A Merry Little Meet Cute

Julie Murphy began her career as a librarian and debuted as a fiction writer with Side Effects May Vary in 2014. Dumplin’, published in 2015, became a New York Times bestseller and one of TIME magazine’s Best 100 YA Books of All Time and was adapted into a successful Netflix film. Dumplin’ is the first book in a series that includes Puddin’ (2018), the middle grade novel Dear Sweet Pea (2019), and Pumpkin (2021). Murphy has also published picture books, the adult contemporary romance If the Shoe Fits (2021), short stories in several anthologies, and collaborative work, including the young adult novel Let Them Stare, cowritten with Jonathan Van Ness, who is known for his appearance on the popular TV fashion show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Murphy’s novels are frequently praised as having engaging, likeable, plus-sized characters and for supporting body-positive attitudes.

Sierra Simone is the author of several series of contemporary romance novels, including the popular New Camelot series, which reimagines the love relationship between King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot as a throuple, modernized to feature the president of the United States, his wife, and his best friend. Simone’s Lyonesse series similarly retells the story of King Mark, Tristan, and Isolde by recasting Mark as the owner of a private club located in Washington, DC. Simone hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015 with Priest, a romance about a priest who breaks his vow of celibacy, followed by Sinner (2018) and Saint (2021), which also tell stories of forbidden passion. Other books by Simone include the Thornchapel romantasy series, which blends Gothic elements with an academic setting, and other series of historical romances set in Britain, ranging from the medieval to the Victorian period. Her work tends to be high in eroticism, and her romantic narratives feature a wide range of sexual orientations and preferences.

The Christmas Notch collaboration was born of a friendship between the two authors and their shared enjoyment of Hallmark Channel holiday movies (“About.” Julie + Sierra). Each of the books in the Christmas Notch series takes on a different popular trope of the romance genre. Suitably, the series begins with the beloved opening beat of the romance formula known as the “meet-cute,” when the romantic leads first encounter one another in ways that seem unpromising for a future connection. Drawing on this incongruity, A Merry Little Meet Cute brings together characters from different worlds in the fictional town of Christmas Notch, Vermont, where the economy runs on being the setting for holiday films. As a result, Christmas is celebrated there all year long.

This first novel is followed by the novella Snow Place Like LA (2023), the novel A Holly Jolly Ever After (2023), novella Seas and Greetings (2024), and novel A Jingle Bell Mingle (2024). All of these works draw on the Christmas Notch setting and extend the network of characters established in the first book. The series has been called “sexy,” “charming,” and “hilarious” and has attracted a popular following: A Jingle Bell Mingle was a USA Today bestseller upon release.