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Yule Love Me on Christmas
This sweet and tender story of two women falling in love over the winter holidays is not your average Christmas romance.
Melody Bishop has just come out to her parents, and they have disinvited her to Christmas until she rejects her "unnatural urges" and agrees to marry a man. She's struggling to stay true to herself and navigate her relationship to her Christian faith in the face of her parents' disapproval and the prospect of a Christmas all alone.
When Melody's coworker crush, Aoife Winterson, invites her to spend the holiday break with the Winterson clan, Melody finds herself in the middle of a twelve-day all-out celebration... but not of Christmas. The Wintersons are Wiccan, and they observe Yule, the winter solstice. Melody has always been drawn to Aoife's self-assuredness and confidence, and Aoife's family is a wonder of warmth and generosity and affectionate teasing compared to Melody's severe upbringing. But to follow her heart, Melody will have to go against everything she has been raised to believe and find her way into a new version of her faith that has room for her true self, and Aoife's.
Melody Bishop has just come out to her parents, and they have disinvited her to Christmas until she rejects her "unnatural urges" and agrees to marry a man. She's struggling to stay true to herself and navigate her relationship to her Christian faith in the face of her parents' disapproval and the prospect of a Christmas all alone.
When Melody's coworker crush, Aoife Winterson, invites her to spend the holiday break with the Winterson clan, Melody finds herself in the middle of a twelve-day all-out celebration... but not of Christmas. The Wintersons are Wiccan, and they observe Yule, the winter solstice. Melody has always been drawn to Aoife's self-assuredness and confidence, and Aoife's family is a wonder of warmth and generosity and affectionate teasing compared to Melody's severe upbringing. But to follow her heart, Melody will have to go against everything she has been raised to believe and find her way into a new version of her faith that has room for her true self, and Aoife's.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 4, 2022
17 people want to read
About the author
Riley E. Smith
21 books31 followersRiley E. Smith is an author and comedian who brings warmth and wit to a variety of genres. She loves crafting colorful characters to be your new best friends, and describing whole worlds so distinctly you could fall into them.
Riley was raised in the Arizona desert, where she developed a fondness for pretty things that could kill you if they felt like it. She earned her BA in English Literature from Rice University with a Distinction in Research on the strength of her thesis, an overly long exploration of Bugs Bunny’s performance persona.
She sojourned for a semester’s study at Cambridge University, where she climbed castle towers to discuss poetry and comedy with preeminent scholars in between improvising musicals and getting lost in gardens.
Since college, Riley has worked diligently at whatever took her fancy, including poetry, plays, and novels. She is an award-winning improv comedy player and teacher, and a budding clown, because in order to face our fears, we must become them. She brings her sense of humor to all her projects, even when putting your favorite characters into dire circumstances (she’s sorry about that, but not too sorry).
Riley lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her rarely-mad scientist partner and so many full bookshelves it’s an earthquake hazard. She’s hard at work on another book right now, or at least she should be. She might be playing the Sims.
Riley would love to conduct your next grand adventure, whether you want to solve a murder, fall in love, topple an empire… or have an elegant afternoon tea. Find her books on Amazon, or follow on Patreon for more!
Riley was raised in the Arizona desert, where she developed a fondness for pretty things that could kill you if they felt like it. She earned her BA in English Literature from Rice University with a Distinction in Research on the strength of her thesis, an overly long exploration of Bugs Bunny’s performance persona.
She sojourned for a semester’s study at Cambridge University, where she climbed castle towers to discuss poetry and comedy with preeminent scholars in between improvising musicals and getting lost in gardens.
Since college, Riley has worked diligently at whatever took her fancy, including poetry, plays, and novels. She is an award-winning improv comedy player and teacher, and a budding clown, because in order to face our fears, we must become them. She brings her sense of humor to all her projects, even when putting your favorite characters into dire circumstances (she’s sorry about that, but not too sorry).
Riley lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her rarely-mad scientist partner and so many full bookshelves it’s an earthquake hazard. She’s hard at work on another book right now, or at least she should be. She might be playing the Sims.
Riley would love to conduct your next grand adventure, whether you want to solve a murder, fall in love, topple an empire… or have an elegant afternoon tea. Find her books on Amazon, or follow on Patreon for more!
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 19, 2022
5 Stars for Yule Love Me on Christmas (audiobook) by Riley Smith read by Laura Lockwood.
This was a fun surprise. I didn’t read a description of the story before I started listening. I was looking for a Christmas-themed romance on Scribd and I found this. Don’t let the cover fool you. This is not your typical straitlaced Christmas romance.
This is a story of a young woman who has just come out to her Catholic parents and they reject her. Her coworker invites her to spend the holidays with her family so she won’t be alone over Christmas. The coworker neglects to tell her that her family doesn’t celebrate Christmas. But instead they observe Yule, the Wiccan winter solstice celebration. And in this family she finds understanding and compassion and ultimately her new love.
This was a fun surprise. I didn’t read a description of the story before I started listening. I was looking for a Christmas-themed romance on Scribd and I found this. Don’t let the cover fool you. This is not your typical straitlaced Christmas romance.
This is a story of a young woman who has just come out to her Catholic parents and they reject her. Her coworker invites her to spend the holidays with her family so she won’t be alone over Christmas. The coworker neglects to tell her that her family doesn’t celebrate Christmas. But instead they observe Yule, the Wiccan winter solstice celebration. And in this family she finds understanding and compassion and ultimately her new love.
December 10, 2021
Author here!
I wrote this book about a year ago, and I think it's a cute little foray into Regency times... Perfect for dropping into the period over one or two days.
Most of the criticism I've seen is that it ends too abruptly... which I agree with after rereading. So there is a sequel coming soon!
Also, my language could be smoother. Hoping to improve that in the sequel.
I would have done this as a Goodreads author update but Goodreads won't believe me that I am me. So here we are.
You can access the book at scribd.com, which is a wonderful eReader app, much less expensive and more inclusive than Audible. There's not only all the books you might be looking for, but also original content like this story!
Thank you for checking out this book, and excuse me giving myself 5 stars, but I did enjoy reading this again (which is not always true for looking back at old writing), so why not? Hope you enjoy it as well!
I wrote this book about a year ago, and I think it's a cute little foray into Regency times... Perfect for dropping into the period over one or two days.
Most of the criticism I've seen is that it ends too abruptly... which I agree with after rereading. So there is a sequel coming soon!
Also, my language could be smoother. Hoping to improve that in the sequel.
I would have done this as a Goodreads author update but Goodreads won't believe me that I am me. So here we are.
You can access the book at scribd.com, which is a wonderful eReader app, much less expensive and more inclusive than Audible. There's not only all the books you might be looking for, but also original content like this story!
Thank you for checking out this book, and excuse me giving myself 5 stars, but I did enjoy reading this again (which is not always true for looking back at old writing), so why not? Hope you enjoy it as well!
October 7, 2022
I'm hesitant about to read previously unheard of Austen fanfic, but this was short enough to take the risk. I was pleasantly surprised. It's not Jane, of course, but it was respectful of Jane and a nice little story in its own right.
March 10, 2022
I listened to this and really enjoyed it. The downside is it only has 7 chapters. I felt like it just abruptly ended. Also it ended just as I got into it. Hopefully the Author will write more to it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2023
Holiday Romance Readathon 2023: 14
So I REALLY liked this, but there were a few tiny things that I wasn't a huge fan of that stops me from giving it 5 stars:
1) The audiobook narrator is GREAT, but there's no pause after each chapter ends, so it'll be like "Melody wiped the tears from her eyes and went back insideCHAPTER SIX", which was ALWAYS disconcerting.
2) Melody is very Christian and has a hard time wrapping her head around all the Wiccan stuff, and gets very "omg am I sinning by enjoying myself??" which worked for the character, but I just did not enjoy that at all and it made me super uncomfortable having to listen to it. And as much as I didn't like that aspect, I also think realistically she would have been having MORE of a conflict of faith and been less accepting of everything going on around her. I dunno, I think this story would have probably worked a lot better if she'd been brought up in a religious household but wasn't that religious herself, because it would have made it easier for her to accept all the Yule traditions.
3) On a similar note, Melody has a promise ring that Aoife mentions once or twice, but the two of them never actually have any kind of conversation about it? That feels like an important thing they probably should have talked about. There's no sex scenes in the book - and I'm 100% fine with that - but I was unsure whether they had sex and it just was closed door or if they slept in the same bed without having sex. So a conversation about their sex expectations would have been great.
4) Last thing: the "I love yous" were WAY too sudden. They apparently hadn't talked to each other much before this holiday, just had crushes, and then suddenly after like less than 2 weeks they love each other??? Nooooooo.
Okay, that all said, here's what I did love:
1) I don't know much about Wiccan religion and Pagan traditions, and the only other Yule book I've read is Three Kings by Freydis Moon which really only mentions Yule in passing, so I found all the Yule traditions really interesting. I saw some reviews saying this book felt like Wiccan 101, and yeah the author went a bit too into detail on some stuff, but I still liked it.
2) Aoife's family were really fun and I enjoyed all of them (except Owen, who came on WAY too strong with his flirting with Melody, that it felt like sexual harassment at times.)
3) I think the writing was pretty strong and both main characters were very likeable. I'd read another book by this author happily.
So I REALLY liked this, but there were a few tiny things that I wasn't a huge fan of that stops me from giving it 5 stars:
1) The audiobook narrator is GREAT, but there's no pause after each chapter ends, so it'll be like "Melody wiped the tears from her eyes and went back insideCHAPTER SIX", which was ALWAYS disconcerting.
2) Melody is very Christian and has a hard time wrapping her head around all the Wiccan stuff, and gets very "omg am I sinning by enjoying myself??" which worked for the character, but I just did not enjoy that at all and it made me super uncomfortable having to listen to it. And as much as I didn't like that aspect, I also think realistically she would have been having MORE of a conflict of faith and been less accepting of everything going on around her. I dunno, I think this story would have probably worked a lot better if she'd been brought up in a religious household but wasn't that religious herself, because it would have made it easier for her to accept all the Yule traditions.
3) On a similar note, Melody has a promise ring that Aoife mentions once or twice, but the two of them never actually have any kind of conversation about it? That feels like an important thing they probably should have talked about. There's no sex scenes in the book - and I'm 100% fine with that - but I was unsure whether they had sex and it just was closed door or if they slept in the same bed without having sex. So a conversation about their sex expectations would have been great.
4) Last thing: the "I love yous" were WAY too sudden. They apparently hadn't talked to each other much before this holiday, just had crushes, and then suddenly after like less than 2 weeks they love each other??? Nooooooo.
Okay, that all said, here's what I did love:
1) I don't know much about Wiccan religion and Pagan traditions, and the only other Yule book I've read is Three Kings by Freydis Moon which really only mentions Yule in passing, so I found all the Yule traditions really interesting. I saw some reviews saying this book felt like Wiccan 101, and yeah the author went a bit too into detail on some stuff, but I still liked it.
2) Aoife's family were really fun and I enjoyed all of them (except Owen, who came on WAY too strong with his flirting with Melody, that it felt like sexual harassment at times.)
3) I think the writing was pretty strong and both main characters were very likeable. I'd read another book by this author happily.
February 14, 2025
I did not care for this. It didn’t seem to have much of a point and the ending told us nothing.
January 2, 2024
I loved this. The romance was a tad rushed and I wish we had more of their interpersonal interactions, but I loved the faith and family.
November 29, 2021
This is a story exclusive for Scribd and as I devour a ton of Christmas content is sticks out for being both Sapphic and depicting the Wiccan faith. Short but very sweet
December 30, 2022
I didn’t really know what the book was about before I started it. I really enjoyed the author’s book Cardinal earlier this year and was looking for my annual Christmas read, so I snagged this. I thought the Wiccan/Christmas content was very original and interesting. Both faiths were treated respectfully. I didn’t know anything about Wicca, but I learned a lot! The characters and plot had much more depth than I expected from a light Christmas romance. The dialog and family interactions had some great funny moments. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it turned out to be a delightful surprise.
January 3, 2022
This was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much from this story but it really worked for me. An FF romance, set in the woods of Washington state, focusing around Yule. Yule is a witch holiday that takes place around Christmas time. I found this to be really sweet, really interesting with the focus of Yule and I would be open to reading more from the author.
December 18, 2023
3,75! I loved, LOVED all the references and the traditions of Wicca that are explored, parallel to Christianity. With a sapphic romance on top of that ? A very nice and fast read.
December 2023 : I’m still thinking about this cute holiday tiny romance. So underrated
December 2023 : I’m still thinking about this cute holiday tiny romance. So underrated
April 22, 2021
3.5 stars
TW: Homophobia,
Bullying, Divorce, Death of a Loved One (mentioned)
This story was cute enough and I really loved the different family dynamics we got to see. However, the transition of Aoife's and Melody's relationship from a work crush to love in the span of about two weeks seemed too abrupt to me. That might have been different if we got to see more scenes between just the two of them, apart from all the "family fuss". Of course, this would have made the book longer, but I personally wouldn't have minded reading more, because I generally enjoyed the experience!
I don't know to what extent the depiction of Wiccan traditions is authentic because it's not a topic I am generally familiar with. However, it didn't strike me as stereotypical or condescending.
TW: Homophobia,
Bullying, Divorce, Death of a Loved One (mentioned)
This story was cute enough and I really loved the different family dynamics we got to see. However, the transition of Aoife's and Melody's relationship from a work crush to love in the span of about two weeks seemed too abrupt to me. That might have been different if we got to see more scenes between just the two of them, apart from all the "family fuss". Of course, this would have made the book longer, but I personally wouldn't have minded reading more, because I generally enjoyed the experience!
I don't know to what extent the depiction of Wiccan traditions is authentic because it's not a topic I am generally familiar with. However, it didn't strike me as stereotypical or condescending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2022
What a lovely surprise this book turned out to be! I would love to read more stories like this one. I was looking for a book with a Solstice setting, decided to give this one a try, and got so much more. I absolutely loved it! It not only provided info about Yule and the 12 Days of Christmas, but also about Wiccan religion. In addition, there is a sapphic romance with one half experiencing familial issues after coming out. All in all, for such a short story, it really packs a punch.
December 21, 2022
Such a lovely story
February 6, 2022
I didn't expect much when I started this, and I had fun.
The Yule aspect is really interesting, since I'm not that familiar to it, and it seems like it was presented well here. There's also the familial dynamics and parallels that brings out the traditional aspects of the holidays. The other one is, the part about the struggling with one's belief vs. one's self.
The Yule aspect is really interesting, since I'm not that familiar to it, and it seems like it was presented well here. There's also the familial dynamics and parallels that brings out the traditional aspects of the holidays. The other one is, the part about the struggling with one's belief vs. one's self.
December 3, 2022
Love the Wiccan aspect surrounding the book. It just didn’t feel as though the book was long enough.
April 12, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, but it felt incomplete. I would have loved to read a full-length novel or even a longer novella - something with a full plot.
Read
December 16, 2022This started so promising. I was super excited to read a queer holiday romcom that featured Wiccans! I mean absolutely epic. But it very quickly ventured into cringy over the top everything.
The entire promise of this book is that we have a super religious Christian woman who is newly out as a lesbian and has been ousted from her very Christian family. She is going to be alone for Christmas for the first time and she's not doing very well. Then we have cool witchy Wiccan lesbian lady who invites Christian lady to her family's holiday without telling her that they're celebrating Yule and not Christmas. They're both teachers and that plays a very small role yet also is featured in both the prologue and the epilogue so I don't know about that.
Anyway Christian lady spends the entire time totally confused about these people who have such different traditions and how could they not be celebrating Christ etc and it's just kind of exhausting. It's one of those things that I would have thought the author actually practiced Wicca with the way that it was done so respectfully and intricately and detailed but it turns out it's not that way. And kudos to the author for getting someone to weigh in on the Wiccan customs and cultural practices etc but it puts a whole different spin on the Christian part of this.
I have a hard time believing that someone who is so entrenched in a conservative Christian lifestyle would be able to embrace and accept and eventually like enter into a relationship with a woman who doesn't share the same faith. And maybe this is a bias and I'm showing my true colors here but Christianity is not a very forgiving religion and as someone who grew up in the church and is now atheist I just struggle with understanding how this relationship actually worked because there's no on page conversations where they talk about their differences in faith and religious practices. They don't ever really flush out their differences and find a way to move forward It's just all magically fixed or okay.
I was listening to this and it gets to the end and the one character is like "is it too early to say I love you" and I dead ass spoke out loud "Yes absolutely. My coworker thought I was losing it because" I was listening to the audio book at work. And then I got even crazier because The other character follows up that line with " if it is then I'm early too because I love you more " or some nonsense. It was absolutely ridiculous and if I didn't laugh I would have been mad that I just wasted time listening to this whole book. I'm still a little bit annoyed but I did like seeing religions that are not Christianity or Judaism in a holiday rom com, so points for that I guess
The entire promise of this book is that we have a super religious Christian woman who is newly out as a lesbian and has been ousted from her very Christian family. She is going to be alone for Christmas for the first time and she's not doing very well. Then we have cool witchy Wiccan lesbian lady who invites Christian lady to her family's holiday without telling her that they're celebrating Yule and not Christmas. They're both teachers and that plays a very small role yet also is featured in both the prologue and the epilogue so I don't know about that.
Anyway Christian lady spends the entire time totally confused about these people who have such different traditions and how could they not be celebrating Christ etc and it's just kind of exhausting. It's one of those things that I would have thought the author actually practiced Wicca with the way that it was done so respectfully and intricately and detailed but it turns out it's not that way. And kudos to the author for getting someone to weigh in on the Wiccan customs and cultural practices etc but it puts a whole different spin on the Christian part of this.
I have a hard time believing that someone who is so entrenched in a conservative Christian lifestyle would be able to embrace and accept and eventually like enter into a relationship with a woman who doesn't share the same faith. And maybe this is a bias and I'm showing my true colors here but Christianity is not a very forgiving religion and as someone who grew up in the church and is now atheist I just struggle with understanding how this relationship actually worked because there's no on page conversations where they talk about their differences in faith and religious practices. They don't ever really flush out their differences and find a way to move forward It's just all magically fixed or okay.
I was listening to this and it gets to the end and the one character is like "is it too early to say I love you" and I dead ass spoke out loud "Yes absolutely. My coworker thought I was losing it because" I was listening to the audio book at work. And then I got even crazier because The other character follows up that line with " if it is then I'm early too because I love you more " or some nonsense. It was absolutely ridiculous and if I didn't laugh I would have been mad that I just wasted time listening to this whole book. I'm still a little bit annoyed but I did like seeing religions that are not Christianity or Judaism in a holiday rom com, so points for that I guess
March 8, 2023
The author does a great job at capturing Emma vibes in this very short sequel. The language and wit felt about as close as one can get to Austen. It was a fun listen, but I think it should have been combined in the Miss Knightley goes to London. It might have made that one better.
There isn't a book for Miss Knightely goes to London on Goodreads, so I'll quick review it here. It is a 2 star for me. I felt like it started off on the wrong foot with the almost proposal. It left me waiting and waiting for some resolution on that and for the story to really begin. I don't think everyone will feel the same.
There also isn't a book on Goodreads for The Winthrop Children are never getting married. Just as witty as the others I've listened to, but this one just didn't feel as strong. It is a weak 3 stars.
There isn't a book for Miss Knightely goes to London on Goodreads, so I'll quick review it here. It is a 2 star for me. I felt like it started off on the wrong foot with the almost proposal. It left me waiting and waiting for some resolution on that and for the story to really begin. I don't think everyone will feel the same.
There also isn't a book on Goodreads for The Winthrop Children are never getting married. Just as witty as the others I've listened to, but this one just didn't feel as strong. It is a weak 3 stars.
December 3, 2022
In terms of matching Austen’s language I think it’s killer! And the story itself is cute.
The only thing I didn’t super love about the book was the fact that it ended abruptly (I’m going to start the sequel now) and the pressure about her marrying her cousin. It didn’t feel natural for either Mr. Knightley or Emma to be pushing their daughter to it when Emma herself had spent so much time determined to never wed?
The only thing I didn’t super love about the book was the fact that it ended abruptly (I’m going to start the sequel now) and the pressure about her marrying her cousin. It didn’t feel natural for either Mr. Knightley or Emma to be pushing their daughter to it when Emma herself had spent so much time determined to never wed?
December 8, 2023
Out now on Amazon!
The witchy, gay romcom you need right now: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09TYDFYMM
Reread in December 2023:
I’m going to reread this every year. It’s too cute and perfect for the season. I don’t care that I wrote it, it still makes me laugh and cry and cheer. SO. JOLLY.
The witchy, gay romcom you need right now: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09TYDFYMM
Reread in December 2023:
I’m going to reread this every year. It’s too cute and perfect for the season. I don’t care that I wrote it, it still makes me laugh and cry and cheer. SO. JOLLY.
September 25, 2022
Emulates the literature of the period well but interjects anachronistic themes and a lot more could have been done with each scene
December 31, 2023
It's not my cup of tea. 🤷🏻♀️
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews