildren; recently divorced Arianna has to send her daughter off to spend Christmas with her ex; and Molly is tired of her job at the post office. Their solution? Redo the holiday every month throughout the following year. And if you like this one, check out the author’s most recent holiday romp, 2024’s The Merry Matchmaker, based on Jane Austen’s Emma. (2023)

A Heartfelt Christmas Promise by Nancy Naigle

St. Martin's Griffin

Vanessa Larkin was hoping to turn her business trip to Paris into a working vacation, but, instead, her company sends her to Fraser Hills, North Carolina — home of the best fruitcake in the U.S. Unfortunately, she’s not here to spread holiday cheer but to shut down the fruitcake factory and turn it into warehouse space. Widower Mike Marshall’s grandfather founded the factory but sold it to a large Chicago corporation years earlier. Even though Mike was never involved with the business, he wants to preserve one of the last pieces of the town’s legacy for future generations, including his 16-year-old daughter. As he shows Vanessa around and she engages in the holiday festivities, she begins to wonder if she can give her new friends a Christmas miracle. There’s also a bonus romance in this one, between Vanessa’s recently retired second cousin, Anna, and Mike’s grandfather Buck. (2020)

The Gift of Family by Mary Monroe

Dafina

Middle-aged couple Eugene and Rosemary Johnson seemingly have it all, but they’re still holding out hope for the one thing they want most: a child. They’ve fostered teenagers twice, only to have them return to their birth families. Then Rosemary is told she’ll need a complete hysterectomy, and they feel their dreams slipping out of their hands. When Eugene reaches out to Ethel, the woman who took care of him and his brother as children, to help Rosemary recuperate from her surgery, he has no idea how it will change their holiday plans — and their lives. Ethel is a widow in her 60s who’s struggling to raise her three great-grandchildren, and it isn’t long before the two families start depending on each other more and more. This sweet holiday tale navigates complex real-world issues while tugging at your heartstrings in all the right places. (2020)

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Dec. 2, 2020. It has been updated with new books.