Your Cozy Romance Starter Pack: 10 Sweet Books for Beginners (Part 2)

In last week’s post, I gave you an introduction to the cozy romance sub-genre that has taken the romance community by storm, now I’m going to give you some cozy romance book recs to get you started.  This book rec list is a mix of m/f romance, m/m romance, and f/f romance.

So there is a little bit of everything for everyone! Now, I am yammered on long enough. Let’s get started shall we?

1. Debate and Decadence

Like any good mysterious witch, Amaya seldom ventures further than the woods that surround her cottage. She fills her days with foraging, spell testing, and reading. Amaya would happily spend all her days and nights curled up with a steaming mug of tea or playing her harp. Anything would be preferable to trying to contain Rue, the chaotic runaway bride who suddenly appears on her doorstep insisting they’re fated, mates. Rue is determined to take charge of her life and by extension Amaya’s. She’s convinced all she has to do is miss her own wedding, learn how to cook a decent stew and show Amaya what fate has in store.

2. Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin

Love is the trickiest spell of all.

Lucinda Caraway loves living in Freya Grove, the mystic seaside town where charms, hexes, and magical beings of all kinds are the norm. She spends her days teaching high school history and her nights reading tea leaves and tending to her conjure garden. It’s a good life . . . but she can’t stop wishing for more.

Until one night, that wish turns into a spell, and suddenly Lucy can’t say no. Not to a public karaoke performance. Not to running a 10K. And, most alarmingly, not to her high school crush, Alexander Dwyer, who needs her help unjinxing his new house—which just happens to be right across the street from hers.

Alex has spent the last ten years traveling the world on adventures Lucy has only ever dreamed of, and he’s planning to leave again as soon as his house is safe to sell. But until Lucy can unhex herself, she and Alex are stuck together. And with so much magic in the air, maybe the next spell Lucy casts will be the one that convinces him to stay.

3. Odd Blood by Azalea Crowley

4. That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

All I wanted to do was live my life in peace. Maybe get a cat, expand my spice farm. Really anything that doesn’t involve going on a quest where an orc might rip my face off. But they say the Goddess has favorites. If so, I’m clearly not one of them.

I mean, I get it. Don’t get me wrong. But he’s dragging me along for the ride, and I’m kind of peeved about it. On the bright side, he keeps burning off his shirt. After saving the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, all he wanted to do was kill an evil witch enslaving his people.

5. His Christmas Conundrum by A.W. Scott

I’ll take care of everything, Little Bit…”

Trevor Cooper is down to the wire and in trouble. He needs a date to take home for the holidays since his family believes he’s in a long-term relationship. Problem is, Trevor and his girlfriend broke up months ago. Since then, she’s sabotaged every chance he’s had to speak to girls on campus.

When his friend Bailey mentions there’s another way for him to find someone to take home for the holidays – even if it’s just to play pretend – Trevor grabs the opportunity with both hands.

Milo Adair exudes BDE and would be the perfect person to not only take home to his family, but to also stand up to Trevor’s ex. When proposed with the idea of being Trevor’s fake date, Milo agrees easily enough. It’s the questions that come after that send Trevor reeling. Questions about limits and safe words and what rules he should follow.

When Trevor winds up with a special surprise during a Secret Santa gift exchange, a surprise that has him whispering “Daddy,” things go from fake to real in an instant.

6. Roommates’ Alpha by Lacey Daize

Owen has been his cousin’s protector since they were children, but now that the other man is mated, he doesn’t know what to do.

Owen has spent most of his life as a safe space and confidant for his cousin, Ryan. However, Ryan’s recent mating has left Owen adrift, unsure of his place in the world.

As if that wasn’t enough, four new upstairs roommates means that Owen also has to figure out how he fits into the new household dynamic—a task made more difficult by the fact that they’re all incredibly handsome men.

He knows the best plan is to do what he’s always done: stick to his basement room and don’t impose himself on the upstairs roommates. So why why do they keep trying to include him?

Is there really a place for him, or is it just wishful thinking?

7. Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman

Small-batch independent yarn dyer Clara Ziegler is eager to brainstorm new color combinations–if only she could come up with ideas she likes as much as last time! When she sees Danielle Solomon’s paintings of Florida wildlife by chance at a neighborhood gallery, she finds her source of inspiration. Outspoken, passionate, and complicated, Danielle herself soon proves even more captivating than her artwork…

8. A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau

Advertising executive Nick Wong enjoys living in Toronto. He loves late nights partying and taking women back to his penthouse. And so it is with great reluctance that he returns to his boring hometown of Mosquito Bay for Thanksgiving.

This year, however, is even worse than usual. His interfering parents and grandparents, frustrated with the lack of weddings in the family, have invited blind dates for him and his three siblings. Nick’s brother Greg has been set up with Lily Tseng, who just so happens to be Nick’s latest one-night stand, the one he can’t get out of his mind.

Although Nick has never been interested in settling down, Lily has him reconsidering. Perhaps he’s good for more than a single night of sex, dumplings, and bubble tea after all. But first, he has to get through this painful weekend with his family and convince her that she should be with him, not Greg…

9. Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

When their foster-turned-adoptive mother suddenly dies, four brothers struggle to keep open the doors of her beloved Harlem knitting shop.
Jesse Strong is known for two things: his devotion to his adoptive mom, Mama Joy, and his reputation for breaking hearts. When Mama Joy unexpectedly passes away, he and his brothers have different plans for what to do with Strong Knits, their neighborhood knitting store. Jesse wants to keep the store open. His brothers want to tie off loose ends and close shop….

Part-time shop employee Kerry Fuller has kept her crush on Jesse a secret. When she overhears his impassioned plea to his brothers to keep the knitting shop open, she volunteers to help. Unlike Jesse, Kerry knows the “knitty-gritty” of the business, and together they make plans to reinvent Strong Knits for a new generation.

But the more time they spend together, the stronger the chemistry builds between them. Kerry, knowing Jesse’s history, doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl two. But Jesse is determined to prove to her that he can be the man for her forever and always. After all, real men knit.

10. Help! I’m the Big City Boy in My Christmas Comfort Movie by Joel Abernathy 

Merry Christmas… FOREVER.

If there’s anyone who can help Matthew Harrington get over his broken heart, it’s the man who made him believe in love in the first place.

Unfortunately, Ben Clark, the six-foot-six Christmas tree farmer with soulful blue eyes and rugged good looks, is literally too good to be true—he’s the love interest in Mistletoe Hollow, Matthew’s favorite Christmas comfort movie.

Matthew wishes he could find a guy like Ben after his ex runs off with another man, but his wish comes a little too true. When he puts Mistletoe Hollow on in hopes of raising his spirits only to literally get sucked into the movie, he’s rescued by none other than Ben himself.

Is a little holiday magic really enough to bridge their worlds and give them a happily-ever-after even a cynical city boy can’t resist?

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