“I find the world changed when it snows. Sometimes I wonder if it's the closest thing to magic I shall ever experience.”
― M.A. Kuzniar
As the holiday season approaches, the landscape is dressed for winter in stark silhouettes with a touch of frosty sparkle, while early sunsets turn the sky orange and purple. It’s already looking magical! We haven’t had any winter snow yet where I live, but that doesn’t mean I can’t curl up on the sofa with my cat and immerse myself in a snowy YA story.
I’ve limited myself to three new books in the hopes that I’ll have time to read them all before the end of the year. I hope you enjoy my choices, and thank you very much for visiting my blog today 💕.
Happy holidays, and happy holiday reading!
I was drawn to this book before I knew anything about the story because of the beautiful cover. And when I read the description, it didn’t disappoint.
“Dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods—and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.”
The main character is Nora Walker, a girl with nightshade blood who is descended from a long line of witches. She lives in the mountains in a place called Fir Haven. On a freezing winter night when the moon is full, she follows a bone moth (an omen of death) into the Wicker Woods. Lying in the snow is a boy called Oliver Huntsman. Nora is shocked to find that Oliver is alive, something that shouldn’t be possible because he went missing during a terrible storm two weeks earlier.
The dual POV, the dark magic, the intriguing backstories, and the romance are all reasons why I chose this book! Here are a couple of extracts from the beginning of the story on the day Nora and Oliver first meet.
Nora: “I think of the woods, the moment I found him in the snow: how his eyes snapped open, the whites like cracked eggshells. Fear trembling across his lips. What did he see in those woods? Why did the forest let him live? I wish I could peel him open, cut away his hard exterior, and see what he hides inside.
Now he sleeps downstairs, and I know that even the heat from the woodstove won’t warm the chill from his flesh, won’t cure what haunts him.”
Oliver: “She can’t possibly steal boys from their bunks and bury them beneath the floorboards. She can’t possibly turn herself into a fanged beast and crash through the forest, knocking down trees. She can’t possibly be a witch who boils toads for breakfast and ties knots in her hair to bind curses that can’t be broken. She is just a girl.
With raven hair and crush-your-heart-in-half eyes.”
I came across this book at the Young Adult Literature Convention, and I’ve been saving it to read in December. I love the play on words in the title, and the tagline on the cover promises the perfect holiday romance.
“She came home to say goodbye. Not to fall in love…”
The main character is Jasper Montgomery, and she’s returning to Lake Pristine for the holidays. She wants to tell everyone she’s dropping out of university to go to design school. The problem is that Jasper, a neurodivergent people pleaser, doesn’t know how to escape from the weight of her family’s expectations.
Then there’s Arthur Lancaster. His family isn’t rich like Jasper’s. After his father died, Arthur gave up the chance to go to university to run the family business—Lake Pristine’s iconic cinema. Arthur is possibly the only person in town who isn’t happy to hear that Jasper is back. They have history.
Throw in a nightmare sister (Jasper’s) and an irreverent cousin (Arthur’s) plus lots of small-town drama, and you have an enemies to lovers story I can’t wait to read! Here are a couple of extracts from the moment of Jasper’s return that show how she and Arthur feel about each other…
Jasper: “Arthur Lancaster. Gruff, taciturn, and judgemental. An old foe, in some respects.
Jasper and Arthur had both grown up in Lake Pristine and gone to high school together. She hardly wished to see him on a normal day in Lake Pristine, let alone when she was embarrassed and covered in snow and slush. His face was unreadable, just watching her with his typical cold intensity.
Jasper was known for being sweet and pleasant to everyone.
Everyone, that was, except Arthur Lancaster.”
Arthur: “Jasper was back. She glanced over at him for the most fleeting of moments and then away again. He was used to that. He had never been within her notice. She had floated above him in school and there was nothing for them to be friendly about. He had probably snapped at her one too many times, and she had remained loyal to her terrible friends.”
This one is more of a wild card! I’ve been trying to read a little further outside of my comfort zone (romantasy) in recent weeks, and I thought I’d keep going with a story that looks like it’s going to keep me on the edge of my seat (or sofa ☺). The description and the cover are intriguing in the best of ways.
“Find yourself lost in the winding hallways of our grand Swiss hotel where secrets, romance, and danger coalesce into one unforgettable experience.”
The main character is Sophie Spark. She’s an intern at a hotel nicknamed Castle in the Clouds because of its misty mountain location. Sophie’s job involves a bit of everything, and at the beginning of the book, she’s babysitting a pair of misbehaving children.
After chasing the children halfway down the mountain in the snow, she narrowly escapes being run over by the son of the hotel owner. Unfortunately for Sophie, she doesn’t find out who he is until after she’s told him all about her other mistakes. Sophie is a great character—likeable and funny. I knew I was going to read this book before I was halfway through the prologue! I can’t wait to find out how Sophie gets herself into—and hopefully out of—this situation (extract below).
“So there I stood, exhausted, in the snow, as the sound of violins drifted toward us from the ballroom. Around my neck was a thirty-five-carat diamond that didn’t belong to me, and in my arms was a sleeping child who didn’t belong to me, either.
Somewhere along the way, I’d lost a shoe.
People always say that in an emergency you don’t feel pain or the cold because of all the adrenaline coursing through you, but it’s not true. The wound in my shoulder was throbbing like mad, the blood was running down my arm and dripping onto the snow, and the cold gnawed painfully at my foot. The muscles in my arms and shoulders were burning from carrying the child, but I didn’t dare put her down in case she woke up and alerted our pursuers to where we were.
People also say your brain works best in moments of great danger, arming you with razor-sharp insights. But that wasn’t true in my case, either. I couldn’t tell who was good and who was bad anymore. And the only razor-sharp insight I’d had recently was that silencers on guns really do what they say they will.
And that there were definitely better moments for a kiss than this one.”
