This year I wanted to read a multitude of holiday books, but my plans got derailed when my dog went in for major surgery. I haven’t had enough time to read more than one book at a time, and I can’t read it very fast either. I’d already started developing a list of holiday books back in October that I wanted to read this December, so I’m going to have to save them for next year. I’ve found Christmas-centric, Hannukah-centric, but no Kwanza-centric yet. If you have a Kwanza-centric book to recommend that isn’t for children, let me know!
I’ve got two very different (read: opposite) books to recommend to you for this holiday season:
1. The Yuletide Angel by Sandra Ardoin ($0.99)
This is the most warm, comforting, enjoyable book ever. It’s a novella that I can read year after year in winter and fall in love with all over again. Ardoin deserves every bit of praise she’s gotten for this book. Taking place in Victorian times, the Yuletide Angel “itself” takes a back seat to the main characters in the book, Hugh Barnes and Violet Madison, who seem destined to be together regardless of his painful shyness and her strong will. For a novella, a whole lot is packed in, and I had to force myself not to read it all at once so I could enjoy it for a little while. Find my full review on Goodreads here.
2. Fall From Grace by J. Edward Ritchie ($0.99)
This novel is the opposite of the previous one, and I haven’t finished it yet, but I can already recommend it. I can’t say I know the story of the fall of Satan from heaven, except for the very basics. I can say that this book has inspired me to read the original text. Fall From Grace reads as if it were the real text. Well, maybe a little more pumped up, but it just sounds so…real. I never expected to say that about something classified as fantasy, but I feel as if I’m reading the true story of what happened, like I’m watching it from a hidden corner. I can’t wait to read the actual text and see how close – or not close – they are.
Leave your own holiday read recommendations in the comments so I can read them next year. I’m looking to continue building my list!
Sandra Ardoin
Thank you for including The Yuletide Angel, Christie! What an honor!
Commitments to read books for review have left me thin on the holiday reads list this year, but I took time to read Hang Your Heart on Christmas by Heather Blanton. This is good book for readers whose preferences lean more toward the western genre of historical romance. My friend, Dora Hiers, has a new contemporary romance novella called Flirting with Mistletoe. I’ll be reading that shortly. Last year I read The Fruitcake Challenge by Carrie Fancett Pagels–an enjoyable read, too. Like mine, all are Christian fiction.
Have a Merry Christmas!
christiestratos
Great recommendations! I haven’t read any of these, and I’ll be adding them to my Goodreads TBR list. They’re really far outside my regular reading, so you’re helping to expand my mind. 🙂 You have a merry Christmas too!