Briar WestI know what you’re thinking.
It’s June.
The temperature outside is approximately one thousand degrees, Christmas decorations are nowhere in sight, and most of us are trying to survive summer vacation schedules, hurricane season prep, and whatever chaos life has decided to throw our way this week.
So why am I talking about holiday romance?
Because readers don’t actually read seasonally as often as people think.
Sure, some readers wait until November to crack open their Christmas books. Others start in September. And then there are the readers who never stop.
I understand the appeal.
Holiday stories offer a kind of comfort that isn’t tied to a calendar. They’re full of family gatherings, traditions, fresh starts, unexpected connections, and the reminder that life can still surprise us in the best ways.
That’s probably why holiday romance has always been one of my favorite comfort-read categories.
Apparently, I love it enough to write thirty-one holiday stories.
What Makes Holiday Romance Different?
Every romance promises a happily-ever-after.
Holiday romances have an advantage.
The setting comes with built-in emotion.
Family gatherings, old traditions, awkward reunions, long drives home, expectations nobody asked for, and memories that seem to show up whether you want them to or not.
Everything feels a little more intense during the holidays.
A holiday romance can put two strangers at the same Christmas party, surround them with twinkling lights and family drama, and somehow have me rooting for them before they’ve even shared a proper kiss.
The holiday backdrop isn’t just there to look pretty. It shapes the story, influences the characters, and raises the emotional stakes in ways that feel familiar.
Most readers don’t need those experiences explained to them. They’ve lived some version of them already.
That’s part of what makes holiday romances so easy to sink into.
Holiday Reading Feels Like Comfort Food
I don’t know anyone who eats comfort food only during one season.
Nobody is saying, “It’s July, so mashed potatoes are off-limits until Thanksgiving.”
Books aren’t much different.
Sometimes I’m looking for an adventure. Sometimes I want high drama. Sometimes I willingly pick up a story that’s going to emotionally destroy me before putting me back together again.
And sometimes I just want something comforting.
Holiday romances are incredibly good at that.
They can be emotional. They can be spicy. The characters can spend half the book making decisions that have me arguing with the pages.
But when I pick one up, I know exactly what kind of reading experience I’m getting.
That’s true whether it’s December or the middle of a Louisiana summer.
Why I Love Anthologies as a Reader
One thing I’ve always loved about anthologies is the variety.
Life gets busy, and I don’t always have the attention span for a six-hundred-page novel.
Sometimes I want a story I can finish in one sitting before someone needs a ride, one of the dogs decides to investigate something they absolutely shouldn’t, or my to-do list starts yelling at me again.
That’s where anthologies shine.
You can read a story before bed, squeeze one in during a lunch break, or sneak in a chapter while you’re waiting for an appointment.
Of course, what usually happens is I tell myself I’m only going to read one story and then somehow end up several stories deep an hour later.
Every new story offers something different—a new couple, a new premise, a new voice, a new kind of happily-ever-after.
That’s part of the fun.
The Advent Calendar That Started Everything
The idea for Unwrap Me came from an advent calendar.
I kept seeing holiday reading events where readers purchased individual stories throughout the season. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that approach, but I found myself wanting the reading equivalent of opening an advent calendar and finding a surprise behind every door.
I wanted readers to be able to buy the whole experience at once.
That thought stuck with me.
Eventually, it turned into Unwrap Me: Thirty-One Nights of Festive, Filthy Fun.
What started as a simple idea quickly became a much bigger project than I anticipated because I made the completely reasonable decision to write all thirty-one stories myself.
No guest authors. No collaborations. Just me.
Thirty-one couples, thirty-one stories, and thirty-one opportunities to explore very different kinds of romance.
By the time I reached the final stories, there were moments when I questioned whether this had been a brilliant idea or a terrible one.
The answer probably depends on which day you ask me.
Why Short Stories Are So Much Fun
Writing thirty-one short stories taught me very quickly that short fiction and novel writing are completely different animals.
When I’m writing a novel, I have room to linger. Characters can take their time getting to know each other. Tension can build slowly. Emotional wounds can be unpacked over multiple chapters.
Short stories don’t give you that luxury.
You have to figure out who these characters are, what they want, and why readers should care in a fraction of the space.
At first, I found that intimidating.
Eventually, I started enjoying it.
There’s something satisfying about taking a story down to its essentials and making every scene earn its place on the page.
As a reader, I think that’s part of what makes anthologies so much fun. You meet a couple, settle into their story, reach the happily-ever-after, and then get to start the whole experience over again with someone new.
It’s dangerously easy to tell yourself you’ll stop after one more story.
Holiday Romance Isn’t Really About Christmas
The decorations are fun.
The traditions are fun.
The cookies are absolutely carrying their share of the workload.
But the reason I keep coming back to holiday romances has very little to do with Christmas trees or twinkle lights.
It’s the characters.
It’s the relationships.
It’s watching people find their way back to each other, build something new, take a risk, or discover they’re not as alone as they thought they were.
Those stories work just as well in June as they do in December.
A good romance doesn’t stop being meaningful because the season changes.
In fact, some of my favorite holiday books get reread long after the decorations have been packed away.
I come back for the same reason I revisit any favorite story: I enjoy spending time with those characters again.
Looking Ahead
One thing I didn’t expect while writing Unwrap Me was how much I enjoyed jumping between stories.
One day I was writing one couple. The next day I was working on someone completely different with a completely different dynamic.
It kept the project feeling fresh from beginning to end.
I never had time to get bored because there was always another story waiting for me.
The best news is that I’m not finished exploring the idea.
I already have plans for additional holiday collections, which means more romance, more holiday chaos, and more characters making decisions that seem questionable at the time but work out surprisingly well by the final page.
The goal hasn’t really changed from that original advent-calendar idea.
I wanted readers to be able to pick up a single book and have dozens of stories waiting for them inside.
Some readers may finish one story at a time.
Others will tell themselves they’re only reading one more before bed and suddenly realize it’s two o’clock in the morning.
I won’t judge either approach.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as both a reader and a writer, it’s that stories don’t have to fit neatly into a season to be enjoyable.
Sometimes a holiday romance is exactly what you need, whether it’s December, June, or somewhere in between.
If all this holiday romance talk has you in the mood for a festive escape, you can find Unwrap Me: Thirty-One Nights of Festive, Filthy Fun here:
Unwrap Me is the first book in my Holi-Spice Collection and features thirty-one spicy holiday romances, each with its own couple, premise, and happily-ever-after.
And the collection is just getting started.
Book two, Thirteen Kinks of Halloween, arrives this October and will be my first co-written project with my husband, E.M. West. It’s packed with Halloween-themed romance, mischief, and plenty of heat.
Whether you’re reading holiday stories in December, June, or somewhere in between, I hope you find a story that makes you smile.
With so much love and gratitude,
Briar