Christmas in July is July 25, and I refuse to be embarrassed about how much I love it. (My family knows that if they hear sleigh bells coming from my office in the middle of summer, it is just a Tuesday.)

Here is my confession. I write Christmas romance year-round. Right now, while you are sweating through July, I am very possibly typing the words 'first snow' and 'mistletoe' with the air conditioning cranked to arctic. It is a strange way to live and I would not change it.

There is a reason holiday romance hits different. Everything is already heightened. People come home who have not been home in years. Old flames end up snowed in at the same inn. The whole town leans soft and golden and a little bit forgiving, and two people who never got their timing right finally get a second shot under the lights. The season does half the emotional work for you. (The other half is yearning. There is always yearning.)

So if you are looking for a way to cool off this week, may I suggest the deeply illogical pleasure of reading about a blizzard while it is ninety degrees out. The Trouble With Tinsel is one of my favorites for exactly this, equal parts cozy and chaotic, with a heroine who is having a complicated relationship with the holidays and a man determined to change her mind.

If small-town and snowed-in is more your speed, One Hundred Christmas Kisses will take you straight to Aspen Cove with a quilt and a cup of something warm.

Pour the iced tea. Put on the twinkle lights if you have them (I do, year-round, no notes). And let yourself have Christmas a full five months early.

You can find The Trouble With Tinsel here and One Hundred Christmas Kisses here.