Hello, gentle readers!
We began the month with a plan to have about 50% of our July posts be about wintery books because, as previously discussed, we are all very hot and Antarctica sounds better than sun and sand right now.
Plans, schmlans.
Because not all of the books were holiday books, we decided to provide this handy dandy summary for readers also interested in cooling off a little bit this summer.
July (Christmas in July but not all Christmas) Posts:
Jenny doesn’t move to the titular lodge until page 300 (title lies, I tell you!), but there are small town shenanigans and a slow burn.
Mistletoe & Mr. Right by Sarah Morgenthaler
It’s Alaska and it’s Christmas and they have a bonfire on a frozen lake. Which seems like a very Alaska thing to do (or a northern Minnesota thing to do, but we don’t have any of those books right now).
I’ll admit that the rest of the series is a bit more wintery – this one takes place over several years, not one season – but the hockey season is (mostly) in winter and there’s plenty of cold, like the weather and the rinks and Boston and Montreal.
Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis
You might like the post better than the book, because it’s Holly, er, discussing how much the cover marketing (cutesy) completely and totally does not match the content of the book (badass alpha suspense-y).
Cold! (It’s Antarctica!) Danger! (Danger bangs!) Suspense! (We have to get away before the bad guys get us!)
Gifting Me To His Best Friend by Katee Robert
Probably most readers will pick this up because it’s full (so full) of hot, kinky fun. But also Robert’s execution of changing a relationship from a couple plus best friend to a throuple was thoughtfully done.
Winter’s Heat by Denise Domning
Historical romance from 1994! Sometimes a throwback is fun because the relationship is like, “WUT?”
The Longest Night by E.E. Ottoman
Super soft novella with a ton of snow. Historical romance with trans rep set in New York.
The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham
Ingrid was over the moon about this story about a sex worker and an evangelical reformer, and although she didn’t discuss it in her review, the pair do get caught in a snowstorm and have to snuggle because it’s very cold. (What could possibly happen there, I wonder?)
We also provided a wintery Saturday Smutty Six listicle for your perusal, for books that bring the cold—and the heat.
AND, if you’d like to explore more cold content, perhaps we can interest you in our holiday specials or maybe some Alaska books? Or books set in literal frozen wastelands. Or, IDK, sometimes Canada is cold. Sadly we do not have a specific “cold temperature/winter” tag. Oh well. Hindsight.
The Smut Report 
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