Holidays can be the most stressful time of year. But if you’re stuck at home on Christmas with the in-laws and sugar-crazed children, take heart! You can sneak off for a few minutes and check out some of these Christmas-themed e-books through the Library’s Overdrive collection—you can check them out and add them to your e-reader without ever having to leave the house!
Lyndsay Sands and Jeaniene Frost paired up to offer two Christmas-themed novellas set in their beloved paranormal worlds (Sands’ Argeneau vampires and Frost’s Night Huntress) in Bite Before Christmas. In “The Gift,” Lyndsay Sands turns the idea of a May-December romance on its head when a 1600 year old vampire falls for a snowed-in, soon-to-retire chief of police. In Jeaniene Frost’s “Home for the Holidays,” Cat and Bones, along with some other familiar faces from the series, are faced with black magic and must team up with unwelcome acquaintances to defeat their opponent. Readers praise it for bringing Frost’s characteristic humor, action, and steamy romance to the novella form.
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor – While Lisa Kleypas made her name in historical romance, her contemporaries are just as delightful. Mark Nolan’s sister dies, she leaves behind a newly-orphaned daughter, and it falls to Mark to become Holly’s new guardian. As he rearranges his life in Friday Harbor to incorporate his silent niece, he realizes he’s also falling for Maggie, the widowed owner of the local toy store. Can Mark and Maggie connect with each other as well as get through to Holly? This sets up Kleypas’ contemporary romance series set in and around Friday Harbor.
His For the Holidays – This collection of four Christmas-themed short stories features some of the best-known names in M/M romance. LB Gregg’s “Mistletoe at Midnight” combines two beloved romance tropes, the long-lost first love and “stranded together,” into a charming holiday romance. “Nine Lights Over Edinburgh” by Harper Fox is a romantic suspense story about human trafficking. Z. A. Maxfield’s “I Heard Him Exclaim” follows a man whose road trip to Sin City is detoured when he picks up a handsome stranger and his young niece. “Icecapade” by Josh Lanyon is about a jewel thief who can’t stop thinking about the FBI agent he seduced years ago, and who wants to return to the scene of that crime.
Nora Roberts is the undisputed queen of contemporary romances, and this reprint of First Impressions from 1984 proves why. Vance Banning, desperate to escape his life as a wealthy businessman, buys an old home in the country and poses as an unemployed carpenter. Unfortunately for him, his neighbor Shane is in the process of converting her grandmother’s house to a museum and offers him a job. Vance turns her down, and the inevitable sparks fly through the holiday season. While some of the interactions are called out by reviewers as a bit dated, Roberts’ skill at building a welcoming and comfortable setting are on full display here.
While Nora Roberts is the queen of contemporary romance, Mary Balogh is the queen of angst-ridden Regency romances and A Christmas Promise is no exception. Randolph is an impoverished earl, and Eleanor is the daughter of a wealthy businessman. When Randolph needs funds to pay off inherited debts, he holds his nose and marries a “commoner”. The couple find themselves at odds with each other, and neither hesitates to irritate the other. But when Eleanor’s family descends upon them at Christmastime, Randolph and Eleanor find they may have the marriage of their dreams.
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