Do you love matching the books you read to the current season? Then do we have the list for you! Check out these six books that have the best holiday, wintery, and romantic vibes that are perfect for this time of year.
Content Warning: The Honey POP encourages mindful reading and checking the author’s website for content warnings.
Hey, honey! Just so you know, there are some links in this article which we may earn money from if you make a purchase using them. It’s at no extra cost to you and helps us as an independent publication massively. Thanks for supporting The Honey POP!
Love In Winter Wonderland By Abiola Bello
What’s better than the holidays? Holidays in a bookstore of course! Love in Winter Wonderland is set in a London Black-owned bookshop that is at risk of closing down. Trey is determined to save his family’s store at any cost, even if it means teaming up with Ariel, their new hire he can’t help but bicker with. This book sounds like the hate to love holiday story everyone needs!
Order here!
Content Warnings: fatphobia, body shaming, grief, eating disorder, bullying, death of a parent
This Winter By Alice Oseman
We absolutely love Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series so we had to include This Winter in our recommendation list! This Winter is a short story that follows the Spring siblings: Charlie, Tori, and Oliver over the Christmas holidays. With adorable illustrations, family drama, and discussions of mental health recovery, this book is perfect for all the Heartstopper superfans out there!
Order here!
Content Warnings: eating disorder, self harm, homophobia, biphobia
How To Excavate A Heart By Jake Arlow
Our next holiday book has a corgi on the cover so you already know it’ll be super cute! How to Excavate a Heart is the story of Shani and May. When Shani decided to do a month-long paleoichthyology internship she never expected to almost hit someone with her car, but when she meets May again because of a dog walking gig, the two grow close. But as things get more serious the night they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve, Shani is having difficulty trusting someone again after her ex-girlfriend’s rejection.
Order here!
Content Warnings: brief description of past sexual assault in which the survivor’s experience is validated
Whiteout By Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Tiffany D. Jackson, Dhonielle Clayton & Nic Stone
Our next recommendation isn’t set during the holidays but it has the perfect wintery vibes! Whiteout is a collection of short stories that all take place during a big snow storm in Atlanta. Filled with Black joy, romance, and of course snow, this sounds like a perfect holiday book to read this time of year!
Order here!
Content Warnings: abandonment, panic attacks, homophobia, drug abuse
The Borrow A Boyfriend Club By Page Powars
We love the wintery vibes in this cover for The Borrow a Boyfriend Club by Page Powars! In it we follow Noah, a trans teen who wants to prove his gender and fit in with his classmates. He even has the perfect plan to do it, join the school’s secret Borrow a Boyfriend Club. Except when he bombs his interview, he ends up making a deal with Asher, the club’s president. If Noah helps Asher win the talent show, he’ll get a chance to prove his boyfriend skills by romancing Asher himself. But the only rule in the Borrow a Boyfriend Club is that no boyfriends/girlfriends are allowed, which wouldn’t be a problem if the two didn’t keep getting closer.
Order here!
Content Warnings: transphobia, homophobia, bullying, minor mention of abandonment and panic attacks
This Time It’s Real By Ann Liang
Our next recommendation is for all the readers out there that love the romance of the holidays but not necessarily the cold weather. This Time It’s Real is about a girl named Eliza who gains internet fame after she wrote an essay about meeting the love her life. She’s finally got approval from her classmates at school plus an internship with the magazine of her dreams. The only thing is, she made it all up. Desperate to hide the truth, she strikes a deal with her famous actor classmate Caz who will pretend to be her boyfriend in exchange for help with his college essays. But soon their relationship starts to feel too real, and Eliza is left wondering if she can still follow her dreams without breaking her heart in the process.
Order here!
Content Warnings: racism, bullying, abandonment, body shaming
We hope you enjoyed reading our holiday book recommendations list! We can’t wait to binge all of these books this month. What are you reading to get in the festive mood? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us @TheHoneyPop! You can also visit us on Facebook and Instagram!
Need some more book recs? We got them!