Early November is the lull before the holiday storm — and when I get most of my reading time in before the end of the year. The sun sets earlier, and I find myself wanting to settle in with a book right after dinner. I know this quiet won’t last long. Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season are coming, and somehow the weeks between mid-November and New Year’s always seem to fly by. So, for now, I’m enjoying these longer, darker evenings with a few romances. Here are the ones I especially enjoyed reading this month.

*****

Once in a Timeline (Cosmo Reads) by Iman Hariri-Kia is my favorite time-loop romance novel of the year, hands down.

Laia Grace Shirzan is determined to become a lifestyle influencer, leaving behind her insecurities in pursuit of the perfectly curated life she sees online. But when her “day in the life” video starts glitching, Laia discovers she’s trapped inside it, reliving the same picture-perfect day over and over again. Suddenly, the life she worked so hard to put on the screen is the one she can’t escape.

Her only hope is Noah, the brooding, handsome stranger who is also trapped in Laia’s artificial reality. As the unlikely pair work together to outsmart the algorithm and figure out why they’re stuck, their growing attraction complicates the mission. The deeper they dig, the more Laia has to confront the things she’s been avoiding in real life, from loneliness and family expectations to her own insecurities and the difference between the person she presents to the world and the person she really is.

The premise is clever and original, but what really won me over was Laia’s journey. Hariri-Kia has fun with the absurdity of a woman trapped inside her own social-media feed while exploring some surprisingly weighty questions about what happens when the carefully curated version of our lives starts to feel more real than the messy one. Laia’s growth is satisfying, and her romance with Noah brings plenty of swoony moments without overshadowing the deeper themes.

With its magical realism, humor, and emotional depth, as well as its thoughtful exploration of social media, white-centric beauty standards, and the experience of growing up as the child of immigrants, this is a romance about the realities of life and love in all their unfiltered glory.

*****

Becca Freeman’s Back Where We Started (Penguin) is a tender, heartfelt second-chance romance with a charming Christmas backdrop.

Katie Eubanks has made it big in Hollywood under the name Blair Banks, building the acting career she dreamed about as a teenager. But when she returns to her Pennsylvania hometown for Christmas, she also returns to the memories — and the first love — she left behind. Katie has achieved nearly everything she once wanted, yet being back in Dutch Ridge makes her wonder whether the life she worked so hard for is truly the one she wants now.

Drew Callahan has taken a very different path, working in politics and cultivating a life that looks nothing like the future he and Katie imagined as teens. He’s also dating someone else when Katie comes home, making their reunion considerably more complicated than a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Through a dual timeline, Freeman traces their relationship from childhood through college, showing how two ambitious young people fell in love — and how those ambitions eventually pulled them apart.

What I enjoyed most about this novel is that Katie and Drew can’t simply pick up where they left off. They’ve grown, changed, and built lives apart, and Freeman gives them lots to consider about ambition, achievement, and what actually makes a life fulfilling. I also loved the contrast between Katie’s glamorous Tinseltown career and the small-town life she once couldn’t wait to escape. Add a warm Yuletide setting and a romance that has to be earned rather than simply rekindled, and Back Where We Started is a lovely way to start the holiday season.

*****

I found the contract-killer Western I didn’t know I needed in Meredith Trapp’s delightful Trigger Happy (Emily Bestler Books).

Sabrina Chastain is a polished Manhattanite, meticulous planner, and highly skilled assassin with a poison-tipped manicure and a backup plan for her backup plan. Killing is the family business, and Sabrina has spent years competing for jobs against another dynasty of assassins. So when she accepts a mysterious partner assignment in Wyoming, she’s less than thrilled to discover exactly who she’ll be working with.

Lawton Montoya is a rough-and-tumble cowboy who relies on instinct and improvisation to get the job done — and he doesn’t mind getting dirty in the process. He’s not only Sabrina’s opposite in practically every way, he’s also her longtime rival, and a bloody feud between their families is just one more reason to despise each other. Their assignment requires them to pose as a happily married couple while keeping tabs on an apparently ordinary local couple.

Forced proximity, fake marriage, and years of simmering animosity are a dangerous combination, especially when the barbs give way to attraction and some seriously steamy sex. But just as Sabrina and Lawton start wondering if they might honestly have a future together, they realize their assignment may be much more complicated than they thought.

A tip of the (cowboy) hat to Trapp, who takes two professional killers and somehow makes them endearing, funny, and ridiculously easy to root for without softening their lethal edges. Sabrina and Lawton’s opposites-attract chemistry is terrific, their banter is sharp, and the long-running feud between their families adds both emotional weight and plenty of surprises. Trigger Happy is a wildly entertaining romance that commits completely to its absolutely outrageous premise.

Kristina Wright lives in Virginia with her husband, their two sons, two Goldendoodles, and a ginger cat. She’s a regular contributor at BookBub and a lifelong fan of romance fiction. Find her on Bluesky at @kristinawright.