Here’s Why You Should Start the Year with Cozies
January 8, 2026
January arrives quietly, carrying a strange mix of hope, fatigue, and sugar overload. The calendar flips, resolutions are resolved, and the world’s noise follows us into the new year. It’s no surprise, then, that so many readers reach for cozy mysteries at this moment. Not to escape thinking, but to feel safe while doing it.
Cozy mysteries offer a literary promise: order will be restored. A puzzle will be solved. Justice, however gentle, will be served. Even when the story opens with disruption, an unsettling death, a secret uncovered, or a small town rattled, we trust the structure. The sleuth will pay attention. Clues will matter. Chaos will not win.
Starting the year with cozies feels like choosing a softer on-ramp back into the world. After months of exhausting headlines, gentle mysteries remind us that curiosity can be kind, and that problems can be approached thoughtfully, with compassion and persistence.
There’s also comfort in familiarity. Returning to beloved series or trusted authors in January feels like visiting old friends after a long trip. We know the rhythm. We recognize the voice. In a season obsessed with reinvention, cozies reassure us that constancy has value too. Not everything needs to be remade. Some things simply need to be revisited.
And perhaps most importantly, cozy mysteries insist that attention matters, that truth can be uncovered, and that one determined person, armed with observation and empathy, can make a difference. That’s a powerful message to carry into a new year.
So we begin with cozies. Not because the world is simple, but because it isn’t. Because we crave stories where problems are solvable, communities endure, and even the quietest voice can set things right. January doesn’t ask us to brace ourselves. It invites us to settle in, turn the page, and start again, gently.
How are you “starting again” this year?
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Want to know more about our author Cheryl Hollon? Visit her website.
Don’t forget to enter our Booklover’s Bench contest. We’re collecting entries for TWO free books to one lucky winner. It runs from January 1-22. Here’s the link: https://bookloversbench.com/contests/
Cheryl’s Webb’s Glass Shop Mysteries are set in the city of St. Petersburg, FL. The characters spend considerable time sampling the culinary delights of the downtown waterfront’s foodie landscape. Please buy locally. Independent bookstores need your patronage. If your budget is tight, support your local library instead. Buy link
Both photos were submitted by Cheryl Hollon from her photo collection
Posted in Let's Talk, with Cheryl Hollon • Tags: Cheryl Hollon, cozy mysteries, Here’s Why You Should Start the Year with Cozies, Let's Talk, St Petersberg Florida, Webbs Glass Shop Mysteries | 5 Comments
I’m starting work on a new book. Not into a rhythm yet but moving forward one scene at a time.
Hi Nancy, Good Luck with your new book. Cozies are your superpower!
Well said, Cheryl! I’ve begun the new year the way I ended last year–by giving myself a writing break between books to give the creative side of my brain a breather and catch up on my reading before the TBR pile teeters and tumbles. My reading has included several cozies as well as some historical fiction.
Hi Lois, I relate to refilling of the creative well. I’m visiting a few museums this week for that purpose.
My year started out like a lamb but by the 4th of January, it became lion-like. A grandkid in PICU, and a septic tank acting up. Found out our plumber had retired, so we went through several calls to plumbers before we found one that would come out. Grandkid is still in PICU but slowly improving. We are blessed it wasn’t menningitis, only Flu A with severe respiratory complications and brain inflamation. He is improving every day but for a few days it was touch and go. Could not write or do anything productive. I’m starting the year over next week…with a cozy.