5 winter reads to add to your Christmas TBR

It might only be November but it’s never too early to start getting in the Christmas spirit. Here is a list of books set around the winter holidays.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

Blurb:

24 advent calendar doors. 23 clues. And 1 killer to catch before Christmas . . . a deviously clever, classic murder mystery for the festive season

My name is Ernest Cunningham.

I’m not a detective. I just happen to have a knack for what makes mysteries – and murderers – tick. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any killers out there might be willing to take a break for the holidays.

I was wrong.

The Toy Makers by Robert Dinsdale

Blurb:

The Christmas Emporium opens with the first sign of frost . . . 

It is 1917, and while war wages across Europe, in the heart of London, there is a place of hope and enchantment.

The Emporium sells toys that capture the imagination of children and adults alike: patchwork dogs that seem alive, toy boxes that are bigger on the inside, soldiers that can fight battles of their own. Into this family business comes young Cathy Wray, running away from a shameful past. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own.

But Cathy is about to discover that the Emporium has secrets of its own . . .

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Blurb:

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Blurb:

Trapped between caring for her alcoholic father and her job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, Eileen Dunlop dreams of escaping to the big city.

In the meantime, her nights and weekends are filled with shoplifting and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes.

When the beautiful, charismatic Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counsellor at the prison, Eileen is enchanted, unable to resist what appears to be a miraculously budding friendship. But soon, Eileen’s affection for Rebecca pull her into a crime that far surpasses even her own wild imagination.

Christmas Fling by Lindsey Kelk

Blurb:

Laura was all set for a quiet solo Christmas – just her, a bottle of wine, and flat-sitting for a stranger. But when the stranger’s parents mistake her for his mystery girlfriend, she’s swept off to the snowy Scottish Highlands with Callum and his whole family.

Between the cosy sleeper train, charming pubs and breathtaking views, this could be the no-strings-attached Christmas of Laura’s dreams.

But stranger Callum is hot, hilarious and their ‘fake’ chemistry is off the charts.

So is this just a Christmas fling? Or the start of something more?

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What’s your favourite Christmas read? Let me know in the comments below. I’m also on Instagram, Twitter and Threads – @bookwormgirl_24