December 2025 Book Round-up
In which I realize just how few holiday books I actually read...
While you’d think December would be a low month for reading with all of the parties and end-of-year events, it would up being one of my biggest months. I read a total of 16 books/novellas and actually read some as something other than audiobooks. Imagine that!
Holiday Books
To start us off, the four holiday books I enjoyed the most, all of which I rated at 4.25 stars. I’ve shared before that Chloe Liese is a favorite author so I had to check out her holiday novella (a Kobo original). Both The Matzah Ball and Catered All the Way were random finds I found on Kobo while A Holly Jolly Diwali was a recommendation from a friend at work.
The Mistletoe Motive follows a pair that are co-managers at a small town bookstore, trying to save it from closing by challenging each other to a sales contest in December. Yes, they have corny names that describe their personalities but I promise it’s worth getting past that. This has heart mixed with spice, just as you’d expect from Chloe.
The Matzah Ball is a bit corny but in a good way. The FMC, a Jewish woman who writes Christmas romance novels, is trying to avoid her parents setting her up with the MMC who has been been a family friend (and former crush) for years. When her publisher tells her they want her to write a Hanukkah romance, she decides this means she MUST attend the very fancy Matzah Ball being thrown in the city..which, of course, has the MMC as its organizer. Great introduction to the traditions associated with the holiday plus some random hijinks (like when she winds up rolling down a ramp in a matzah ball costume).
Catered All the Way has two long-time best friends working together over the holiday rush at the first MMC’s family catering business. Through those six weeks away from his job in the Navy, the second MMC finds himself considering actually settling down in one place. Sassy grandmother types, quirky small town inhabitants, and more fill the pages that certainly have some spice thrown in.
A Holly Jolly Diwali has our two main characters - an Indian-American woman and a Indian-British man - become friends right as the FMC has lost her very stable data scientist manager job and the MMC’s band has broken up, neither of which are known to their parents and only some of their friends. When she attends a friend’s wedding in Mumbi, she finally meets the cousin her friend is super close to.
Next, the four star reads. Lovelight Farms was a recommendation for both the specific book but also the author, an absolute favorite of a mostly-romance-reader friend form dance class. Grump Hard was another of my random Kobo finds.
Lovelight Farms follows the FMC character, the owner of a small Christmas tree farm that’s struggling, and her best friend ever (MMC) who doesn’t realize she’s had a crush on him since they first met. She lied to a big influencer that she runs the farm with her boyfriend and convinces him to step into the role for the two weeks the influencer is visiting. Yes, all is eventually revelaed from the hidden feelings to her lie about who runs the place. Loved the found famliy in this with her small work crew and those in the town and how everything resolves. I would have given this more stars but it dragged in a few places; maybe I wouldn’t have been so bothered by the pace except the rush-rush-rush of the holidays.
Grump Hard is your classic grump/sunshine, a Very Serious executive is forced to spend time helping a small town girl with all of the holiday festivities across the town. I don’t think actually ever says “Bah, Humbug!” but he definitely thinks it a few times. This gave me Billionaire visits Stars Hollow vibes though the guy is a bit more likable than most found Logan in Gilmore Girls. Great for the cliches of small town life they barely don’t take too far with a little spice thrown in.
Finally, my 3.75 star reads. You’re a Mean One Matthew Prince was recommended by lots of folks and Mall I Want - more novella than novel - was a Kobo find.
You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince sees one MMC being sent to live with his grandparents in their small Upstate NY town to outweigh a scandal - he bough an island on a whim. Turns out, his grandparents are hosting one of his grandfather’s literary Masters students who may be a slob who can’t dress himself, even if he is an amazing student. Lots of “you’re so NYC” and “you’re so small town” moments for me to give it more stars, though there’s certainly some wonderfully sweet moments in there, showing love is all it takes to be a family.
Mall I Want for Christmas features the Hot Mall Santa and the Lady from The Pretzel Stand - who also has a little boy - flirting and falling in love. Most stars lost here because their romance is rather improbable but still gets the nearly four-star rating because I love me a single parent romance.
Non-Holiday Reads
The first four books were ones I’d found before December and decided to read between the various holiday books when I needed a palate cleanser.
Wolf Gone Wild and Don’t Hex and Drive take place in the same town where there’s magic and all types of magical beings - vampires, grims, werewolves, magicians, and more. Wolf Gone Wild find a female magician trying hard not to fall for the werewolf that shows up in town one day for her and her sisters to break the curse that’s kept him from transforming into his wolf form for months. Don’t Hex and Drive has another of the sisters, also a witch, fall for the guy who literally hits her with his car on his first day in town to visit a friend (she’s fine but her bicycle isn’t). These novels were very cute and spicy but I found them to be repetitive 2.5 books in so gave up on the series at that point. That said, I’d certainly consider getting back to them later. Both were 4.25 stars.
I finally managed to get Scythe & Sparrow, the last book in the Ruinous Love Triology, from Last.FM using my monthly credit, way too impatient to wait for the library to have a copy. (Of course, I forgot that I had put the physical book on hold and it came in literally the day I finished reading it.) Like the other books, this was 4.5 stars for excitement and spice and so many laugh out loud moments. I’m hoping to read the author’s other books soon.
Marshmallow Mountain by AJ Truman and MA Wardell, the second author entirely new to me, features two fat MMC who have to go to their remote mountain cabin to clean it out for sale, having broken up years before. Then the snow starts and doesn’t stop, stranding them there. They’re forced to talk through why they broke up and try to figure out if the one - a stand-up comedian - can stay serious long enough to repair things. 4.25 stars.
Oh, hockey MM romances. I’ve tried a couple before but I blame the Heated Rivalry show entirely for my jump back into them. While Trade Deadline was a rather “meh” at 3.5 stars, I really enjoyed the first three books in Rachel Reid’s Game Changer Series. Game Changer, Heated Rivalry, and Tough Guy each feature a different couple falling in love. Game Changer involves a closeted professional hockey player and a historian-turned-food service employee, Heated Rivalry two professional ice hockey players from Canada and Russian, and Tough Guy a professional hockey player known for being an enforcer and a violin player who makes what sounds like really fun, modern music with his violin and lots of specialized equipment. The Reid series gets a 4.25 star rating from me, though I’ve yet to get back to it to read books 4 through 6.
