The Rec League: Thanksgiving Romances

The Rec LeagueI received an email from Abby, who wrote:

With the holidays coming up, I was hoping to find a Thanksgiving romance. I know Thanksgiving isn’t as “sexy” as some of the other holidays (full stomachs and such), but it’s my favorite, and I was curious if you knew of any or had any to recommend.

I love Thanksgiving. Specifically, I love stuffing (DRESSED UP BREAD. It’s like FORMAL BREAD. It might as well wear a top hat and tails!) and cranberry sauce. But I had to stop and think about whether I’d read and would recommend any Thanksgiving romances. (I think my brain got stuck on the formal breadiness of stuffing, and pretty much shorted out. I seriously love stuffing.)

Thanksgiving
A | K | AB
Amanda: I immediately thought of that Evanovich book with the turkey on the cover, but I’ve never read it so I have no clue if it’s a romance.

Elyse: It’s Thanksgiving- and it’s a romantic comedy!

Sarah: I know there’s a ton of Harlequin Thanksgiving-themed titles. Sometimes they have vaguely creepy looking kids on the covers- which of course I remember far more than, you know, the words on the covers.

This is the one I always think of first, once the stuffing distraction fog has lifted: Once Upon a Thanksgiving  ( A | K ).

We captioned this cover years and years ago:

Once Upon a Thanksgiving he's grabbing her form behind and there's a girl with a vacant expression in front of them smiling at paper turkey - this cover is just weird, you guys.

If you’re curious, the winner was Teddypig for Butterballin’, with a runners-up mountain of kudos to “Judy for Turfucken for dinner again?? and Becky for referencing the joke that will NEVER get old, Stuffing the turkey, saving its life!”

Then there’s this cover, The Triplets’ First Thanksgiving ( A | K | AB ), which I find both creepy and charming:

The Triplets' FIrst Thanksgiving. One baby is dressed up as a pea pod, another is a jackolantern, and the third is...I'm not sure. A turnip maybe?

What is the baby in the front dressed as? Something with a long orange stinger and a green stem? I have no idea, but he doesn’t look pleased to be there.

Amanda:  Well, if my Thanksgivings are any indication, there’s nothing sexy about family dysfunction and that gelatin cranberry sauce.

Sarah: Ok, step off the cranberry sauce, or pass yours to me because I harbor a sick, deep love for that stuff. But yes, the family dysfunction is clearly not always easily-resolved romance material.

Amanda: Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love that jelled cranberry sauce, but there are some people who abhor it. We’re having a big “Friendsgiving” in Boston before we all disperse and I suggest snagging the canned sauce and my group of friends acted like I wanted to bring roadkill to the feast.

I’m bringing the canned sauce anyway and I’m going to make them all watch as a splorp it onto the plate.

Sarah: I open both ends of the can and push it onto a plate. Then I slice a strip off one long side so it has a flat surface to sit on while we pass the plate.

THEN I EAT THAT STRIP OF JELLY RED GOODNESS. Because YUM. MINE.

Wait! I THOUGHT OF ONE. My brain let go of the idea of butter, celery, onion, marjoram and bread long enough to remind me – Hot Head by Damon Suede has Thanksgiving in it.

Apples Should Be Red
A | BN | K
And I just received an email from author Penny Watson that her new Thanksgiving novella Apples Should be Red is .99c at most vendors,too.

His Road Home
A | BN | K | AB
Carrie:  His Road Home – I totally forgot to mention that it has Thanksgiving in it!

Elyse:  I, too, love the cranberry jelly, but I agree on the dysfunction thing. And turkey comas.

I don’t think I’ve read a Thanksgiving romance.

Ok, so we’re not super useful for this request, especially now that envisioning a casserole of stuffing sends me into an instantaneous deep, warm and very satisfying meditative state. 

What about you? Do you have a Thanksgiving recommendation for Abby? Do you have a strong position on jelly cranberry sauce, for or against?

Heeeey – maybe  we might all get away with reading under the table if we want to ignore the tension above the table! We definitely need more Thanksgiving recommendations, then. Do you have any to add? 

Categorized:

General Bitching...

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  1. Wench says:

    I don’t know of any Thanksgiving romances, but I DO know I love jellied cranberry sauce. I mean, the stuff from scratch is fucking magical AND delicious, but sometimes you do need some splorping.

  2. Joanna says:

    Wow, I can’t think of a single Thanksgiving in a romance I’ve read!

    I do have a favorite episode of Buffy that involves the ghosts of dead Native Americans messing with their feast day plans – with interesting commentary on our Thanksgiving day traditions. And I just picked up Apples Should be Red for my kindle!

    On the cranberry sauce question – I make my own spiced version every year. I even converted my canned version loving brother-in-law!

    And I Love stuffing – but am supposed to be avoiding gluten which is a huge bummer this year.

  3. LauraL says:

    I recently read Oh, Naughty Night by Leslie Kelly, a Harlequin Blaze. Story starts on Halloween and ends on Christmas, with Thanksgiving and plenty of naughty scenes stuffed in between.

    His Road Home will be my Thanksgiving reading this year after Mr. L succumbs to his turkey/bourbon gluttony and starts snoring on the sofa. We spend the holiday with good friends and it turns into a bourbon tasting for the boys.

    I make my own cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, orange, and sugar. I remember my husband’s aunt having a special dish and knife to serve the jellied stuff.

  4. Sally says:

    Ooh, this is good timing–I’ve been looking for something similar (more “general winter/seasonal without being Christmas” than Thanksgiving specific, but this works too). So I don’t have any recs but will be thankfully (har har) checking out anything that others can come up with.

  5. cleo says:

    This is tough. I was going to suggest Apples Should be Red, which I haven’t read yet, but the team beat me to it.

    I can think of some that include Thanksgiving in the story, even though the timeline includes more than just Thanksgiving and I wouldn’t exactly call them Thanksgiving stories.

    CarrieS already mentioned His Road Home.

    The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen – it’s NA and covers the heroine’s first semester at college, including a significant Thanksgiving with her crush. Actually, all of her Ivy Years novels include Thanksgiving. And it’s a great series.

    Promises by Marie Sexton – mm. Again, this takes place over several months – there’s a family Thanksgiving, and Christmas too.

  6. library addict says:

    Wrong Bride, Right Groom (SD#1037) by Merline Lovelace is set at Thanksgiving. It’s the second book in the Holiday Honeymoons series (with books by ML and Carole Buck).

  7. library addict says:

    Oops meant to add it’s available in digital as part of a 2-in-1 bundle with Full Throttle

  8. Isn’t Agnes and the Hitman (Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer) sort of Thanksgiving in some way? Is Agnes testing Thanksgiving recipes or something? Or am I totally confused by cranberry sauce?

    And I’m in the can cranberry with canned mandarin oranges and nuts on top camp, just for the pure nostalgia.

  9. CarrieS says:

    Agnes and the Hitman involves cooking for a wedding. No thanksgiving there. Lots of good Thanksgiving movies – Home for the holidays, Pieces of April. Planes Trains and Automobiles. And I love Buffy. “It’s a ritual sacrifice with pie!”

  10. roserita says:

    Whole-berry sauce, the jellied kind that schlops out of the can, or my grandmothers’ cranberry salad, I don’t care. I like it all. And I used to live for dressing, but life hasn’t been the same since my mom decided it wasn’t safe to stuff the turkey, and all of our stuffing/dressing is baked in a separate dish.

  11. Heather S says:

    I do believe that Tere Michaels’ novella “Cherish” (part of her “Faith, Love, and Devotion” m/m series that I love with so much love) includes hijinks when Evan’s bratty drama queen oldest daughter, Miranda, brings home her boyfriend – AND his parents – for Thanksgiving. Shenanigans abound and I feel the urge to punch Miranda in her whiny, “woe is me” face, but I adore Matt and Evan with All The Adoration, so they compensate for Miss Obnoxious.

  12. Eliza Evans says:

    Joanna,

    You don’t have to give up stuffing when you give up gluten! I admit that this year I’m making bread from scratch to use in my gf stuffing but Udi’s would work just fine.

  13. Lily LeFevre says:

    @Joanna: two words: cornbread stuffing.

    Traditional southern cornbread has no wheat flour, only the cornmeal, which gives it a rough texture as cornbread but should diminish as a stuffing. I believe using a batch of it as your stuffing bread should solve the gluten problem without any crazy flours or recipes.

    On the thread…pretty sure i read a christmas story somewhere that started with thanksgiving, and had a pretty big scene/stretch of scenes at yhe family holiday…samantha chase, maybe? Either xmas cottage or the sequel?

  14. AnAu says:

    The only Thanksgiving romance I know that hasn’t been mentioned is Count Your Blessings by Kathy Clark. Back in 1992 (I’m old), Harlequin American Romance did a holiday book each month, in a promotion called A Calendar of American Romance. That was the November/Thanksgiving one. I seem to remember liking it (when many of the books in the series weren’t very good or memorable). But it’s been 22 years so I don’t know if it holds up.

  15. Just say no to canned cranberry sauce and say yes to my favorite easy and delicious recipe. I love the Cointreau because it’s a lovely way to passive-aggressively get back at my mother-in-law for trying to guilt us about drinking a glass of champagne at a wedding.

    Ingredients
    3/4 c. water
    1 c. sugar
    1/4 t. salt
    12 oz. fresh or frozen cranberries
    zest of 1 orange
    1 oz. Cointreau

    Instructions
    Bring water, sugar, orange zest and salt to boil in medium saucepan over high heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Stir in cranberries; return to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until saucy, slightly thickened, and about two-thirds of berries have popped open, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in Cointreau. Cool to room temp and serve or refrigerate up to 1 week. Bring to room temp 30 minutes before serving.

  16. Does a Black Friday romance count? Home for the Holidays by Arlene Hittle starts on Black Friday (and has an adorable cover with a ribbon bow across it that I love).

  17. Emily says:

    I liked Beverly Jenkins “I’ll be Home for Christmas” novella which is almost all about Thanksgiving except for the end which is about Christmas. It was originally published in the anthology called “Baby, Let it Snow”. I didn’t like the other story as much but the anthology is probably cheap digitally and the other story was ok. Both of these novellas are contemporary.

  18. roserita says:

    Now that I’ve recovered from my pre-Thanksgiving stupor, I remembered two Nora Roberts books that feature Thanksgiving dinners: in “Taming Natasha” the heroine takes the hero and his daughter home to her parents’ for the Big Feast, and the final book in the “Key” series, “Key of light” culminates in a big Thanksgiving feast.

  19. RevMelinda says:

    @DreadPirateRachel, your cranberry sauce recipe is almost exactly like mine except for the stove part. I put just a bag of cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar, and orange zest (or if I’m feeling especially lazy, a splash of orange juice or a tablespoon or so of orange juice concentrate) in a dish and put it in the oven for a while (30 minutes at 350? more? until berries pop and it’s bubbly), then take it out and pour a whole little sampler bottle of Grand Marnier over it. It’s so delicious and absolutely no work for the cook. My teetotalling mother in law even eats it (although I confess I don’t tell her there’s booze in it).

  20. chacha1 says:

    Since my romance novel of choice is a Regency, there are no Thanksgiving books. 🙂

    BUT I just recently re-read a book that, while not specifically about Thanksgiving, is most definitely about food and its part in the American celebration. “The Lost Recipe for Happiness” by Barbara O’Neal. It’s a great romance (I think) that is also a great career story and features a great dog.

  21. @RevMelinda, I would never have thought to put cranberry sauce in the oven. That’s ingenious! Thank you for the tip.

  22. LauraL says:

    I make the same basic cranberry relish, but I don’t bake or cook it! I process a bag of washed and picked cranberries, 3/4 c. sugar, and a peeled navel orange in the food processor. Depending on the audience, I add a little cinnamon or Grand Marnier. I just may have to bake the relish this year. Thanks, RevMelinda!

  23. Samanda says:

    For those worried about gluten in your stuffing, you could always go Scots. My Scottish mother always made her stuffing with oatmeal instead of bread. You can pretty much use any bread stuffing recipe and replace the bread with single cut oats. The single cut is better because it doesn’t turn into stuffing flavoured porridge the way more refined oatmeal tends to.

  24. Joanna says:

    @Lily LeFevre, Thanks, I was already thinking of going for cornbread stuffing – will probably have to make my own without any flour but that’s okay. I really wasn’t sure how a gf free bread would hold up if you baked it in a stuffing.

    @RevMelinda, That’s genius, would never have thought about cooking cranberry sauce in the oven and I’m sure it would work with my spiced recipe!

  25. SB Sarah says:

    DPRachel & Rev Melinda:

    You may have talked me into making cranberry relish. I’ll still buy a can though. Because I LOVES IT.

  26. Bobbi Romans says:

    *Cough* An American Holiday. *Cough* Great Grandmas Cranberry Salad.
    LOL. The cranberry salad recipe in the book really is my Great Grandma Obaughs recipe.

    As a kid I hated going to their house. (Old people, old neighbors, no kids around) Was so boring. Now? I’m heartsick over knowing I missed asking for the awesome stories I know they must have had.

    My mom did a diff type green bean casserole.

    Layer bottom of cassarole pan with drained french style green beans. Mix sour cream with can of cream of mushroom soup. (or cream of chicken if not liking mushrooms) Gently spread the sour cream mix on top of beans. Crush together sleeve of Ritz crackers with handful of Durkee’s french fried onions. Sprinkle cracker mix over sour cream mix. Next sprinkle shredded cheddar over cracker mix. Repeat for a 2nd layer.

    Bake 350 for about 30-45 min until all golden and bubbly.

    Hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving.

    🙂
    Bobbi

  27. Fiona McGier says:

    This year try making your own:
    Maple Cranberry Sauce

  28. Fiona McGier says:

    Oops! Hit the wrong button.

    1 bag cranberries
    1 cup real maple syrup

  29. Fiona McGier says:

    Damn! Hit that button again.

    1 bag cranberries
    1 cup real maple syrup
    1 cup cran-raspberry juice
    Grated zest (peel) from 1 orange

    Cook all of the above until the cranberries all “pop” open like popcorn.
    Remove from heat and add 1 cup walnut pieces.
    Cool until ready to serve.
    Voila! No canned “goo”, but great flavor to go with your turkey.

    There’s a very funny Thanksgiving scene in my book, Recipe For Love. The heroine has her 2 kids and her ex-husband over for the traditional dinner, along with her best friend, her two kids, and her new husband. Oh, and the man the heroine is interested in. The sparks fly between her ex and the new guy, until the new guy rises to the challenge and ends the scene without any physicality.

    BTW, I think that one baby on the cover is supposed to be a carrot.

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