Reading books will always be my favorite way to spend the day, but it’s especially true during the colder months. Endless hours of darkness to sit by a fire or a nice warm lamp, curled up in a comfy chair or wrapped in a blanket, a warm mug filled with a nice hot beverage in one hand and a book in the other.

 

With these warm thoughts in mind during the cold months, it’s time to look into some winter-themed Middle Grade and Young Adult books that will melt your heart and freeze your spine. The cold, dark months may be a melancholy time for some (I cannot express how often I re-read Jane Eyre in the winter), but it can also be a time of exciting adventures or bone-chilling ghost stories.

 

 

Image via We Heart It

 

At the first snowfall, begin your winter story time journey with Let It Snow. A freak blizzard hits a small town and disrupts everyone’s Christmas plans. Three different sets of characters, all in some way known to one another, tell their 24-hour story of what they did that stormy day.

 

After you’ve taken a break to go sledding, pick up Breadcrumbs. Forge a friendship with Jack and Hazel and help Hazel find her friend after he’s captured by the Snow Queen. Dive further into the lighter reading with The Mysterious Howling. Touch base with your inner canine at Ashton Place and wreck havoc on your home -- figuratively, of course.

 

As night falls, immerse in the chilling ghost story, The Dead of Winter. Explore a haunted mansion owned by a tormented master, and help young Michael solve the mystery of the mistress’s death in the frozen moat. Look out for the ghosts in The Poisoned House, and guide Abi on her quest to discover who exactly poisoned her mother. Be sure to have all lights turned on for this evening!

 

The next morning, grab your sword and prepare for a magical battle in Witchlanders. Beware who you trust, the young farm boy destined to save his village or the powerful warrior destined to find his second half. Continue your adventure in Icefall, and discover the traitor in the midst that prevents everyone from leaving the claustrophobic fortress of ice.

 

Take a trip back in time to turn-of-the-century Paris, inside a cold abbey guarded by gargoyles in The Beautiful and the Cursed. Fight demons, discover inner powers, learn of the protective instincts of gargoyles, and experience the presence of angels like never before with Ingrid and Gabby. Fast forward to Cold War Russia in The Boy on the Bridge. Fall in love and question the motives of everyone around you.

 

After your whirlwind adventure through time, pick up that beloved, worn copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and cry tears of happiness when Harry discovers he does indeed have a true, loving family. The cold stones and warm hearths of Hogwarts will always be there for those who seek it.

 

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Laura Crockett is a graduate student, bookseller, Anglophile, tea devotee, musician, and book hoarder. Everything good in her boils down to her Midwestern upbringing. Follow her Downton Abbey obsessions on Twitter (@LECrockett) and book interests on her blog http://scribblesandwanderlust.wordpress.com

Confession time: I picked up this book expecting it to be bad. But, you know, one of those enjoyable bad books that people love to snark at. I WAS WRONG. IT WAS AWESOME. Despite a cover that looks like it’s going to be all about a sad witchy girl finding love in the middle of winter and ignoring the plot, it’s actually about two boys from different sides of a building war and romance isn’t anywhere to be seen. THE GOODReally! Romance is nowhere to be seen! Now, I like me a bit of romance, really I do. But I’m just so sick of it lately, and it’s quite refreshing to take a break from that for once. This probably wouldn’t be a ‘good’ point, or at least no such an excitable point, if it weren’t for the context, but there you have it.The setting! Oh, I love the setting. It strikes a nice balance between being too detailed and too vague. There’s a very narrow focus on this one little mountain area, which works wonderfully. That one little area really pops with some beautiful, vivid details, but at the same time we’re not bogged down with vast histories of an entire world. And at the same time as that, we actually do get some history for the conflict that’s central to the story, but it’s handled so well that I want to use it for a textbook. Just the right amount of light touch and non-info-dumping. (Well, until the end.)The lore was excellent, too. I loved the two religions and the different views they both had on magic.The two narrators were both unique enough to have their own voices and be distinct from each other. They didn’t work too well when they came together (I just didn’t feel the chemistry that was supposed to be there) but they were enjoyable on their own. The plot was excellent. It was a twisty-turny kind of thing that kept changing, but it had a common thread running through it, and it seemed to flow and stay going in one direction. I really don’t know how else to say it without giving away details.THE BADThe quality started to break down at the end. Like the author was in a rush to get it wrapped up. It was still good enough to carry through, but a few things got a bit stretched. For instance: at one point a particular breed of spider becomes randomly important. So they show up out of the blue, and we get a page-long description of species and a couple stories about them. That really could have been edited into the earlier parts of the book to take the awkwardness out.The climax was stretched out by unnecessary talking. The set-up and plot aspects of the ending were done well enough, and the book created a situation with some real danger and urgency. …and then everyone just wouldn’t shut up. Instead they hastily wrapped up a few plot threads and backstories through dialogue, and every one of them could have waited until the deadly monsters were dealt with.Falpain, one of the main characters, had his twin brother die just before the events of the novel. And I never really felt any emotion from him about that. It was like he didn’t care and had completely forgotten about it by the time the book started. Oh, sure, he made a few passing comments about grief, but we never saw it in his actions. Even before the distracting part of the plot arrived, he barely spared his brother a second thought. I would have swallowed that a lot easier if his brother had died years – or even A year – before. There’s no romance, but there is set-up for one, presumably to be consummated in a sequel. Unfortunately, the ‘set up’ comes entirely in the form of Ryder thinking that said Designated Love Interest is hot. Her beautiful looks are referenced in every scene she’s in. She has more character beyond that, yes, and that’s awesome. But I don’t like that the book used her appearance to paint a big neon sign of “LOVE INTEREST” over her head. If it needed to drop hints at all, it could have at least used a couple more traits to balance things out.The two races involved in this book’s setting are almost polar opposites from each other in looks. Blond vs black hair, blue eyes vs dark eyes, brown skin vs white skin. And they’re one mountain away from each other and have a near-past history of mixing freely. There’s no way those two phenotypes stayed that pure with the populations co-mingling. It was the one major part of the world-building that really threw me off.THE UGLYTHERE’S NO SEQUEL! Despite the fact that it’s pretty clearly supposed to be the first of a series and ends with our boys off on another adventure. And as far as I can tell from the author’s blog, she’s not working on one. WHAT IS THIS, HOW COULD YOU, NOOOOOOO.One of the two cultures is extremely misogynistic and violent towards women, going so far as to say that they don’t have souls. No, I don’t mind this as a narrative choice, because cultures like that did/do exist. But the book really didn’t have room to throw in ideas that heavy. If you’re going to have a setting where women get murdered for trying to do magic, don’t throw that in as a minor plot point while 99.9% of the book focuses on something else. I’m not saying that it has to be the central plot, but at least give it due weight.

This is really a 2.5...

“We live between the two great silences: the silence that existed before the world began, and the silence that waits for us at the end of all things.” It has been a while since I was able to read a fantasy novel. I love the way how I am brought to a new world with it's myths, religion, traditions and culture. Witchlanders definitely makes me feel like I am brought to a grand, new place. Well, this book really took me a while to get in to it because I was still quite hungover from Easy, but when I really did get in to it... HOLY MOLY! This book rekindled my love for the genre. The world building was superb, complex characters and a feel of an epic quest! Coakley can tell a great story, ladies and germs.Our two main protagonists are Ryder and Falpian. You can obviously see the difference between the two. Ryder is a strong, young man who takes care of the farm after his Fa died. He worries over his two younger sisters and his sickly mother. And he thinks that magic is a total sham. Falpian could be Ryder's complete opposite. Coming from the Bitterlands, Falipian is a privileged young magician, who has practically been told he will do great things with his late brother since birth. I love both of their voices. They give off a sense of individuality and they are unique in their own way.The way Falpian and Ryder meet and connect in the story is very intriguing. I expected it, the way their voices would intertwine, but when it came it was still pleasant and made me want to turn the pages faster. A lot of the things in the book are predictable, if you stop and think about what would happen next, like what I do. The twists though, when they do come, it's like WHAM! Just wow~. I would elaborate more on why I love this book, but I think it's best if you could see it for yourself. It pains me to know that there is no sequel to this book, because Witchlanders really deserves one. It is a quality story with a gorgeous cover. I mean, seriously, just look at it! I could just stare at it for an hour which I did.Just read Witchlanders I can't say nothing more, but to just read it. P. S. I ship Ryder and Falpian together. hehe.

Huh. Looks cool. Plus I love the cover.