Everything I Read in November-December 2025
Now that it’s 2026, it’s time to wrap up 2025 on the reading front! I finished 11 books in the final two months of the year, including six audiobooks and four holiday-themed short stories. In addition to the holiday short stories, I listened to four audiobooks set during the holiday season! I think this is the most number of holiday books I’ve read in one holiday season so far.
For 2025, my goal was to read 50 books and 14,000 pages, and I exceeded both goals: I read 52 books for a total of 15,044 pages. I’m planning to make similar goals for 2026! If you’re also a reader, join StoryGraph and add me as a friend: my username is cottoncashmerecathair! And please share your favorite recent read(s) in the comments.
READ NEXT: Everything I Read in September-October 2025
Everything I Read in November-December 2025
Ebooks
The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
This was my first Abby Jimenez full-length novel! I’ve heard such good things about them and decided to start from the beginning of this series (there are two other books).
If you’re looking for a romance that tackles deep themes (infertility, loss, sticky parental relationships), you’ll enjoy this one, but warning: you may cry! It’s a slow-burn romance, which may not be my favorite trope… or perhaps it was just the lack of communication between the main characters that really irritated me. I was surprised by the “twist” in the later third of the book. I was not expecting it to be so sad! I still enjoyed it overall and am looking forward to the next book.
Audiobooks
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
It seems like most books set during the holidays are on the romance side, and while this book definitely has romance, it’s also a cozy mystery! I found it to be fun to listen to and enjoyed both narrators; I would love to listen to more books narrated by Saskia Maarleveld in particular.
Two authors, Maggie the mystery author and Ethan the thriller author, are invited to a Christmas house party hosted by a superfan at an English estate. The catch? Maggie and Ethan hate each other. But, together they go, and everything is going as well as it can go until the host disappears questionably, and Maggie and Ethan must figure out if they are competition or allies in solving the mystery. It’s an enemies-to-lovers story with a bit more depth and a number of funny moments!
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Lily King is another new-to-me author in 2025, and I kicked things off with a great novel, but ooof—it’s a tough listen (or read)! The author tackles a lot of heavy themes, especially in the last part of the book. (It’s split into part 1, part 2, and part 3; part 1 is the longest as it takes up the entire first half, and part 2 is the shortest.)
We follow the life of a college student nicknamed Jordan by her friends, Sam and Yash, and all of the ebbs and flows she experiences in her last year of school as their friend. The end of their time together feels rough and abrupt, and many years later, we meet Jordan again—now with a family—as Sam and Yash come back into her life with some of the worst news imaginable.
It’s heartbreaking, but wow, it’s amazing how the author was able to weave all of the details she did into the story, especially at the end! I’m impressed that she could do all of that in a book that was under six hours long.
The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
I really enjoyed this funny romance novel set during the holiday season in an English village! This is one of my favorite holiday books, and I would totally watch the TV adaptation.
Kate’s friend Laura signs her up for a local Twelve Dates of Christmas experience to hopefully help her meet a worthy man, and it seems that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong at some point. Some men are horrific, and some men are so sweet but so wrong for her in the end. It’s a fun premise with witty writing, and the story about Kate’s life in between each date is sweet, too, as she’s living back in her hometown to take care of her aging father.
It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han
This is the second book in The Summer I Turned Pretty series. Like the first book, I wasn’t totally into the second book. It’s much sadder than the first book as (spoiler alert!) everyone handles the grief of losing Conrad and Jeremiah’s mother and possibly also the house on the beach, the place they’ve all called home every summer for years.
It’s definitely a YA read, which is fine; I typically enjoy YA but find myself getting annoyed with the characters more quickly now that I’m a couple of decades past my teen years. That’s definitely a me issue, haha. 😆
This book was narrated by Lola Tung again (the actress that plays Belly in the TV series), and there were a handful of chapters narrated by Jeremiah’s character. It was interested to hear his perspective even those those chapters weren’t very long or meaty in comparison.
Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand
This is the third book in the Winter Street series. I read the first two books in September and October to beat the holiday reading rush.
We are back on Nantucket Island during the holiday season with all the crazy Quinn characters and their significant others! Mitzi is back in their lives, Ava continues to be a little annoying with the love triangle situation, Bart is due to come home from Afghanistan, Kelley has a health scare, and a winter storm threatens Kevin and Isabelle’s wedding at Christmastime. It’s everything you want in a holiday read: dramatic, sweet, emotional, and full of holiday season charm.
As with the first two books, the point of view switches between different characters and I didn’t find it too difficult to track…but there are a lot of characters between all the Quinn family members and partners!
Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand
This is the fourth and final book in the Winter Street series. This series was originally written as a trilogy, and then Elin added this book to tie up some loose ends (though I still don’t feel like everything was tied up nicely in the end).
I found this book to be more emotional than the others, as we really see how much the Quinn family is affected by health problems and potential changes in the ownership of Winter Street Inn. On the more positive side, Bart is back, Ava may have finally found the love of her life, and Jennifer (Patrick’s wife) has a great new endeavor but must decide how to handle her addiction.
I enjoyed the finale to this fun holiday season series!
Home Sweet HOlidays Collection
As I mentioned at the start of the post, I also read a really cute series of four short stories set during the holiday season available via Amazon Prime Reading. Each sweet story was written by a different romance author, and each short story is a standalone, so you can read them in any order.
Snow Place Like Home by Laura Pavlov
If you’re looking for a cute friends-to-romance short story, this one is for you! Goldie is home for the holidays and her brother’s wedding. She runs into Ace, her brother’s childhood best friend and her childhood crush, and they reconnect for one night…but do they each want more? Eee! Ranked 2/4
Merry and Bright by Ali Rosen
This is a super cute fake-dating short story that features Miriam and Cal, seatmates on their flight home from NYC to Charleston for the holidays. Miriam is dreading Hanukkah with her family, and Cal, a pro football player, is dreading Christmas with his—for different reasons. I really enjoyed this one, but the ending felt a tiny bit abrupt! Ranked 1/4
All Wrapped Up in You by Rosie Danan
A holiday meet-cute! This was the longest of the short stories and featured a comedian named Piper and a hot ER doctor named Scott who also happens to be her neighbor. It was hard to rank these stories as they all felt pretty believable to me and the pacing was good, but this one didn’t grab my attention quite like the first two books did. Ranked 3/4
You Better Not Pout by Mia Sosa
The fourth book in the “series” was my least favorite. The main characters, Juliana and Eric, recently broke off their engagement but agree to pretend to be together for the holidays. It’s a second-chance romance, but it just didn’t feel like their reason for separating in the first place was good enough for me! Ranked 4/4
