I’m a mood reader, which means I usually prefer to read holiday romances near the relevant holiday. Like many romance readers, I’ve been reading a lot of Christmas romance lately. In my religious tradition, Christmas is an Octave rather than a single day. Many cultures celebrate Christmas as a twelve-day season that ends with Epiphany, so you’d better believe I’m still reading Christmas books!

I thought it would be fun to record the Christmas books I’m reading, starting with December 25, and ending with Epiphany. This would have been a better idea had I actually thought of it on or before the first day of Christmas, but better late than never, am I right?

On the first day of Christmas, I finished Gail Eastwood’s Lord of Misrule. This was the first Eastwood novel I’ve read, and the writing was *superb.* I loved both main characters, and I enjoyed the forced-proximity premise, which brings together two people who probably would never have otherwise crossed paths.

Before you read, you should know that Eastwood writes kissing-only romance. There’s no on-page sex, although the kisses pack a little heat.

This book also contains some religious elements, although I’m not sure I’d categorize it as outright “Inspirational” romance. The religion is well-done: any religious ideas seem to come from the characters themselves rather than being forced into the story by the narrator. (If you’ve read poorly-written Christian romance, you may know what I’m talking about.) Still, readers who don’t want any reference to God or prayer in their romance will probably want to skip this book.

As for me, it made me want to read more Eastwood. It’s a great novel to start my Twelve Days of Christmas with, too, because it covers the whole Christmas season!