Culture

Steamy Romance Books To Cozy Up With This Winter

Published

11 months ago

January 25, 2025

Steamy Romance Books To Cozy Up With This Winter

As far as I’m concerned, there is no bad time to read a cozy book, especially a cozy romance. But winter seems particularly perfect, doesn’t it? When it’s cold out, our bodies remind us that our ancient ancestors spent the season slowing down, recharging and cocooning themselves in warmth, and a chilly night is the perfect time to curl up at home with a book that helps you do just that. Here is a list of books that warm the heart and heal the soul — and some of them are steamy!

By Talia Hibbert

We’re off to a strong start with one of my favorite novels of any genre! This is the final book in Hibbert’s trilogy of romances about the Brown sisters (you don’t have to read them in order), and I love them all, but Eve’s story has the biggest place in my heart. She is the messy baby of the family, with a sunshine soul and a lifetime of well-suppressed hurt from feeling like an outsider in her overachieving family. When her latest business venture crashes and burns, she’s desperate to prove she can stand on her own. Enter Jacob, the perfectionist owner of the Castell Cottage bed-and-breakfast, who reluctantly hires Eve as his new chef … after she accidentally runs him over and breaks his arm.

There’s a lot to love about this book — the cozy setting, the supporting cast, the incredibly hot sex scenes, the humor, every single appearance by Eve’s grandma — but what makes it so special to me is the tender and realistic way Hibbert portrays her two neurodivergent protagonists.

By Freya Marske

In this dazzling historical fantasy, Robin, a young baron saddled with his dead parents’ debts and completely unaware of the secret magical world running parallel to the Edwardian England he knows, meets Edwin, a magician with a complicated relationship with magic and an even more complicated relationship with his magical family. Adventure, mayhem and murder naturally ensue.

Alongside a beautiful, steamy and moving romance, expect a plethora of beautiful settings and delightful supporting characters (plus two sequels to dive into when you’re done). If you’ve ever wished for Georgette Heyer’s wit in a more queer, inclusive and magical story, this is the book for you.

Read our review.

By Aiden Thomas

A book about death, ghosts and a cemetery might sound like the furthest thing from cozy. But Thomas’s beautiful debut, set in a Latino community in Los Angeles, combines magical realism, teen drama, family conflict and first love into a novel that’s warm, moving and relatable.

Yadriel is a trans boy looking for acceptance from his family of brujx, or sorcerers; determined to prove himself, he taps into his ancestral power to summon a ghost. Of course, things don’t quite go according to plan, and he finds himself stuck with the specter of Julian, his school’s resident bad boy, who needs Yadriel’s help solving the mystery of his death before he can move on. But the longer the pair spend together, the less Yadriel wants Julian to go.

Read our review.

By Alyssa Cole

Frankly, all I needed to hear about this book were the words “hot mess of an heiress starts an apprenticeship with a sexy sword maker in Scotland” and I was sold. At first glance, this sounds like a historical romance, but it’s actually a delightful, sexy contemporary novel packed with Cole’s signature wit, a spirited and vulnerable heroine and a very hot and very reluctant duke.

By Evie Dunmore

Now this, on the other hand, is a historical romance. The first volume in Dunmore’s magnificent League of Extraordinary Women series, “Bringing Down the Duke” introduces readers to Annabelle, a working class young woman, and her three unapologetically political and unconventional best friends, who are in the first cohort of female university students at Oxford. Annabelle is there on a scholarship, in exchange for which she has to recruit prominent men to support the growing women’s suffrage movement. Her target: Sebastian, an icy, influential and inconveniently handsome duke.

Sebastian has a lot of privilege and prejudices to unpack over the course of the book, but his story is a joy to read, as is his and Annabelle’s growing attraction. There are a lot of laughs (and tears!), the supporting cast is absolutely stellar, and the romance is a deliciously steamy slow burn.

By Sarah Beth Durst

As much as I adore grumpy men as love interests, I have an enormous soft spot for grumpy women as protagonists. The heroine of “The Spellshop,” Kiela, is a taciturn, reclusive librarian. She’s also loyal, generous and deeply lonely.

When her city is destroyed, Kiela flees the burning wreckage with as many precious books as she can carry and finds herself in the only place she could think to hide: her late parents’ cottage. Expect slow days in a sleepy coastal village, baked goods, winged kittens, a sentient spider plant and a hot man who builds bookshelves for our heroine. I, for one, couldn’t ask for more.

By Mai Mochizuki; translated by Jesse Kirkwood

I have to admit that I’m cheating a bit here: This is not actually a romance, at least in the traditional sense. But if you’re anything like me, you read romance not only for the love stories, banter and smut, but also for that soft, joyful sense of healing a good romance gives you. And few books lately have made me feel as soft, joyful and healed as “The Full Moon Coffee Shop.”

It’s best to go into this book knowing as little as possible. All you really need to know is that it’s a charming contemporary fantasy and, as you might have guessed from the cover, it does involve cats.

Read our story on Mai Mochizuki and the rising popularity of “healing fiction.”

By Suzanne Walker; illustrated by Wendy Xu

For all the comic and graphic novel fans out there, this one is a real treat. “Mooncakes” is a cozy, adorable, casually queer and gorgeously illustrated adventure about a teen witch named Nova, her magical grandmothers, her werewolf crush, horse demons, spell books, food and family. If you were a fan of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” you’ll love Nova Huang.

By Diana Wynne Jones

And finally, here is another of my absolute favorite novels of all time: the whimsical and wonderful “Howl’s Moving Castle.” Fans of Studio Ghibli’s film adaptation will be familiar with the adventures of Sophie Hatter (young, feisty and cursed with the appearance of old age), the wizard Howl (adorable chaotic disaster), the fire demon Calcifer (snarky and full of secrets) and the titular moving castle (my dream home!). But believe it or not, the book is even cozier, funnier and lovelier than the screen version.

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Culture

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

Published

2 days ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.

By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega

December 18, 2025

Culture

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

Published

4 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

Culture

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

Published

4 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.

Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”

With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”

How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.

By ‘A Lady’

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)

Where the Magic Happened

Janice Chung for The New York Times

Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.

An Iconic Accessory

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.

Austen Onscreen

Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.

Jane Goes X-Rated

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.

A Lady Unmasked

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”

Wearable Tributes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.

The Austen Literary Universe

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)

A Botanical Homage

Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.

Aunt Jane

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.

Cultural Currency

Steve Parsons/Associated Press

In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.

In the Trenches

During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”

Baby Janes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.

The Austen Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.

Around the Globe

Goucher College Special Collections & Archives, Alberta H. and Henry G. Burke Collection; via The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.

Playable Persuasions

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.

#SoJaneAusten

The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.

Bonnets Fit for a Bennett

Peter Flude for The New York Times

For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.

Most Ardently, Jane

The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Stage and Sensibility

Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.

Austen 101

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”