Clean Thanksgiving Romance Books

Thanksgiving romance is the underrated cousin of the Christmas read. The leaves are still on the trees and nobody's hung lights yet. The stakes are smaller and more human, which clean writers know how to use.

I think Thanksgiving has way more potential as a setting than writers have used so far. Family all together, the dinner table, all the expectations. The closest analogy I have is Ben Rector's "Thanksgiving Song." Everyone writes Christmas songs and almost nobody writes Thanksgiving ones, and his is great because of it. Thanksgiving romance is the same kind of unfilled niche.

Everything here is no spice, closed door if any of that comes up. The setups are usually quieter than the holiday romance norm. On the list: the fake dating plot taken home for the family Thanksgiving table, the going home for the holiday reunion that turns into a reckoning, the small town fall romance set against a town tradition, and one or two heroes who reluctantly carve the turkey at someone else's table for the first time.

Pair with a sweater and a couple of leftover slices of pie.