Meta-analysis of 53 'Best Holiday' romance book lists to determine which books appeared on the most lists and can be named the 'best of the best'. The final list includes 36 books that appeared on 6 or more of the lists. Published November 13, 2024. Learn more about the methodology.
November 13, 2024
As winter approaches, I've been thinking about which holiday romance books I'm going to read this year. For the last few Decembers, I've focused on seasonal reading, devouring 48 holiday romance books to date.
With two Best of Best lists under my belt, I decided to apply my meta-analysis methodology to the subgenre of Holiday Romance, specifically winter holidays, including Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's and Winter Solstice.
In this post, I outline the Best of the Best Holiday Romance Books: a meta-analysis of 53 best holiday romance book lists to see which books appeared on the most lists and can be named the best of the best.
Note: This list has been compiled based on research and should not be considered my own personal recommendations or endorsements.
Based on my analysis, 36 books rose to the top and appeared on 6 or more best holiday romance book lists. The top book, In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren, appeared on 32 of the 53 lists!
Here is an overview of the top 36 books:
There are 7 authors and writing duos with 2 books on the list:
All of the books on the list are contemporary romances. If you're a historical romance fan, there are two that received Honourable Mentions.
This is a seasonal subgenre and in general there's a big focus on marketing what's new each year, so it's no surprise that there's a clear recency bias. The oldest books among the top 36 are from 2017. Almost 3/4 of the books are from the last 3 years.
In a nutshell, it's a straight, white Christmas, as only:
If you're looking for a few more diverse options, be sure to also check out the Honourable Mentions.
The top holiday romance books tend to be standalone—only 33% of the books were part of a series.
I don't usually do a deeper analysis of all the nominated books; however, I couldn't help but notice the number of prolific authors in this subgenre. Below is a list of the authors who had the most books nominated (i.e., appear on at least 1 list)—interestingly, only 1 of them (Jenny Colgan) ranked in the top 36:
If you're interested in seeing a consolidated list of all 471 books nominated, check out the All Nominees tab of the spreadsheet.
Okay, this is kind of random, but I started to notice another trend—Jenny, Josie, Julie, Jana, Jill. Maybe I'm biased because my name also starts with a J, but I took a quick look and found that 55 authors on the list of nominees have a first name that starts with J! The next most popular letter for first names was S, clocking in at 35 authors.
Here is the final list!
Hi, I'm Lady Jane, a Romance Book Data Analyst. I combine my love of romance books and spreadsheets by creating charts, graphs, lists and rankings, all about romance! Follow me on Instagram to learn more.
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