20 October Romances to Warm Up To

If you want something a little cozier, Celestine Martin’s witchy books are definitely a great place to start. In this third book set in Freya Grove, Sirena makes a wish to get her life back on track, and ends up reliving the month of October! As she tries to fix everything that went wrong the first time, she runs into Gus, another magic-maker, and the pair find themselves offering to help each other with some magical issues they’re having. It’s quiet and sweet, but also delightfully rich in detail.  

Ring in the Christmas season with ex-fiancées who end up stuck on the same Christmas vacation together!

Charlotte and Brighton were engaged once, until Brighton dumped her at the altar. Now, five years later, Charlotte has a great life in New York, including being part of a musical ensemble. When one of the members invites the whole group out to her family’s farm in Colorado to get some quiet practice in over the holiday, Charlotte is happy to get away from Manhattan—only to discover that one of the other guests has brought Brighton along!

Dina is a kitchen witch with a hot new London bakery, where she infuses magic into every morsel. Unfortunately, she’s also dealing with a hex: any person who starts to have feelings for her will immediately develop a string of bad luck. This hasn’t been a huge issue before, but now that she’s met the best man at the wedding where she’s the maid of honor, she would do anything to stop the hex before it destroys the man who could be The One!

When newly married but incredibly harried Patrick and Quinn accidentally incapacitate Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, they are corralled by a pushy elf into finishing the Christmas Job. But when they’re done, they find that they have to assume the role of Santa and his Spouse if they want Christmas to survive! I don’t know about you, but I think this sounds like a blast. 

Reese Ryan’s third Holly Island Grove book gives us Emerie and Nick, best friends who definitely are just best friends. When Emerie gets tired of waiting for Nick to realize that they would be perfect for each other romantically, she shoots her shot—only to be shot down instead. Determined not to let her life pass her by, she sets out to find her soulmate, with or without Nick, and he has to come to grips with the fact that his feelings might not be as nonexistent as he thought. 

Freelance journalist Khin wants more than anything to get out of the city where she’s been floundering since her divorce. When she’s sent to Myanmar to get a scoop on a bigshot Hollywood actor, she’s determined to do a good job. But when his help turns into a really bad situation for both of them one night, the pair have to work together to cover up what happened. And of course, they grow closer in the meantime. But what does this mean for Khin’s work? 

Yes, folks, the Formula One romance trend continues! This time, we’ve got Phaedra, a crackshot race engineer who just wants to keep her cars going and get her job done, and Cosmin, the frustratingly cocky driver who keeps getting in her way. The pair butt heads constantly, but come up with a solution that will help them with communication. That is, if by solution you mean casual banging—since that doesn’t count as a relationship when it comes to fraternization? I dunno. I’m intrigued.

Everyone loves a good life-swap romance, right? In this one, two women use the Vacate app (I love that name) to switch homes for a bit, only to potentially find romance where they were just looking for a change. This debut has been compared to The Holiday and a queer Hallmark movie, so be prepared to swoon, giggle, and cry—potentially all at the same time. 

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you—there are two Black life-swap Christmas romances coming your way! This one is by the author of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, and is a little more sturdy and earnest in comparison to I’ll Be Gone For Christmas. Ramona and Chelsea trade Chicago for Malibu (and vice versa) to get their lives in order, only to potentially find new things to want instead. 

I might have had to dump my head into my hands when the logline used the phrase “challah-days” in the description, but I got over it. Mostly. 

What do you do when you’re the only Jew in a small Vermont town, and you’ve been asked to spearhead the town’s first Hanukkah celebration? You hope like hell you can find anyone nearby to help. Turns out Seth, the sparkly sunshine guy who’s been coming into Abby’s bakery, is that someone, and he’d be happy to help her out…as long as she pretends to be his girlfriend when he goes to visit his nagging parents in Manhattan. We all know how that kind of thing goes, especially around the Winter Holidays. 

What happens when you’re basically Pepa from Encanto, but you don’t really have control over it? You hope it doesn’t get worse, of course. But when Teal is asked to be Carlos’s fake wife for an inheritance scheme, it turns out their intense attraction can turn into literal lightning strikes.  

This is the second book in a series, so you might want to read Witch of Wild Things first to get your bearings on the universe, but you definitely don’t have to!

Leo has spent the last year recovering from a gunshot wound that has kept him from his work with the fire department, but now it’s time to go back to work. It’s also time to try to get his life back, and that includes figuring out his relationship with Sofi, his sister’s best friend and his secret lover. Life has ended their relationship, but a surprise roommate situation throws them back together. And when meddling family members get involved, who knows what might happen next. This is one of those that might be best experienced after reading the first two in the series, but it does still manage to stand alone. 

Retired stuntwoman Ivy has had the career and even has the second one. Now all she wants is the right partner. She has a list of spousal requirements to challenge that of Jeremy Malcolm, but really only has eyes for Ana, the 25-year-old owner of Besos Bakery. When they meet outside of their expected haunts, a situation with an overzealous suitor leads Ana to ask Ivy for self-defense lessons, and their time together leads to…other things. But with each at different points in their lives, is either of them ready for the relationship the other one is looking for? 

When Miles and Emma are around each other, neither one is happy. They’re basically frenemies; people who only hang out for the sake of the friends they share. But they also have scorching chemistry, and when they decide to pursue that element of their relationship…well, we know what happens when people start denying that they have real feelings for each other. 

Forty-three-year-old Chaaru is pretty settled into her life. She has a great job, a great kid, and no romantic relationships to deal with. And she would love to keep it that way. Romance is terrible. But when she starts to develop the hots for her years-long BFF right before they’re about to share a room and a bed for a weeklong vacation, she has to figure out both what she really wants and whether what she wants and what DP wants can become something great for both of them. (Especially since he’s been in love with her for half their lives.) Note: according to the author, this one is Hella Spicy.