How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order – Complete Reading Guide

How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order is refreshingly simple (it’s a two-book, shared-world holiday romcom set in Kringletown)—but choosing the best order depends on what you want: the smoothest character cameos and town continuity, or the “read it as the world met it” publication flow.

Below is our complete, spoiler-light guide to reading How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order, with blurbs, timeline notes, formats (including those extra-fancy collector hardcovers), and a quick verification note so you know exactly how we checked the order.

Quick Answer (TL;DR)

If you came here for How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order, read them like this:

1. How My Neighbor Stole Christmas (Cole & Storee; holiday contest + fake relationship)
2. Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal (Max & Betty; rival tree farms + chaotic holiday chemistry)

That’s it. Two books. Maximum festive payoff.

If you prefer publication order (same order, just backed by release dates):

• Book 1 first published October 15, 2024
• Book 2 published October 14, 2025

Quick Facts

Field	Details
Pages	~480 (Book 1) / ~464 (Book 2) — varies slightly by edition
Read time	~6–10 hours each (depending on pace + format)
Reading difficulty	Easy–Moderate (contemporary romcom voice; fast chapters)
Genre	Contemporary romance, romantic comedy, holiday/small-town romance
Content warnings	Adult language, explicit/open-door romance, holiday grief/backstory beats, public embarrassment/humiliation moments (played for comedy)
Media adaptations	None officially announced by author/publisher as of Dec 25, 2025
Ideal age range	Adult (18+)

About the Book Series

Meghan Quinn’s How My Neighbor Stole Christmas world is the kind of holiday romcom universe that feels like it was built to be binge-read in two cozy sittings: a snow-dusted town, a ridiculously competitive Christmas event, and couples who start out convinced they’re immune to holiday magic… and then immediately prove themselves wrong.

The series is often associated with Kringletown Christmas on the author’s official series list (meaning: same festive setting, shared community energy, and that “everyone knows everyone” small-town pressure cooker).

What you’re getting, tonally:

• Big holiday set pieces (contests, town traditions, public chaos).
• Romcom pacing (banter-forward, quick escalation, lots of “how did we get here?” moments).
• Standalone satisfaction (each book centers a different couple), with extra fun if you read How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order so the cameos land like little gifts.

And yes—collector editions are part of the fun. The upcoming collector hardcovers are positioned as premium shelf trophies, with special design elements and a future release date listed on retailer pages.

Books at a Glance (use a table with Amazon Buy Links; no summaries in this table)

#	Title	Amazon Buy Links
1	How My Neighbor Stole Christmas	Buy on Amazon
2	Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal	Buy on Amazon

Chronological Reading Order (detailed blurbs)

1) How My Neighbor Stole Christmas (Book 1)

This is where Kringletown introduces itself: aggressively festive, loudly competitive, and the kind of place where your neighbors absolutely have opinions about your front porch.

Meet Cole Black, the local grump who would happily hibernate through December if the town would just… let him. Except the town doesn’t let anyone do anything quietly—especially not during Christmas season. The moment Storee Taylor moves in next door to care for her aunt, Cole’s peaceful misery is threatened by a cheerful new neighbor with her own plans, her own holiday mission, and a willingness to throw herself directly into the town’s Christmas spectacle.

The central engine here is a town Christmas competition plus a delicious, messy fake relationship—the kind that begins as strategy and very quickly becomes a problem because feelings don’t follow rulebooks. The charm is in the escalation: the rivalry that’s half real and half performance, the way the town acts like a Greek chorus in ugly sweaters, and the slow realization that the “enemy” next door might be the first person who actually sees you clearly.

Why it works as the opener in How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order:

• It establishes the town rhythms, community characters, and that signature “Christmas pageant energy.”
• It sets up relationships and friendships that become fun context later.
• It gives you the emotional baseline for Kringletown: beneath the comedy, people are carrying real stuff.

(For publication context: Goodreads lists Book 1 as first published October 15, 2024 and around 480 pages in paperback.)

2) Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal (Book 2)

Book 2 is for everyone who reads a holiday romcom and immediately says: “Okay, but what about the side character with the chaotic energy?”

Here, the spotlight shifts to Atlas “Max” Maxheimer—and the setup is peak holiday rivalry: a Christmas tree farm in trouble, an unexpected competitor next door, and a heroine who arrives with enough cheer to make a grinch short-circuit.

Enter Betty, new in town and tied to the rival operation. Max is convinced she’s part of the problem. Betty is convinced Max is one (1) sleigh short of functioning normally. The result is a small-town war that’s less “quiet tension” and more “public humiliation, blizzards, bad decisions, and why are we trespassing again?”

This is also where reading How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order really pays off: Book 2 is designed as a spinoff/continuation in the same holiday world (and it’s simply more satisfying when you already understand Kringletown’s particular brand of festive chaos).

For edition context, Barnes & Noble lists 464 pages for the Deluxe Edition entry (a useful proxy for length expectations).

Series Timeline & Character Development

Even though these books are romcom-fast and bingeable, there is a clean internal timeline—and it’s basically the calendar itself.

Think of the series as one continuous holiday season in Kringletown, where:

• The town’s Christmas traditions act like the central “plot gravity.”
• Each couple’s arc is shaped by community pressure, public events, and the way small towns turn romance into a spectator sport.
• Side characters and friendships become a soft continuity thread (more “oh hey!” than “you’ll be lost without this”).

Character development across the two-book arc (without spoiling):

• The Grump-to-Participating Pipeline: In Book 1, the emotional movement is about letting yourself be seen and pulled into the light—even if you arrive kicking and muttering about it.
• The Chaos-to-Clarity Shift: In Book 2, the energy is bigger and messier, but the emotional landing still targets the same theme: you don’t have to win Christmas to deserve it—you just have to stop refusing it.

Town timeline, simplified:

• Book 1 = Kringletown’s contest season + the town learning how to “handle” its new neighbor situation.
• Book 2 = Tree farm rivalry + snowed-in hijinks + the town doubling down on being the town.

This is why most readers will naturally prefer How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order: it keeps the social web intact, so callbacks feel like little ornaments rather than random cameos.

If you enjoy reading-order logic generally, our internal guide on the difference between publication order vs chronological order can help you decide how you want to approach any series (especially shared-world romance). Here’s a helpful explainer: our guide to choosing publication vs chronological order.

Novels sorted in order of in-universe events

1. How My Neighbor Stole Christmas
2. Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal

This is the recommended path for How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order because it preserves the natural “meet the town → deepen the town” progression.

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Novels sorted in order of publication

1. How My Neighbor Stole Christmas — first published October 15, 2024
2. Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal — release noted October 14, 2025

In this case, publication order and in-universe order match—so you can’t really go wrong. (You just want to avoid starting with Book 2 if you’re cameo-sensitive.)

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Companion Works

Officially, this is a two-book holiday set in the Kringletown Christmas world (per the author’s own series listing).

So instead of inventing “companion novellas” that don’t exist, here are the most useful companion angles for readers who finish Book 2 and want more of the same vibe:

1. Read-adjacent guides to enhance the experience
   If you like to think about why reading order matters (especially when prequels and spinoffs enter the chat), bookmark: our quick fix guide to common reading-order mistakes.
2. Try a similar seasonal small-town romance reading order
   If Kringletown scratched your “holiday cozy + adult romcom” itch, you’ll probably enjoy another shared-world seasonal universe like Dream Harbor—start here: our Dream Harbor reading order guide.
3. Explore more Meghan Quinn by series
   If you’re here because you like her humor and heat, the author’s own series hub is the cleanest way to branch out.

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Editions & Formats (hardcover, collector, audio)

This series is unusually friendly to “format mood,” meaning you can tailor your read to your season and your schedule.

Hardcover / Paperback

• Book 1 is commonly listed around 480 pages in paperback.
• Book 2 commonly lists 464 pages for the Deluxe Edition entry.

Paperback is great if you like:

• margin notes,
• dog-earing pages (no judgment),
• and the feeling of finishing a holiday romance with a physical thunk.

Collector’s Edition hardcover

Collector editions are positioned as premium hardcovers with special design/finish details, and Amazon retailer listings show the collector hardcovers’ publication date as September 29, 2026 for both titles.

Kindle

Perfect if you:

• want to start immediately,
• travel,
• or love that late-night “one more chapter” spiral without needing a lamp.

Audiobook

Holiday romcom audiobooks are elite for:

• cooking/baking days,
• commuting,
• and turning your life into a Hallmark-adjacent montage (but spicier).

Why Read How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order?

Because How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order is one of those rare cases where chronological reading is:

• simple,
• payoff-heavy,
• and emotionally smoother than “random pick-up reading” (even though both books stand alone).

Here’s what the chronological order protects:

1) Cameos feel like gifts, not interruptions

Book 2 becomes funnier when you already understand how Kringletown behaves as a collective organism. The town is basically an additional character—and you meet it properly in Book 1.

2) The holiday escalation tracks better

Book 1 builds the foundation: contest energy, rival tension, community pressure. Book 2 takes that foundation and adds “now the town is watching and the snow is involved.”

3) Your emotional arc stays clean

Both books deliver romcom satisfaction, but How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order keeps the thematic progression intact:
closed-off → softened → fully participating (even if participation looks like chaos).

Author Spotlight

Meghan Quinn writes the kind of romances that feel like your funniest friend telling you a story over coffee—if your funniest friend also had a talent for building tension, timing punchlines, and dropping you into a world that’s equal parts ridiculous and emotionally sincere.

On her official site, Quinn describes herself as a New York Times, #1 Amazon, and USA Today bestselling author, known for romantic comedies and contemporary romance with “heart, humor, and heat.”

Why that matters for this series:

• The humor is intentional. The comedy isn’t an accident; it’s baked into the structure (public set pieces, misunderstandings, town meddling).
• The romance is adult-forward. These are not “closed door, fade to black” holiday stories—expect open-door spice and mature relationship dynamics.
• The holiday vibe is weaponized. Kringletown isn’t just a setting; it’s pressure. The whole town’s cheer becomes a forcing function for character growth.

If you want a clean map of her work, start with her official “Books by Series” page and pick your flavor: sports romcom, small town, holiday chaos, and more.

Media Adaptations (films, TV, radio)

As of December 25, 2025, there’s no officially announced film/TV/radio adaptation from the author or publisher for the Kringletown Christmas titles (and none referenced on the author’s official site pages we reviewed).

That said, the tone is inherently adaptable:

• town-wide holiday set pieces,
• clear enemies-to-lovers beats,
• and big comedic moments that would translate well on screen.

If anything changes (option announcements, production news, audiobook dramatizations), this is the section we’d update first.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

If you want maximum holiday payoff with minimum confusion, How My Neighbor Stole Christmas Books in Chronological Order is the way to go. Start with the grumpy-next-door contest chaos, then roll directly into the rival tree farm mayhem. It’s a clean two-step binge that delivers exactly what holiday romcom readers crave: laughs, heat, heart, and a town that refuses to let anyone be miserable in peace.

And if you’re building a seasonal TBR, don’t forget to bookmark your next “what order do I read this in?” moment—because series are basically a lifestyle choice.