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I love Christmas books. It probably started way back when with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it stuck. With five kids, we’ve had story time almost every night for the last twenty years. Each year I’d buy a new holiday picture book to add to the collection. Now that collection fills 1 1/2 plastic bins! We have some favorites: A Little House on the Prairie Christmas; Auntie Claus; Olive, the Other Reindeer; A Gargoyle Christmas. I could go on. Suffice it to say, there is an abundance of great books out there for the twelve days of Christmas…and then some.

As an adult, I haven’t outgrown my love of a good holiday story. Every November and December, I read several Christmas-themed books. They help put me in the spirit and infuse the days and evenings with the sights and sounds of the seasons, via my imagination. They create a little extra magic during an already magical time. I’m a writer, so I’ve also centered a story in each of my different mystery series around the holidays.

I’ve made a list of a few of my favorite awesome holiday reads, grown-up style, to help you celebrate the season with a little Christmas joy, mystery, and romance. Enjoy!

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First up is The Lola Cruz Christmas Story (one of my books!). It’s a 32 page novella and is free on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, KOBO, Sony, and everywhere else digital books are sold. It’s my own holiday treat for readers everywhere. Get a taste of Lola Cruz, PI, and experience a little Christmas magic in the process.

The Lola Cruz Christmas, by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez

The Lola Cruz Christmas Story is a short, holiday prequel to Living the Vida Lola. Lola is summoned by a woman from her past and becomes part of her own Christmas story as she leads Margo Callaghan to safety.

**Download now for free!**

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Sony

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Deadly Patterns, by Melissa Bourbon

A dead Santa, a baby in a manger, and a Christmas fashion show and pageant in Bliss, Texas. It’s nothing but holiday magic and mayhem!

Bliss, Texas, is gearing up for its annual Winter Wonderland festival, but when a mysterious Scrooge ends the merriment with murder, it ™ll take more than a ghost from Christmas past to set things right.

Designing a holiday fashion show set in the town's most prominent historic mansion seems like a job tailor made for dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy. But with the mansion's restoration still in progress and threatening weather on the horizon, she's feeling on pins and needles more than reveling in holiday cheer.

Having volunteered to play Santa in this year's festival, Dan Lee Chrisson was ready to move on after his divorce ”until Bliss became his final resting place. Discovering his body puts Harlow at the scene of the crime. She ™ll need plenty of help from friends and even her late great-grandmother's spirited sleuthing if she's to have a ghost of a chance of catching a killer who's just jumped to the top of the naughty list ¦.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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Baby it’s Cold Outside, by Addison Fox (friend and local Dallas writer!)

After a frantic call, Sloan McKinley travels to the heart of the Alaskan wilderness to be there for her best friend, who’s just inherited property in the small town of Indigo. The last thing she expects is to be lured by the town’s matriarchs into their annual contest to get their grandsons married off.

But Sloan can’t deny the appeal of the rugged local men-Walker Montgomery in particular. Soon she finds herself falling in love with the wild outdoors…and with one of Indigo’s most beloved residents. There’s just one question that remains: is the town’s most confirmed bachelor ready to get caught?

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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Holiday in Crimson, by Patricia Rosemoor

Westbrook Department Store’s Christmas party wasn’t that wild–until, that is, Santa ended up dead. Now window designer Shelby Corbin is the prime suspect in his murder, and the holidays are anything but festive. If Shelby doesn’t figure out who killed Santa, she’ll be ringing in the new year behind bars.Westbrook’s impossibly sexy co-owner and CEO Rand McNabb’s romantic attentions both thrill and frighten Shelby. But is he really helping her search for the truth about that fatal night? Or does Rand have a deadlier motive for courting the only possible witness to the crime…?

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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Baby it’s Cold Outside, a Christmas Anthology

Four novellas from four of the biggest names in romantic fictionKate Hardy’s ‘TIS THE SEASON TO KISS SANTAWith the help of a sprig of mistletoe and some snow angels, a recently single pastry chef teaches a highly successful and sexy Scrooge the true meaning of the holidays on a snowy Christmas Eve that quickly heats up.Heidi Rice’s ‘TIS THE SEASON TO GO SHOPPINGWhen a Christmas Day blizzard strands an up-and-coming marketing manager and her boss’s very off-limits, very hot playboy son in his department store, the two toe the line between naughty and nice as they unwrap their holiday presents ”and each other!

Amy Andrews's ˜TIS THE SEASON FOR KISSING

A down-on-her-romantic-luck kindergarten teacher plans to drown her New Year's Eve sorrows in a gallon of spiked eggnog, but the arrival of her best friend’s sexy brother threatens to melt the snow piling up outside the tiny Vermont cabin.

Aimee Carson's ˜TIS THE SEASON TO BE TEMPTED

After the worst year ever, a jilted music manager rings in the New Year alone, swearing off men forever. But things get complicated when her brother’s best friend, the perfect man with the perfect body, tempts her to break her vow ”if only for one hot night!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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Holiday Grind, by Cleo Coyle

There’s nothing cozier than a winter evening in Greenwich Village. Streetlights shimmer through icy flakes, cafÃ©s glow with welcoming warmth, and a layer of snow dusts historic townhouses like powdered sugar on holiday confections. Murder has no place in such a pretty picture, until now…

Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has grown very fond of Alfred Glockner, the part-time comic and genuinely jolly charity Santa who’s been using her Village Blend as a place to warm his mittens. When she finds him brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, a few subtle clues convince her that Alfred’s death was something more than the tragic result of a random mugging–the conclusion of the police. With Clare’s boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, distracted by a cold case of his own, and ex-husband Matt investigating this year’s holiday lingerie catalogs (an annual event), Clare charges ahead solo to solve her beloved Santa’s slaying. Then someone tries to ice Clare, and she really gets steamed. But she’d better watch out, because if she fails to stop this stone cold killer, she may just get the biggest chill of her life.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby, by Victoria James

Jackson Pierce didn't make his fortune entertaining every half-cocked idea, especially one involving diaper changes. Not even the cute brunette who links him to the baby in her arms can crack his icy heart.A baby on the doorstep is the least of Hannah Woods's problems ”she has to find the baby's uncle, or the child will end up in foster care. She sleuths her way to the reclusive CEO's doorstep only to find six feet of holiday sexy ”and a door slammed in her face. But when Jackson comes around and urges they marry for little Emily's sake, Hannah finds herself falling for the jaded billionaire and wishing for a holiday miracle of their own ¦

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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Jane’s Gift, by Karen Erickson

A devastating house fire cost Jane Clark nearly everything: her husband, her confidence, and her looks, with the physical scars marbling her body. Now, two years later, she's living and healing back in her childhood hometown of Lone Pine Lake. The upcoming holidays are the perfect opportunity to bring some Christmas cheer into her young children's lives, starting with a visit to the firehouse, where her brother's best friend has offered to help quell their residual fears.Lone Pine's resident playboy, fire captain Christian Nelson is happy with his single-guy lifestyle. He's an everyday local hero, so he's never wanting for attention around the holidays. But when Jane Clark shows up, Chris is immediately drawn to the beautiful widow ”even though kids and commitment have never been his style.Despite her brother's warnings about his friend's playboy status and dangerous occupation, Jane can't help but fall for the gorgeous fire captain. The holidays are a time of new beginnings, but can two scarred people find the strength to let go of their pasts to live in the present, when a lifetime together might be the sweetest gift of all?

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Cozying Up with Christmas Books

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