Willow in Winter

It’s that time of the year again! The time when every book recommendation list is all about Christmas-themed novels. Which I usually ignore because I don’t like this holiday. But I’ve spent this year reading thrillers and supernatural fiction, so I thought maybe this December could be a month for romantic winter books set during Christmas.

So after spending too much time going through Goodreads lists for winter, I finally updated my reading list for the month. So scroll down to see my Christmas books for December!

Christmas books 2020

Minnie and Quinn meet at an NYE party, and they discover they were born in the same place at the same time on New Year’s Eve. From that connection, they start a new friendship throughout the year. They’ll discover that they have way more in common than just their birthday.

I read this book in three days because it was genuinely good. I had zero expectations, but it’s set in London. A lot of scenes happen in Camden Town, Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill, which were my favourite places in London, and I used to visit them all the time when I lived there five years ago. Reading This Time Next Year was like being there again. Weirdly, this book turned out to be one of my favourites of this year.

Kate is a 34-year-old designer living in a little town in England. She hasn’t been on a date for years until her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help people find love before Christmas. Kate gets to go on twelve dates with twelve different men in hopes of finding “the one”.

I started reading this book last week, and it’s been hard to finish. The ending is super predictable like it usually happens with romance novels. Still, I liked the story and the characters, but sometimes it was a bit too boring.

Dannie gets engaged to her current boyfriend and goes to sleep thinking she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s in a new apartment, engaged to a different man. And she’s no longer living in 2020, it’s five years in the future, in 2025.

This is the only book from this post that I haven’t read yet, but I’m starting it soon. I’m looking forward to reading a book that it’s set post-2020, as proof that this awful year will eventually end.

This is the YA version of Anna Karenina, which is all I needed to know before I bought this book. Anna K is seventeen and part of the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society. The book follows her up and downs and relationships with her wealthy family and friends.

Not a Christmas book, but the story is set during a cold winter in Manhattan, so I think it still counts. I loved the similarities with Anna Karenina and seeing all these characters reimagined as American teenagers in 2019.

Classic Christmas books

Other Christmas books worth mentioning are Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares which Netflix turned into a show for some reason, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I actually prefer the Dash from the series than the angry teenager from the book. Let it Snow, a Christmas classic that Netflix also turned into a show, which came out last year and I can’t remember if I liked it or not. And of course, the Christmas book of them all My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories. A collection of twelve Christmas stories written by different YA writers which last time I checked, Netflix hadn’t turned into a show, yet.

It’s hard to read happy-feely books sometimes, which is what most of the books on this list are. I usually prefer thrillers that will keep you awake all night, because that’s all the excitement I get in my life, at least during the lockdown.