With the holidays fast approaching, it only makes sense that you’d want to dig into delicious and cozy holiday reads while crunching on some gingerbread cookies and candy canes. If you’re looking for the next great holiday read, don’t look any farther than the authors you already love. So many of our treasured contemporaries dabble in the holiday delight as well, so keep the comfort of your favorite authors with the joy of a seasonal read.

Debbie Macomber

Debbie Macomber is known for her stories of bringing people together, and each of her novels that has kept her on the New York Times bestseller’s list for over one thousand weeks is a testament to the broad appeal of small-town charm. The settings for her books are based off the very town she lives in, drawing from inspiration in her daily life and the various characters she has met along the way. As for highlighting holiday drama, in her newest holiday release, A Ferry Merry Christmas, Macomber has a true talent for all the chaos a family can bring around the holidays, no matter how far away you might find yourself at sea.

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Tessa Bailey

Tessa Bailey is the star of spice. Across multiple genres, series, and standalone, Bailey has had a successful career in making lovable lovers in every possible reality. Armed with her characteristic sweetness and spice, Bailey’s romantic authorship makes for the perfect holiday cocktail of romantic antics in Window Shopping. In this holiday romp, Stella finds herself accidentally talking herself into a job while window shopping, and now trying to hold herself back from how irresistible her new boss is. Will she find a kiss under the mistletoe, or will her tragedy end in tinsel?

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Jasmine Guillory

Jasmine Guillory has written nine novels and each one has been a smash hit. With her iconic characters stealing the spotlight for every moment they’re on page, every reader is sure to find a character they relate to in Guillory’s log. Guillory writes with a sureness for characters who could not be any less sure of themselves, and the audience gets to enjoy their journey to self-discovery, and to love. In Royal Holiday, readers get the princess treatment as they are treated to Vivian Forest spending Christmas in England where she meets who might just be the handsomest jewel in the royal crown. Will their holiday be short and sweet, or will their love stay evergreen?

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Meghan Quinn

Meghan Quinn has a special place in her heart for quirky protagonists, and so do all of the love interests in her silly and sweet novels. A veritable master of the rom-com, Quinn embodies the hectic spirit of the holidays in her latest edition to her holiday novels, Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal. Bringing with her a winter storm of chaos, Betty is new in town and helping to set up her uncle’s Christmas tree farm which happens to be a direct competitor of Max’s family farm. The two are a mess from the start, but their northern lights keep pointing back to one another.

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Farrah Rochon

Farrah Rochon is the master of range. Her work ranges from short stories, to novellas, to novels and all of it is full of Rochon’s characteristic romantic flair. Rochon’s novels are full of charm and romance you can absolutely lose yourself in, as well as a partnership with Disney with many books in their Twisted Tales series. Rochon’s holiday novel A Mistletoe Affair makes good on her usual promise of family drama, swoon-worthy love interests, and enough depth to keep you digging through the layers of intersocial conflicts and dynamics for hours. When Vicki falls for her best friend’s divorced brother Jordan and thus his young son Mason as well, they will have to figure out how to get through the holidays without leaving any hearts roasting over an open fire.

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Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand is a household name for good reason. Her ever-growing catalogue has something for every type of reader who needs a comforting book to cuddle up into. Her Winter Street series is perfect for anyone who knows that family dysfunction is amplified and pushed to its absolute limits with inter-generational drama that readers from sixteen to sixty can find something to relate to. When the keeper of the Winter Street Inn, Kelley Quinn, walks in on his second wife kissing “Santa Claus,” the whole holiday as well as the fate of the inn are thrown into a tailspin. Can Kelley keep it afloat all on his own, or will he have to call upon the aid of an old flame to rekindle the fire?

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Uzma Jalaluddin

Uzma Jalaluddin is a widely-accomplished author with an exceptionally modern authorial voice that keeps her work fresh and page-turning. Her novels feature main characters with big dreams and real problems, so it’s always satisfying to see them work for their passions on-page. Her holiday novel is no different. Three Holidays and a Wedding is an inter-faith novel that follows the boisterous chaos that ensues when Christmas, Eid Mubarak, Hanukkah, and a whole entire wedding all fall at the same time on the calendar and everyone needs to catch a plane home to be with family. When total strangers Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson are stranded from a snow-bound plane together, they figure that no one can be hurt by them divulging their deepest secrets to each other, things get awkward when loved ones overhear and everyone is trapped at the same picturesque and perfectly quirky Snow Falls Inn.

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Fannie Flagg

We couldn’t make this list without including the cult classic Fannie Flagg. Most famous for her novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe that was then adapted to the film Fried Green Tomatoes, Flagg is the queen of writing the warm spirit of the Southern United States. The heart of her writing is on full display in A Redbird Christmas, a novel that follows a man named Oswald who has just received a critical diagnosis and chooses to spend what may be his final Christmas down south in Lost River, Alabama. The small community is full of eclectic, kindred spirits that emphasize the humanity of Flagg’s writing, all tied up in a neat, gift-wrapped bow.

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Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah is a historical and women’s fiction bestselling author with some of the top titles of the past twenty years and a slew of adaptations on their way. By drawing on the female experience to build relatable characters and empathetic scenarios even in the most extreme of circumstances, Hannah’s log of work truly has something to latch on to for all readers. In her holiday novel Comfort and Joy, Joy Candellaro is recovering from a divorce and estrangement from her once-close sister, both of which suck any joy out of the holiday season for her. When she tries to escape for a rural retreat on her own, her plane crashes. After facing setback after terrible setback, Joy makes the decision that she will enjoy this holiday no matter what. When she meets Daniel and his young son, though, it makes her wonder just how much she stands to lose by starting over.

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Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan reigns supreme in the world of literary romantic comedy, but her range is as wide as the chaos of the holidays is vast. Her most recent release is one full of Christmas comfort, a cozy mystery with just enough romance like marshmallows topping off the perfect cup of cocoa. In The Secret Christmas Library, Mirren’s discovery of a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic sets off a line of dominoes she had not been prepared for. She is contacted by rival booksellers with motives that could not be further from one another. Mirren finds herself pulled between the pair and discovering ancient family secrets while the snowflakes and fateful cards fall where they may.

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