What if the Ghost of Christmas Past . . . was hot?

★ Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon

In Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon, Matthew Norman pens a poignant tale of a pair in search of the holiday spirit. The titular characters have both suffered the recent loss of their spouses when their well-meaning moms initiate an awkward meet. Despite acknowledging that they’re not ready for romance, they do find a friendship that sustains them in the months leading up to Christmas as they watch and amusingly critique various holiday movies. Grace, with her wit and courage, and Henry, with his sensitive steadfastness, are lovely for and with each other, but even as time passes, they find it hard to risk their hearts again. Norman writes his Baltimore setting with such detail that it’s a character in its own right and adds an entertaining supporting cast, including Grace’s kids, a rescue dog and rescue mice, too. This book will break readers’ hearts and put them back together again.

My Favorite Holidate

An idyllic Christmas town, a jewelry designer on the rebound, a wedding in the works and a billionaire boyfriend. Make that a billionaire fake boyfriend, and a romance doesn’t get any more stuffed with holiday wishes than My Favorite Holidate by Lauren Blakely. On Thanksgiving, at the home of her sexy, super-successful boss, Fable Calloway discovers her boyfriend hooking up with someone else. With her pride stung and her shaky trust dealt yet another blow, Fable wants to retreat, but her beloved sister has just announced her Christmas wedding, and Fable wants to make it perfect. An authentic, amazing plus-one will do the trick—perhaps Fable’s boss, Wilder Blaine, the best man to her maid of honor. Once Wilder learns about Fable’s cheating ex, he’s all in to fake a real romance. Fable deserves to learn how a good man treats a woman, and he’s always had a thing for her anyway. During the charming wedding and holiday events that follow, Wilder proves himself to be the best ever . . . in bed and out. There’s family and baggage to be sorted, but this appealing story is clearly full speed ahead on the Happily Ever After train. 

A Little Holiday Fling

Toronto at Christmas sparkles in A Little Holiday Fling by Farah Heron. Luxury retail worker and secular holiday superfan Ruby Dhanji revels in the season, although most of her fellow Muslims don’t understand her joy. The man she recently met-cute, handsome dermatologist Rashid Hakim, seems downright annoyed by her enthusiasm. However, they’re thrown together again via mutual acquaintances, and when Ruby learns Rashid’s family are U.K. hoteliers, she offers a deal. She’ll participate in merriment around the city with him and his adorable twin nieces, and he’ll help her fulfill her long-held dream of entering the hotel business when she transplants to London in the new year. Rashid learns to appreciate the season and Ruby, but she’s still moving out of his life, right? Rashid’s relatives and Ruby’s energetic friend group add to the fun in this pleasing romance that includes recipes, too.

Christmas at the Ranch

Readers who fondly recall the one who got away will fall hard for Julia McKay’s Christmas at the Ranch, a swoony, snowy second-chance romance. When a family scandal upends her world, freelance journalist and city girl Emory Oakes does a runner to the quaint town of Evergreen and Wilder Ranch, where she had a teen romance 10 years before. Thankfully, her first love, Tate Wilder, is temporarily absent. Emory gets ready to run again, but fate steps in, and she’s forced to encounter the man and then the obstacles that came between them. Their previous relationship unspools through sentimental memories and ardent diary entries, even as present-day Emory and Tate reconnect and their undeniable feelings draw them close again. Told strictly from Emory’s point of view, the story keeps Tate’s heart and mind somewhat mysterious until he opens both in time for the holiday ending that resolves all in warm, Christmas-movie style.

Good Spirits

For Harriet York, the Christmas season includes a haunting in Good Spirits by B.K. Borison. The handsome entity suddenly at Harriet’s side identifies himself as Nolan Callahan, the Ghost of Christmas Past from the Department of Hauntings and Spirits, here to help her mend her ways. Of course she has her doubts, but then Nolan whisks her away to a moment in her childhood. However, neither that moment nor any after point to how Harriet must change; instead, they just illuminate her loneliness. Then it’s Nolan’s past life that is revealed, that of a solitary Irish fisherman in the early 1900s. What can this all mean? Despite their confusion, the pair is drawn to each other and end up making fiery love, sure they only have until Christmas Eve to indulge. Exactly why and how the Happily Ever After is reached might be hazy, but readers will accept that in this whimsical A Christmas Carol and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir mashup, anything is possible. The story ends with a Grim Reaper on the lam, so stay tuned for more paranormal shenanigans in Borison’s Ghosted series.