Book Playlist No. 2: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Book Playlist No. 2: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As you know, we love talking about books. Being able to curate what we think people will enjoy reading is truly a gift. With the holidays quickly approaching, we have been decking the halls, or rather, the shop. From selecting our holiday candles to curating gift bundles, each step has us feeling more festive and more eager to celebrate the season with you. 

We have been intentional about savoring the beauty and calm that is a coastal autumn before ringing in the holiday season. But as the holidays draw near, we thought what better way to introduce the season with a Book Playlist! Books allow us to escape and during the holiday season, escaping into a novel is as festive as it gets.

From Hallmark classics to contemporary romances, our holiday book selection is sure to get you excited for the most wonderful time of year. Keep reading for our holiday books!

A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss

Annie Sharpe’s spark for life has fizzled out. Untethered for the first time in her adult life, she finds a winter guardian position in a historic seaside home and decides to leave her city life behind for a brand-new beginning. But with a little can-do spirit and holiday magic, the most difficult time of her life will become…a season for second chances.

All I Want For Christmas by Maggie Knox

When Sadie and Max are selected as contestants on the famed reality singing show Starmaker, each thinks they’ve finally gotten their big Nashville break. But then they’re paired up for duet week and stun the world with their romantic onstage chemistry. With fans going wild for #Saxie, the network demands that they remain a duo on and offstage, or exit the competition. Faking a relationship until their final performance in the Starmaker holiday special shouldn’t be too hard, except for one small problem—Sadie and Max can’t stand each other. 

Christmas at the Ranch by Anita Hughes

Author, Samantha Morgan, is a devout homebody, whose publishers have built an online profile for her similar to her books' adventurous heroine main character. Days before Christmas, her publisher invites her to a Christmas party in Wyoming. Reluctantly, she agrees to go. While on the plane, she reveals to a stranger her fears about traveling and her faux online persona. She later learns this stranger, Drew, is actually her publisher's son, and she slowly develops feelings for him.  But when Drew’s finance arrives, things get even more complicated. Will she leave this Christmas adventure broken-hearted? Or will true love prevail?

Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle

Bettie Hughes is obsessed with her public image. Despite losing all her money, her social media shows her living a luxurious life. The reality is, she’s broke and squatting, and her family has no idea. With Christmas approaching, Bettie must face the music. But when Bettie plays a vinyl record of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” backward, she accidentally conjures up Hall, the Holiday Spirit, in the form of a charming and handsome man. Suddenly, grumpy Bettie is finding her heart merry and light. But the happier she gets, the shorter Hall’s time on earth grows.  Will she be able to make happiness last, or will she return to her selfish ways?

 

 

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss

A city bookshop owner, Elinor “Nory” heads to the English countryside for a holiday reunion—only to face her childhood enemy. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates’ extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So when two of her oldest friends invite their whole gang to spend the time leading up to their wedding together at the castle near their old school, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the castle’s head gardener, who has nothing but contempt for the “snobby prep school kids,” the attraction between them is undeniable. Nory now must decide what kind of life she wants.   

Once Upon a December Amy E. Reichert

With a name like Astra Noel Snow, holiday spirit isn’t just a seasonal specialty—it’s a way of life. After her divorce, Astra’s yearly trip to the Milwaukee Christmas Markets takes on a whole new meaning. For Jack Klausen, the Julemarked shops always stay the same, while the world outside changes. He’s never minded this until he meets Astra, and she shows him the life he’s been missing. After a series of dates and some holiday magic, Astra and Jack must decide whether this relationship is more than just a holiday fling. 

Season of Love by Helena Greer

Miriam Blum is just starting to get her life in order, when suddenly her beloved great Aunt Cass passes, leaving her part-owner of Carrigan’s, thus forcing her to a very unwanted family reunion. Her plan to get in and out quickly is derailed when she learns Carrigan’s is at risk. In order to turn the business around she’ll have to work with Noelle, the farm’s grumpy manager. The two of them have a connection, and working together to save the farm only brings them closer together. 

 

The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk

Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker is hoping that a family Christmas—countryside, a mountain of food and festive films—will salve the sting of her career hanging by a thread and her heart being trampled on. It seems everyone has their life sorted, even Dev, her boy next door crush with a fiancée. Then Gwen wakes up to discover it’s Christmas Day all over again. Like Groundhog Day but with eggnog. And family arguments. On repeat. As she figures out how to escape her own particular Christmas hell, Dev is the one bright spot. He might be all grown-up but underneath he’s just as kind and funny as she remembers. But how do you fall in love with someone who can’t remember you from one day to the next?

 

The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch

When college sweethearts Frankie and Ezra broke up before graduation, they vowed to never speak to each other again. Ten years later, on the eve of the new millennium, they find themselves back on their snowy, picturesque New England campus together for the first time for the wedding of mutual friends. But when they wake up in bed next to each other the following morning with Ezra’s grandmother’s diamond on Frankie’s finger, they have zero memory of how they got there—or about any of the events that transpired the night before. Now Frankie and Ezra have to put aside old grievances in order to figure out what happened, what didn’t happen…and to ask themselves the most troubling question of all: what if they both got it wrong the first time around?

 

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews

When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it. At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission, brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone. She might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love. 

Wrapped Up in a Christmas Hope by Janice Lynn

Morgan’s late husband was a daredevil…and now she’s a widowed single mom. All she wants now is to set up a stable life for herself and her son in the small town of Pine Hill, Kentucky. Andrew’s a firefighter who thrives on the rush of saving others. Morgan and Andrew are drawn together as they both volunteer to make quilts for veterans at the local quilt shop. Morgan’s son looks up to Andrew, and Morgan can’t help but notice how good Andrew is with him. Meanwhile, Andrew’s torn between his ambition and his growing attraction to Morgan. They both have choices to make about their future…and about each other.

 

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