Suggested Reads for December 2025

Millstadt Library
14 minutes ago
8 min read

Looking for some book inspiration? Here are some suggested reads for November!

These books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List and at the top of the Millstadt Library's most circulated list. At the end of these lists, Nichole picks a book or two that she personally recommends.

We just reviewed The 13th Gift by Joanne Huist Smith and are reading The Wedding People by Alison Espach for our next Senior Center Book Club meeting on Monday, January 19 at 11 a.m.

Without further ado, here are this month's picks!

The Christmas Ring by Karen Kingsbury

Vanessa Mayfield's great-grandfather discovered a beautiful gold and ruby ring buried in the dirt at Normandy on D-Day. It gave him hope when all hope seemed lost and came to be known as The Christmas Ring as it was passed down through the generations of their family.

Years ago, though, Vanessa lost the ring shortly after becoming a military widow herself and has scoured antique stores ever since, hoping someone found it. After dropping her daughter Sadie off for college, the "Christmas in July" sale sign she sees passing through Marietta seems the perfect distraction before returning to her now-empty house. She doesn't find the ring, but she does find something completely the co-owner of the store, Ben Miller, makes her smile in a way she hasn't since losing her husband.

Their friendship blossoms throughout the fall, and as Christmas nears, it's clear that something more is developing. Unbeknownst to either of them, Ben's father, Howard, has purchased a box of antiques that happens to include Vanessa's missing heirloom Christmas ring. A ring secretly worth five figures and filled with a lifetime of Vanessa's memories. Ben's father has no idea the importance of the heirloom--he just knows it is by far the most valuable piece he will have ever sold--and he's making plans to sell it so he can finally travel the world. It is his Christmas diamond in the rough.

As Vanessa works to pull off her annual Columbus Cares Christmas Military Dance, she's eager for Sadie to return home from college. But she hasn't told Sadie about Ben. Every time she tries, something stops them. But with Ben in town to help with final preparations for the dance, she can no longer put it off.

When Ben learns the truth about his father's newfound treasure, he fears it will become a wedge that drives them completely apart. Can he convince his father to stop the sale of Vanessa's precious heirloom? Or this Christmas, will love become the actual diamond in the rough?

Genres: Christmas | Romance | Christian Fiction | Holiday | Audiobook

208 pages, Hardcover | Published October 21, 2025

White Wolf by Eric Van Lustbader

In this cutting-edge installment of the acclaimed thriller series, New York Times bestselling author Eric Van Lustbader thrusts listeners into a world where power is being redefined by a revolutionary communication program that renders modern encryption obsolete, one that will topple global power structures and give rise to technology-driven totalitarian states.

Evan Ryder races against time in a landscape where secrets can no longer hide behind digital walls. Ilona Shokova, the elusive, deadly assassin White Wolf, holds the key to mastering this unhackable method.

Two powerful, deadly women, one quest. Will either one of them survive?

In this pulse-pounding thriller, the future isn't just written in code—it's locked behind it.

Strap in for Lustbader's next explosive novel in the Evan Ryder series; an action-packed rollercoaster that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

352 pages, Hardcover | Published December 2, 2025

May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin

Worse things happen at sea.

Paul Delamare has been roped into accompanying his old friend on a luxury cruise aboard the magnificent superyacht Mal de Mer. It’s all plain sailing until his friend’s priceless necklace is stolen, and everyone falls under suspicion.

Every chef for himself.

As Paul races to catch the thief, the ship begins to drift off-course, veering into the storm-lashed mid-Atlantic. Then one of the passengers is found dead in mysterious circumstances, in a pool of coffee and surrounded by cake crumbs.

Voyage of the damned.

It’s all hands on deck to catch the killer, but Paul soon discovers guests and crew are harbouring deadly secrets. And if he can’t get to the bottom of the mystery soon, he’ll be sleeping with the fishes.

384 pages, Hardcover | First published January 1, 2025

The Snow Lies Deep by Paula Munier

Mercy and Troy are looking forward to baby Felicity’s first holiday season, and they’re determined to make it a Christmas to remember. At Northshire’s annual Solstice Soirée, hosted by Northshire’s finest and funded by Mercy’s billionaire pal Feinberg, Amy’s little girl Helena is sitting on Santa Claus’s lap. She’s telling him she’d like a Bitty Baby doll just like little Felicity when the bearded man leaps up, thrusts the toddler at her mother Amy, and staggers away from the festivities. He disappears into the woods. By the time Elvis and Mercy find him, Santa Claus aka the town mayor, is lying on his back, dead. A yule log made of oak sits on his chest, burning bright, a beacon of light on the darkest day of the year.

This strange murder is the first of a series of similar Solstice-themed killings targeting the town’s most prominent citizens. Beloved family friend Lillian Jenkins, the grande dame of Northshire, could be next. Mercy and Troy and the dogs must team up with Thrasher and Harrington to capture The Yuletide Killer before he strikes again, this time far closer to home.

320 pages, Hardcover | Published December 2, 2025

Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs

Small creatures—a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel—have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in the same bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Tory, she’s diverted by a disturbing call. Now, it seems, the perp is upping the ante. This find is larger. Could the remains be human?

Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone’s pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty deeply abhorrent, Tempe vows to help apprehend the person responsible for the killings, and due to Tory’s especially layered knowledge of animal behavior, the young woman turns out to be a valuable ally in the hunt for answers. Oddly, Tempe discovers that semi-retired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell is equally outraged and committed. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe and Skinny seek input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries—and that the perp’s focus may soon shift to humans.

And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the earlier killings.

As Tempe and Slidell follow the horrifying clues to a shocking conclusion, they’re forced to confront an increasingly terrifying question: “What is pure evil?”

288 pages, Hardcover | First published November 18, 2025

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2025)

Throughout her life Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings around half past ten Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has. A mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

304 pages, Hardcover | First published April 29, 2025

Huguette by Cara Black

August, 1945: Badly traumatized by the last few months of Nazi occupation, orphaned, and pregnant through a story too painful and dangerous to tell, seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure seeks refuge at a convent. Her father, before he was killed by vigilantes, made powerful enemies, and Huguette has a target on her back. But not even when her baby is born does she find peace—and after narrowly avoiding jail time thanks to the kindness of a Parisian police officer, though she feels ready to give up, she instead decides to try for one last chance for a new life. She cashes in one of her father’s IOUs at a film studio on the outskirts of Paris, where she gets a job assisting a legendary film director. Once she goes from helping him with chores to cooking his books, she sees an opportunity to change her fortunes—and to break free from the ghosts of her past once and for all.

Over the next few years of Huguette’s life, she goes from the black market to the film industry, from Paris to Lyon, from child to woman. National and New York Times bestseller Cara Black has been an expert in all things France for decades; now, in her most expansive, emotional work yet, she uses the vessel of Huguette, this enterprising and complex young heroine, to immerse readers in the harsh reality of life after Libération.

336 pages, Hardcover | Published December 2, 2025

NICHOLE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Tis the Season, right? I was not expecting much from this contemporary romance, but needed something to read over the weekend. I'm glad I picked it up.

This cozy novel didn't achieve any story-writing feats, but deivered on a cute story for Christmas. I couldn't really like either main character, but I didn't dislike them either. In fact, most of the book was a little lukewarm. That said, I'm looking forward to the next in the series since I find it so difficult to find contemporary romance authors who can actually write a full story properly without seeming like a Young Adult author.

Good Spirits by B.K. Borison

He’s the Ghost of Christmas Past. She’s not exactly Scrooge.

Ghost of Christmas Past Nolan Callahan intends to spend this holiday haunting like every other—get in, get out, return to his otherwise aimless existence as a ghost awaiting the afterlife. But when he’s faced with Harriet York, the sweetest assignment he’s ever had, he suddenly finds himself wishing for a future.

Harriet York has no idea why she’s being haunted. She’s a good person—or, at least, she tries to be. A people pleaser to her core, she always does what’s expected of her. But as she and Nolan begin to examine her past, they discover there are threads that bind them together— and realize there might be more to moving on than expected.

With the deadline of Christmas Eve fast approaching, will they find the key to their futures in each other’s pasts? Or will they stay firmly in the present, indulging in their unexpected, spirited connection?

Filled with magic, mayhem, and cozy holiday charm

384 pages, Paperback | First published October 21, 2025

*all descriptions of the novels and the book covers are from GoodReads.com

Suggested Reads for December 2025

Recent Posts

Comments