Gift guide · Christmas
Christmas Book Gift Ideas: Indie Books for Everyone on Your List
Every Christmas list has a reader who's impossible to buy for. Here are six indie books, and one bonus, that probably aren't on their shelf yet.
You know the one: the person who already owns the bestseller, the candle and the novelty socks. A book is still the right idea. It just needs to be one nobody else thought to give them.
These six, and a bonus, come from the IndieFiction shelves: two Christmas love stories, a cosy village with angry Fae, a family funeral that turns into a murder case, a clock that strikes thirteen, a teen mystery and a very curious robot. Every one is self-published and picked by hand. Most come in paperback, so they can go under the tree, and each book's page shows the formats its author has listed. There are no affiliate links and we take no cut, so buying one supports the author directly.
Find the reader on your list
- The one who wants a Christmas love storyHome, Christmas and You
- The cosy fantasy fanFaerie
- The one who dreads the family get-togetherInherited Death
- The one who loves a puzzle with history in itThe Wrong Year
- The teenager who's impossible to buy forThe Hennessy Lie
- A curious young readerThe Wonders of Anna the Droid: Book One, The Stone of Wonder
Six indie books to give this Christmas
Home, Christmas and You
by Nkechi AjogwuRomance
Read it if you wanttwo Christmas love stories in one book.
Two romance novellas, both about going home for the holidays. In A Not So Merry Christmas, Samantha Ali is trying to save her marriage for her two children's sake, until she finds her husband in the arms of his PA. Her new path leads home, and to Xander Idu, the architect the village calls its hot carpenter, whose past could ruin what they have. In One Christmas Eve, Eve Ngwu comes home single, dreading comparisons with her married siblings, and finds that her childhood crush, her brother's best friend, is in love with her and set on proving it.
- Two novellas
- Home for Christmas
- Brother's best friend
Both novellas are also listed on their own.
Faerie
by Anna CartwrightFantasy
Read it if you wanta cosy village, a grumpy bookseller and angry Fae.
A grieving doctor moves to a small village to start again. She makes friends with a grumpy old bookshop owner, and ends up joining a fight to save the world. Playing her part means becoming somebody else entirely, and believing in a world beyond anything she imagined: goblins, elementals and some very angry Fae. Cosy, whimsical and gently magical, for the reader who likes their fantasy with a cup of tea.
First in a series.
2likesSee the bookInherited Death
by Jeanne RietzkeThriller/Mystery/Crime
Read it if you wanta family reunion worse than yours.
When the McNulty matriarch dies, her dysfunctional Southern family gathers in New Orleans to bury her, and grieves the only way it knows: eating, drinking and cursing, in no particular order. For Melissa Fairmont, the middle child, coming home means reliving a frightening childhood and putting up with her sisters' cruelty. Then comes a murder nobody saw coming, and Melissa and her husband Ben follow it through New Orleans culture and the history of art in World War II Paris.
A short read. Touches on childhood abuse.
2likesSee the bookThe Wrong Year
by Victoria ReibyHistorical Fiction
Read it if you wanta grandfather clock that strikes thirteen.
Sherry Beaumont, a Canadian clockmaker, restores a mysterious grandfather clock. It sings in her dead father's voice, strikes thirteen and throws her into Rockhampton in 1899. Her father vanished through the same doorway twenty-one years ago. Now Sherry has to follow the trail he left while staying ahead of a ruthless collector who wants the clock's power, and every answer she finds changes the past.
A short read.
1likeSee the bookThe Hennessy Lie
by Annette MastersYoung Adult
Read it if you wanta hidden will and an annoyingly handsome rival.
A stranger turns up whispering secrets about the recent death of the man who may be Piper Covington's father, and suddenly she could be heir to the Hennessy fortune, if she can find his hidden will. She isn't the only one looking, and an annoyingly handsome guy is challenging her birthright. The clues lead to the abandoned Hennessy estate, where instead of a will she digs up a long-buried lie. Now dangerous people will do anything to keep her quiet.
Young adult.
2likesSee the bookThe Wonders of Anna the Droid: Book One, The Stone of Wonder
by Alaster MacGregorChildren's
Read it if you wanta curious robot and a stone she can't explain.
Annadroid was built to understand the world. Then she finds a mysterious stone she can't explain, and curiosity carries her beyond everything she knows, into strange places, unexpected friendships, mystery and discovery. A middle-grade science fiction and fantasy adventure about curiosity, kindness and holding on to your sense of wonder.
For middle-grade readers. Book one of The Wonders of Anna the Droid.
1likeSee the book
Still shopping?
Browse every indie book on IndieFiction by genre, or start with our reading lists: five hand-picked books each, from fantasy to thrillers.
Can't decide? Let a blind date choose
Try Blind Date with a Book. Tell us what they're in the mood for and we'll hand you three books, wrapped. No covers and no titles until you unwrap one.
And one for you
Want something you can finish tonight? Our free short stories are complete and on the page. And our newsletter, the Shout-Out, brings four indie books most weeks. Join on the readers page, and tick the ARC box if you'd like to hear from authors looking for ARC readers.
Wrote something worth giving?
List it on IndieFiction for free. Add your book's formats to the listing so readers know whether there's a paperback to wrap. It might turn up in the next roundup, too.
So, who's getting which one? Tell us on Instagram at @indie.fiction.