I love reading all through the year, but there’s something very appealing about curling up with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate when the air outside is frosty and the winter sunset glows red through the bare branches of the trees. It feels like I’m halfway to an imaginary world before I turn the first page.

 

The holiday season is fast approaching, and it’s going to be quite different from previous years (much like the rest of 2020). However, I usually get the chance to spend more time reading and writing during the holidays, and I’m looking forward to it this year more than ever. With that in mind, I’ve been searching for some YA books with a Christmas or winter theme to add to my TBR list, and today’s blog post describes my three choices. They’re a mix of fantasy and contemporary, fairy tales, snow and ice, parallel lives, and romance. I can’t wait to start reading! 

 

There are also a couple of Christmas short stories set in the Legacy of Androva world available in earlier blog posts. The first one is here and it’s set after Seeking Magic. The second, an epilogue to the final book in the series, Connecting Magic, is here .

 

Thank you very much for visiting my blog today, and I wish you happy holidays and especially happy reading!

 

(Writing update:  I’m currently working on Lost in Magic, the third book in the Beyond Androva series. I don’t have a publication date yet, but Kellan’s story is going well.)

 

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, by Melissa Bashardoust Amazon US

 

Tagline: Only one can be queen.

Description: Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone. In fact, it has never beat at all, for her father cut it out and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle, Mina forms a plan: win the king's heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she'll have to become a stepmother.

 

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen's image. Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina, but when her father makes her queen of the southern territories, Mina starts to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—in order to win back the only mother she's ever known… or else defeat her once and for all.

 

The Enchanted Sonata, by Heather Dixon Wallwork Amazon US

 

Tagline: A retelling of The Nutcracker Ballet with a dash of The Pied Piper.

 

Description: Clara Stahlbaum has her future perfectly planned: marry the handsome pianist, Johann Kahler, and settle down to a life full of music.  But all that changes when Clara receives a mysterious and magical nutcracker.

 

Whisked away to his world—an enchanted empire of beautiful palaces, fickle fairies, enormous rats, and a prince—Clara must face a magician who uses music as magic… and the future she thought she wanted.

 

One Way or Another, by Kara McDowell Amazon US

 

Tagline: Sliding Doors meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in a sweet, smart holiday romance about a girl who decides to stop letting her anxiety stand in the way of true love.

 

Description: The average person makes 35,000 decisions every single day. That's about 34,999 too many for Paige Collins, who lives in debilitating fear of making the wrong choice… That's why when Paige is presented with two last-minute options for Christmas vacation, she's paralyzed by indecision. Should she go with her best friend (and longtime crush) Fitz to his family's romantic mountain cabin? Or should she accompany her mom to New York, a city Paige has spent her whole life dreaming about?

 

Just when it seems like Paige will crack from the pressure of choosing, fate steps in—in the form of a slippery grocery store floor—and Paige's life splits into two very different parallel paths. One path leads to New York where Paige falls for the city… and the charms of her unexpected tour guide. The other leads to the mountains where Paige might finally get her chance with Fitz… until her anxiety threatens to ruin everything. However, before Paige gets her happy ending in either destiny, she'll have to face the truth about her struggle with anxiety—and learn that you don't have to be perfect to deserve true love.