With Christmas nearing, two women swap homes. One has been lying to her family about her engagement and just wants to get away; the other is an artist who needs money to hold on to her beachside cottage. In JAYNE ALLEN’s The Most Wonderful Time: A Novel, their stories tangle to combine romance, self-reflection, and a little holiday magic. In TAYLOR HAHN’s A Home for the Holidays: A Novel, Mel loves the celebratory season – a time her mother always made magical, despite her alcoholism. But when her mother dies unexpectedly weeks before Christmas and her estranged best friend tells Mel a very different story about the woman who raised her, she’s forced to reckon with her mother’s past and examine her own future.

Buy The Most Wonderful Time: A Novel – Allen

Buy Home for the Holidays: A Novel – Hahn