my 2023 holiday bookish letter

sorry it's so late, I wasn't originally planning to share!

You may remember that, back in December, I offered a special holiday bundle of With Love, from Cold World that included a “holiday letter” with it. (Some of you may have even ordered that bundle — in which case, thank you! And I’m sorry this newsletter is redundant!)

I spent a really long time on my letter, and I was proud of it! I painstakingly (a) sourced paper in my house (surprisingly difficult???); (b) wrote with my favorite (at the time) pen with my BOLDNESS and NON-SMEARINESS I like, but I do have to write with my hand very up-and-down, which hurts after a while; (c) decorated with candy cane trim and clown emojis and colored pens and illustrated Christmas lights; (d) referred constantly back to my Goodreads reviews posted for 2023 books, lists I have of 2024 books coming out, Instagram posts I save with “Anticipated Books of 2024” roundups, that kind of thing!; and (e) spent an obscene amount of money having them color-copied because I no longer have access to a work printer where I could do that for free (not that I’ve ever done that!!!! in my life!!!!).

I hadn’t originally planned to share the letter here, mostly because idk I guess I thought it was supposed to be an “exclusive?” But then I realized, hang on a minute, *I* get to decide if it’s an exclusive or not! And the people who ordered the package still got the exclusivity of a hard copy letter, a signed book, other swag, etc. I put too much work into this not to share! And since it includes lots of links to books you can preorder throughout the first half of this year, I figured I had better GET ON IT before we get too far into January.

So, below please find my “Dear Reader” holiday letter. I’ve included pictures so you can see my charmingly (?) messy handwriting and my cute little clown doodle, but don’t squint to read it all because I’ve also helpfully typed out every word below, plus added links.

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DEAR READER, if it feels like a trap, you’re already in one . . . just playing, sorry, I couldn’t help myself on Taylor Swift’s birthday :) I love romance and if you’re ordering this special WITH LOVE, FROM COLD WORLD bundle, I’m assuming you do, too? So I wanted to tell you some of my favorite romances from 2023 and some I’m highly anticipating in 2024. (Oh, and thank you for ordering btw, I meant to lead with that but was too busy making Taylor references 🤡). If you don’t see a 2023 book you loved here, it may be because either I didn’t read it yet or, tragically, because I don’t even know about it!!! So feel free to reach out on IG (@aliciabooks) and let me know.

So, without further ado, here are some I loved:

• Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn, who is a MASTER of the romance craft and who wrote beautiful, messy Georgie and Levi, who can’t figure out why his stomach flips when she’s around (and Hank the Dog!!!);

• The Art of Scandal by Regina Black, Scandal meets The Good Wife, soapy with tension that had me ZINGIN - out in paperback in 2024 so watch for that;

• The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest, features an epistolary You’ve Got Mail setup MY KRYPTONITE with two book-loving characters, plus the 2nd in the series The Partner Plot will be out soon;

• You, with a View by Jessica Joyce, WOW what a powerful road trip romance with so much heart + steam, also I roomed with JJ at Steamy Lit and she’s one of my favorite people ever :);

• Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, not technically a romance I guess but tell that to “come back to me!!!” you will be a puddle on the floor!!!;

• Will They or Won’t They by Ava Wilder, god, I just ached the entire time for Lilah + Shane and I love the way Ava writes complicated characters;

• Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz, which feels “in conversation” with Cold World to me, lots about real, ordinary people at work and in love, with a friend group + themes of found family;

• Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon, so sexy and so smart, featuring sex lessons! A hilarious scene to start where he’s bad at sex! (Don’t worry, he gets there);

• Fancy Meeting You Here by Julie Tieu, a wedding florist + her friend’s grumpy brother! So cute!;

• Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly — my heart! My poor face, which got wrecked by Ben + Alexei!

Once again I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there are a million 2024 romances I have on my radar and I will probably kick myself later for ones I’ve forgotten! But below are some ones I’ve either read + loved (marked with a star *) or am very excited about, arranged by month Jan - Aug Jun (had to stop at June bc I ran out of room!) because that’s what mostly been announced/hyped up so far!

With love, from Alicia

• JANUARY

  • Last Call at the Local by Sarah Grunder-Ruiz (1/2)

  • Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen (1/9)

  • Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar (1/16)

  • Love, Naturally by Sophie Sullivan (1/16)

  • The Breakup Tour by Emily Wibberley + Austin Siegemund-Broka (1/23)*

• FEBRUARY

  • A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams (2/6)

  • Bride by Ali Hazelwood (2/6)

  • Girls with Bad Reputations by Xio Axelrod (2/6)

  • How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly (2/13)*

  • The Catch by Amy Lea (2/13)

  • Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne (2/13)*

  • The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett (2/13)*

  • Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff (2/20)*

  • Right on Cue by Falon Ballard (2/27)

  • How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang (2/27)

  • The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest (2/27)*

• MARCH

  • Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley (3/5)*

  • Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage (3/5)

  • This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan (3/5)

  • In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander (3/19)*

  • The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn (3/26)*

• APRIL

  • What Is Love? by Jen Comfort (4/1)

  • The Rule Book by Sarah Adams (4/2)

  • Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun (4/2)*

  • The Prospects by KT Hoffman (4/9)*

  • The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton (4/9)

  • When I Think of You by Myah Ariel (4/16)

• MAY

  • Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni (5/7)

  • Savor It by Tarah Dewitt (5/21)

  • The Road Trip Rewind by Kate and Danny Tamberelli (5/21)

• JUNE

  • Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb (6/4)*

  • Barely Even Friends by Mae Bennett (6/4)*

  • Isabel and the Rogue by Liana De la Rosa (6/4)

  • Right Where We Left Us by Jen Devon (6/18)*

  • Degrees of Engagement by Jennifer Hennessy (6/18)*

  • Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North (6/25)*

  • A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston (6/25)

  • Business Casual by B.K. Borison (7/16)

  • The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce (7/16)*

  • Oh, and The Art of Catching Feelings by Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (6/18!!!!)*

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There you have it!! It took a SHOCKING amount of time before I realized I really should be signing things “With love, from Alicia,” by the way. I made a few minor changes to the list of books to preorder, mostly to adjust a few I’d either put under the wrong month (likely) or that possibly had their pub dates moved (let’s go with that). All links above are to Bookshop, and may be affiliate links where SOMEBODY makes money (I guess let’s hope so???), but I certainly don’t because I am dedicated enough to gather all of these links and copy and paste them over but not to figure out how to set up affiliate links myself. It’s on my To Do list! At the very, very, very bottom.

As one final link, With Love from Cold World is apparently a Kindle deal in the UK this month!!! You can click here to get it for cheap. Cheers!

Currently reading . . . I have started my year RIGHT by reading banger after banger of a romance. I was about to tell you that I’ve been prioritizing two types of books:

1. Books that have been on my physical TBR shelf, like The Astronaut and the Star by Jen Comfort. This book is a lot of fun — a prickly, takes-no-shit goth astronaut pairs up with a himbo (at least seemingly himbo) actor when he has to do some astronaut training for a movie. There’s this scene where he calls out someone for referring to her as a “bitch,” which I love because fuck misogyny! But then there’s a scene where he thinks she’s referring to his publicist/friend as a “brat” and tells her not to call her that. Sticking up FOR your love interest is awesome, but sticking up TO your love interest might be even hotter!!! (She was actually referring to someone else, but it doesn’t matter, he was going to stick up for his friend even to the woman he’s dying to sleep with.)

2. Books that I was sent early to read or blurb, like The Road Trip Rewind by Kate and Danny Tamberelli. No surprise if you read their first book, The First Date Prophecy, but this one is jam-packed with perfect ‘90s references. (Personally, I would read 300+ pages of nothing but Mallrats quotes . . . which is not what they’re doing here, don’t worry, but just saying I WOULD READ IT.) If you read the first book, this one also features the charming, handsome, seemingly self-centered older brother Rocco, and I LOVE it when you get a character in one book who seems like, oh that dude’s not great! And then you get their book and you’re like, ahhhhh actually there’s a lot more to him than you might think.

So yeah. I say those are the two kinds of books I’m prioritizing, but then I also picked up Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin at that bookstore a couple weeks ago and so of course I had to read that one, too. (Insert meme about buying new books when you have piles of unread ones at home.) Man, I hate HOAs but man, did I love this book! Genuinely funny and steamy and estranged-childhood-friends-to-lovers which is a trope I am especially interested in right now (side eye emoji).

watching . . . Alert the media!!! Update my LinkedIn!!! I FINALLY watched the entirety of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. I have so many thoughts on this movie it might be time for a post-doc (I already received my PhD in Priscilla Presley Studies, you might recall). Suffice to say I’m on a rabbit hole of what’s true versus what’s not, starting with a Google search for “did Elvis really say ‘Fuck the International [Hotel] on stage?’” (no). Google most things about this movie with a “Did Elvis really . . .” or “Is it true that . . .” and the answer is no lol. The facts might be all shake, rattle, and roll, but the music in the movie was truly my favorite part. I thought they did a great job of incorporating both his songs and other songs of the time as motifs, to parallel plot points, to set moods, etc.

listening to . . . In addition to Elvis, I’ve been listening to a lot of the playlist for my current WIP. In my earbuds right now, this second, for example: “Just a Lover” by Hayley Williams. A truly incredible song and fits PERFECTLY. Can’t wait to tell you how. In like a year lol.

preordering . . . This category feels a little silly this week, when that’s literally the point of the ENTIRE newsletter, but I know I’m really looking forward to Love, Naturally by Sophie Sullivan. I got to meet Sophie at Steamy Lit and she was such a delight — I wish we’d been able to spend more time together!