I can’t believe we only have 4 days left in 2025. I have so many books left on my TBR that I wanted to get to this year, and it’s clearly not going to happen. I had intentions of getting through a few holiday romances, but only read 2 of them. And I’m also 7 books behind on my BOTM picks for this year. Oh well, I have a few more days, and will probably get 2-3 books done in that time (to make sure I hit an even 100 books for the whole year.

NetGalley was so kind to me this year, sending me several holiday books: The Holiday Mixtape by Liberty Stowe, He Knows When You’re Awake by Alta Hensley, The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah by Jean Metzler, The Cuffing Game by Lyla Lee, My Favorite Holidate by Lauren Blakely and Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman. I’ve only read the last two of those, and kind of don’t want to read the others at all right now.

My mistake was reading My Favorite Holidate first, because it was an almost 500 page chonk. It was cute, and I enjoyed it mostly. If you like holiday romances where he falls first, where he is almost too “perfect”, where there is fake dating, only 1 bed, a single dad billionaire, a FMC who is bright, bubbly, and fun, and lots of on-page spicy times, then you’ll probably love this book. Summary: Fable is a Marketing person at Wilder’s company, and Wilder is a billionaire who has sworn off romance. However his aunt won’t stop wanting to set him up with people, and Fable’s sister is getting married to Wilder’s best friend, so the only logical thing to do is a fake a romance, also so they can get back at Fable’s ex-boyfriend, who is a loser cheater and the cousin to the groom. Sounds complicated and messy? Yup. Does it somehow all work? For the most part. Overall I liked this book – the holiday vibes were on point, the attraction between Fable and Wilder is done well, and the holiday competition is cute. There is a lot of insta-attraction and also I felt like they were denying themselves too much at times. Or in denial. Also, this is a LOOOOONG book. I think it would have been just as good, if not better, if it were maybe 100 pages shorter. But there’s a lot in here, and the characters are fun so, whatever. 3.5 rounded down to 3.

Immediately after that, I started Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman. And this may be one of my favorite books of the whole year. This book somehow is able to be lighthearted, cozy, humorous, and sweet while dealing with the real, deep, complex grief of losing spouses to death. Grace is a newly single mother to Ian and Bella. Her husband Tim recently passed away from Cancer. Henry is a new widower – his wife Bella died tragically in a freak plane crash. Neither of them are doing super great. And it’s the holidays. So of course their mothers meddle to introduce them, and then, they help each other. I like so much about this book – main characters who are age-appropriately established in careers, who are intelligent, have good senses of humor, are clearly grappling with grief, and are just trying to get through it all. I like how Henry and Grace end up becoming friends who truly support each other. I like how organically their friendship develops. I also enjoy all the holiday movies sprinkled throughout – it made me want to have my own holiday movie marathon. Also dual POV with short chapters makes this book effortless to read. I appreciate Matthew Norman’s writing style, and how he wrote a well developed and complex female character (not an easy feat). I also like how both Henry and Grace are kind of the last ones to realize they have a good friendship going. It is one of those slow burns that they wake up one morning and realize — oh — it’s you, isn’t it? If you want something that has holiday vibes but isn’t saccharine sweet, definitely check out Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon.

Sorry for the long time between posts too – I had all of these intentions to do some book tag posts too (which maybe I still will), but I want to get a couple more books finished before the New Year. Have you read any good holiday books this year? Any I should add to my never-ending TBR?