The best part of Christmas? Cookies. Specifically, the homemade cookie selection my aunt spoils us with on Christmas Eve. Every year, she swaps her personal specialty – shortbread – for her friends’ fortes. The result? A perfect platter of a dozen different delicious confections: powdered almond moons, rum balls, and gingerbread jingle bells… it’s hard to know when to stop.
This blend of novelty and familiarity is precisely what I like about Christmas novella collections. The holidays are definitely a time to pull out our favourite comfort reads – I can’t be the only one with a dogged-eared holiday collection from the 1990s stashed in my mother’s guest room – but we’re also want choice. And, if we’re going to hit the sweet spot, we need an assortment from which to nibble. What could be more deluxe cookie box than an historical mega-collection that arrive each year with a dozen novellas tucked inside?
However, much as I love a classic selection, I’ve often felt something – or someone – is missing from these novella collections. So with my Christmas Masquerade series, I wanted to write some trope-tastic LGBTQ+ holiday romances with all the glitz and glow I could conjure up: fancy-dress balls, ice-skating in the park, and feasts galore. I wanted the gaslight glamour of Victorian London at Christmastime that we’re all so familiar with thanks to Dickens. And I wanted all that mistletoe magic featuring some less-represented historical characters – starting with a trans hero and a queer heroine celebrating the season in style.
In The Christmas Chevalier, Alvy Lexington is spending his first holiday away from his family in order to start openly living as a man. But his former life shows up unexpectedly when his old friend Laura Jacobs needs somewhere to stay for Christmas. Things only get more complicated when Alvy dazzles Laura with a dance at a Christmas Eve masquerade ball – only to realize she doesn’t recognize him in the white wig and waistcoat of a French chevalier. If masquerades, mistaken identity, and friends-to-lovers is your thing, I’ve got you covered.
If you’re relatively new to queer romance, holiday novellas are a perfect place to start. As one of my favourite LGBTQ+ authors said recently, there’s nothing more relatable than struggling with family and searching for love. That’s holiday romances whole modus operandi. I know that in writing The Christmas Chevalier, Alvy’s evolving relationship with his family was super important to the happy ending. And if you already gobble up queer romance, holiday novellas are still a chance to switch it up. I know it’s tempting when you find your sweet spot – hello m/m historicals – to just keep on going, but if we don’t try a taster then we potentially miss out on that best thing – a new favourite.
I sadly won’t get to sample my aunt’s cookie platter this year, so you better believe I’m going to make up for that loss with a Christmas novella feast. Happy nibbling everyone!
