Your Ultimate Holiday Reading & Watching Guide

There's nothing quite like a blizzard outside and a great adaptation on the screen. This December, grab the book, then grab the remote, and experience these heartwarming, thrilling, and romantic holiday stories in both literary and cinematic form!

Here are 6 unforgettable holiday books that inspired movies and TV series, perfect for your next book-to-screen binge.

1.The Whirlwind NYC Romance

📚The Book: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

The Premise: Cynical Dash and optimistic Lily begin a whirlwind, anonymous correspondence via a red notebook left on a favorite bookstore shelf. They exchange dares, dreams, and desires across New York City. The central question: Can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions?

📺The Adaptation: Dash & Lily 2020 TV Series

The Binge: The Netflix series perfectly captures the quirky, heartfelt magic of the book. Follow Dash and Lily as their holiday romance builds through their shared notebook dares at famous New York City landmarks, proving that finding connection is the best Christmas gift of all.

2.The Celebrity Chef Showdown

📚The Book: The Maverick's Christmas Homecoming by Teresa Southwick

The Premise: The fine citizens of Thunder Canyon are buzzing because celebrity chef Shane Roarke has a shocking connection to the small town. Waitress Gianna Garrison finds herself sneaking under the mistletoe with the mysterious maverick, only to discover a huge secret about who her sexy boss really is!

🎥The Adaptation: Christmas with a View 2018 Movie

The Binge: The movie adaptation centers on Clara, who is not excited about her new head chef boss, the handsome celebrity chef. As their paths cross at the cozy ski resort, she realizes they have more in common than she thought. It’s a classic boss meets small-town girl romance with all the holiday charm.

3. The Interconnected Snow Day

📚The Book: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

The Premise: This collection features three hilarious and charming interconnected tales, each written by a different bestselling author. A massive Christmas Eve snowstorm traps a group of high schoolers, leading to a stranded train hike, a trip to a Waffle House, and painful shifts that somehow all lead to breathtaking kisses and true love.

🎥 The Adaptation: Let It Snow 2019 Movie

The Binge: The Netflix film keeps the interconnected spirit and follows the high school students as their love lives and friendships collide due to the unexpected blizzard. It’s messy, funny, and captures the chaotic magic of finding love when you least expect it.

4. The Long-Lost Father Quest

📚The Books: Finding Father Christmas & Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn

The Premise: Miranda Carson embarks on a quest to find her long-lost father in London, equipped with only feeble clues. She is immediately welcomed by a loving family, but must decide whether to reveal her true identity and risk destroying their idyllic image of her father. The stories continue as Miranda returns to Vermont, finding love but facing a family matriarch's disapproval.

🎥The Adaptations: Finding Father Christmas (2016), Engaging Father Christmas (2017), & Marrying Father Christmas (2018)

The Binge: This series delivers the ultimate Christmas romance trilogy! Follow Miranda's entire journey, from her initial search in a small New England town to finding love with Ian and planning their Vermont Christmas wedding.

5. The Pride & Prejudice Swap

📚The Book: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz

The Premise: Darcy Fitzwilliam, a brilliant, successful executive who never makes time for drama, returns home to Pemberley, Ohio, for Christmas. She meets Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic, and unambitious carpenter. When they fall into bed after too many eggnogs, can they overcome her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls?

🎥The Adaptation: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe (2018 Movie)

The Binge: The Hallmark adaptation brings the classic dynamic to life as Darcy and Luke, a former rival, must plan a charity event together. As they spend time together, Darcy starts to realize that what matters most in life might be right there in her small hometown.

6. The Aspiring Writer Retreat

📚The Book: The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans

The Premise: Heartbroken finance officer Kimberly Rossetti dreads another holiday alone, so she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing conference in Vermont. She hopes to meet her idol, famed romance writer H.T. Cowell. There, she meets Zeke, a fellow aspiring writer who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat.

🎥The Adaptation: The Mistletoe Inn 2017 Movie

The Binge: The movie adaptation follows the aspiring author who, after being dumped, takes a leap of faith and signs up for the romance-writing retreat. It’s a cozy, charming tale about following your dreams and finding unexpected love in a quaint Vermont Inn just before Christmas.

❓️Which Book-to-Screen pairing are you starting with tonight? Let me know in the comments!

Changes to our Book Club style

If you're in the discord community, this was shared there but we are revamping both of our Book clubs and are now going for a non-traditional book club style!

Why are we doing this?

We are taking this approach to allow all of us to partake in the book club by having more book options, sharing more books and allowing readers to read more than one if they'd like and uplifting all marginalised authors in the Cottagecore & Co sub-genres. It also allows us to have a book club that reads according to themes rather than one specific book!

What does a Non-Trad Book club consist of?

It's going to be following a Storygraph challenge style, which you can join in the links below! Essentially, one prompt is mandatory and you can read one book from that prompt. I'll be adding more books in each prompt and looking for recommendations from my community as well. We are hoping to have a guided questions for each theme in the upcoming few weeks in order to help you share your discussions in the discord server!

Here are the links

• Cottagecore & Co Storygraph

• Ifrit & Ink Storygraph

Don't forget to join the discord server below by going to the membership and clicking the purple discord button!

Just wanted to send a quick reminder that today is the last day to vote in our book club poll. It is close right now! Remember, you are allowed to choose your top three as we are going to be picking our books for January - March. Poll closes at midnight tonight, and our books will be announced tomorrow.

If you did not yet, go back to the original book club post and vote!

It's time to explore a favorite trope of mine--Haunted Houses.

I'm a sucker for a haunted house. The slow building dread. The subtle scares that lead to a horrifying climax.

I love when author's take these common tropes and find a way to make it different and stand out. The below books are some that I feel take the haunted house trope and give it a unique spin.

The Reformatory by Tananarrive Due-- THIS BOOK. This book destroyed me. It tackles so much. Do not let the page count intimidate you. It flies by. Due breathes life into her characters. While not a haunted house per se, it's a haunted reformatory. The ghosts are not the villains here. The humans are.

The September House by Carrissa Orlando- Imagine knowing you live in a haunted house but because it's your dream house you just accept the haunting. I had such a good time with this book. It's got humor and spooks.

This House Isn't Haunted But We Are by Stephen Howard-- This one is quick and packs a punch. It has an extremely unique premise. I can't say much without giving it away, but know it involves a "fresh start" and grief.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell- This historical horror is down right terrifying! It's got some scenes that still haunt my brain. Think haunted life-like wooden figures with creepy smiles. Purcell is an excellent writer!

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike-- This translated book goes from zero to sixty. It follows a couple who moves into an apartment that is built next to a graveyard. The graveyard is not happy about that in the least... This apartment complex gets spooky!

What are some of your favorite haunted house stories?

ENTER HERE

We are only a few months out from our new adventure with Sam and Hel (March 17th), which means it’s time to preorder your copy of Wayward Souls (the sequel to Strange Beasts) and enter our preorder campaign! Open internationally.

Bundle #1 (Add Wayward Souls to your TBR on Goodreads or StoryGraph OR preorder a copy of Wayward Souls):

💀themed phone background
💀annotated first chapter by Susan and Kathryn
💀signed bookplate from Susan
💀reversible art bookmark of Hel & Sam

Bundle #2 (if you preorder, you’ll be entered to win):

💀$25 gift card to Blue Bicycle Books
💀custom Wayward Souls raven bookmark

Bundle #3

💀3 month subscription to The Inky Phoenix Bindery community (eligible for new or existing subscribers)
💀VIP trunk with exclusive promotional items and ARC
💀custom “Wayward” nameplate necklace

Interested in a personalized copy? Order from Susan’s local indie, @brick_and_mortar_books and add your personalization request in the notes section at checkout.

Click the bio link to enter. Winners will be selected in March and shipped in April.

Don’t have a Google account? Email cj@binderybooks.com with your contact info and receipt to be added.

Hello folks! we've been facing some technical difficulties and some people who have joined as a free follower haven't been able to access the discord, so I'm posting the link for you here—

Please make sure you first connect your account to your discord account here so that you're assigned the correct role and can get access to all the channels: https://boundless.binderybooks.com/account/

And then head on over to the discord: https://discord.gg/44WCy9uudt

Please let me know if you have any questions!