The Silly Stuff: 7 Very Silly Christmas Books I Enjoyed this Holiday Season
I don’t usually read holiday books. Last year, I wanted to read something fun and light-hearted during the holiday season, and I asked a friend of mine if she would choose a cozy mystery for us to read together, as she is a quiet devotee of the genre. Together we read A Cup of Holiday Fear, a Nancy Drew-esque mystery centering on a bakeshop at Christmastime. It was ridiculous. It was wonderful.
I so enjoyed reading that book last year that I decided I should read more than a few holiday books this Christmas season. I generally read a lot of nonfiction (there’s just so much I want to learn!), but I have grown so weary of ingesting information that I spent November and December reading only silly, easy, romantic novels centering on Christmas.
Four out of the seven books I read are by one Richard Paul Evans. His writing style reminds me a lot of Nicholas Sparks; he writes cleanly, plainly, and to the point. Most of his books are romances, full of Christmas fantasy and frivolity. Lots of his books get turned into Hallmark movies, if that tells you anything. His books were exactly what I needed to pull me out of my reading slump. Enjoy!
The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans - Two strangers sign a contract to spend the holiday season together as a pretend couple. The guy is super rich and sends her lots of presents and takes her to great parties. But they both have secrets! Will they fall in love for real?!
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan - A broke young woman takes on the task of revamping an old bookshop before the end of the year. A famous author and a lowly professor are both into her- but who will she choose?!
The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans - A wannabe romance writer goes to a writer’s conference at the Mistletoe Inn at Christmas time. She meets a cool dude who helps her with her novel and also whisks her away to New York at Christmas. But is he who he says he is?!
Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella - A woman with a knack for shopping and getting into trouble volunteers to host her family Christmas. She has shopping and cooking and wrapping and decorating to do! But will she get it all done in time?!
This was definitely my favorite of the bunch. I might read the entire Shopaholic series.
The Mistletoe Secret by Richard Paul Evans - A lonely man falls in love with a sad blogger he discovers online. He flies across the country to track her down at Christmastime, only to fall in love with someone else. Will he find the woman of his dreams?!
This was probably my least favorite of the Richard Paul Evans books. It was kind of sexist and had a focus on the female characters’ looks that I found strange and even a little distracting.
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery - A woman’s quiet Christmas with her much younger boyfriend goes sour when their entire families descend upon them. There are accidents! Mistakes! But will love prevail?!
A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans - a true-ish story from the life of the author, this is the only book I read that wasn’t a romance. In this story, a young boy reeling from the loss of his brother and the divorce of his parents, develops an unlikely friendship with the old man who lives next door. This one was very touching.
And there you have it! 7 easy reads for the holiday season. It has been a very silly Christmas season indeed.