Can you keep a secret?

Romance Bookworms’ last Stuff Your Kindle Day of 2025 will be December 26, Boxing Day. For the first time ever, I am giving away a book in the blast: Garden Folly Magic, Book 1 of the Cambion Club Trilogy.

If you haven’t read the Cambion Club books, you can learn more about the series here. Be sure to check out the content warnings. Garden Folly Magic will be free on Kindle December 24-28, so mark your calendar!

Even if you’ve already got a copy of Garden Folly Magic, you’ll still want to stop by Romance Bookworms on the 26th, because there will be hundreds of other free romance novels from a range of subgenres.

By the way, this isn’t actually a secret. You’ll probably hear more about Stuff Your Kindle Day in the coming weeks.

Speaking of Free Books. . .

In case you haven’t heard, historical romance author Alexandra Vasti will release a new holiday-themed novella on Wednesday, December 10.

Blurb:

Persephone Ballard has kidnapped a viscount.

In her defense, it was her brother's fault. For ten years, Percy’s brother has been madly in love with a notorious actress. And for just as long, he’s refused to marry her to protect his wallflower little sister from scandal. But now that Percy’s firmly (and happily!) on the shelf, she’s had enough of her brother’s self-sacrifice. Her plan? Kidnap his rakish best friend at the family Christmas party, ruin her own reputation, and rescue her brother from his self-imposed heartbreak.

Leopold, Viscount de Valincourt has found himself in plenty of scrapes—but waking up beside his best friend’s shy, scholarly, surprisingly cunning sister isn’t one he anticipated. Leo shocks them both, however, when he takes Percy's scheme even further. Why stop at ruination? If he brings Percy to his ancestral home as his bride, he can fulfill his beloved grandmother’s dying wishes to see him happily settled and save his best friend.

But to convince Leo’s grandmother of their passionate elopement, Percy and Leo must fake a grand romance at the ancient abbey until the end of the Christmas season. Nothing—not ghostly monks or scorched plum puddings or even Grand-maman's watchful eye—will ruin their perfect plan. Unless, of course, someone actually falls in love . . .

The Christmas I Stole A Viscount will be available ONLY to Alexandra Vasti’s newsletter subscribers. If you’re not on her mailing list, you can subscribe here.

Season’s Greetings

If you’ve read Secrets at Selwyn Castle, you might remember the scene where guests at the house party gather around the fire to share ghost stories. As you may or may not know, telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve was a nineteenth-century holiday tradition. Today, we probably know the tradition best from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol! If you want to learn more, check out this blog post.

That’s all for now, Rollins Readers! I wish you a stress-free month of December, and if you celebrate any of the upcoming winter holidays, I hope they bring you joy!