On this page...
Hello, how are you I hope you're good! Welcome to another article in my 20 Best Winter & Holiday Books of all Time recommended series
and the series is in my hopes a useful resource where you can find book recommendations from fellow readers.
and also recommend just the best of the best winter holiday books that they personally really enjoyed that way.
If you could recommend fellow readers one wintry holiday book which one you would recommend.
The Best Selection of Holiday Books for this Winter Season
But hopefully, I will give you enough details to decide which one you kind of want to inspect the further vast majority of those best winter holiday books,
if I have I will state it these are in absolutely random order, and I will tell you the name of the Goodreads rating and a little brief description.
if you have read any of these I'm going to mention if you like them.
Related Topics: Best Holiday Books
Best Winter Holiday Books Recommendations & Warm Nights
There are many great books that are perfect for the winter season. It's difficult for me to recommend a specific wintery book that I've "ever read,".
Instead, I can provide suggestions for popular and well-reviewed wintery books that you may enjoy.
These books all have elements of winter and the holiday season, and they are sure to warm your heart and get you in the mood for the season.
1. Frostheart
Frostheart was recommended possibly the most frost heart is actually a middle-grade book and the Goodreads rating is 4.09 so pretty hefty and it's following our main character called Ash.
when a brave rescue attempt reveals he has amazing magical powers and he's whisked aboard the frosted heart a sleigh packed full of daring explorers who could use his help but can they help him find his family.
2. The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel
next up is actually my current read which is the bear and the Nightingale this actually has the same ratings 4.09 is a YA fantasy inspired by some Russian folklore it is written by a non-Russian but they did study Russian folklore and also lived abroad in Russia I believe for a while and the story is about Vasia her mother kind of gets pregnant with her unexpectedly and decides to keep the child.
because she is hopeful that the powers of her grandmother who was said to be a witch will be transferred to this child she does kind of already know that she will die during childbirth and she does so we follow her story as she's growing up and her father finds another woman for the family so and as stepmothers do she's not very kind to her
while Vassia is seeing all of these old gods of old creatures around the house so does the ground so does the stepmother but the stepmother thinks they're demons so it's about the old gods versus the new gods and fighting again a fight between those and also there is this frost king something that has an eye on Vasia and he's making the moves to meet with her.
3. Even the Darkest Stars
then we have even the darkest stars which is actually a story about mountain climbing um and it definitely is filled with snow the rating is 3.9 so a tiny bit lower it is ya fantasy it does.
however, have tiny adorable dragons and I know there are a couple of you that that will be enough for in the story there are two sisters one is way better at the explorer path and they're still they're both still learning but their village actually gets visited by a very famous explorer who unexpectedly asks our main character to follow her to follow them and join their expedition.
her sister then kind of hurts and joins the rival explorer and so our main character has to decide where her loyalties lie this story will offer you, again, tiny dragons avalanche ice chasms, and even ghosts it sounds like it has a little bit of everything.
4. A Shiver of Snow and Sky
next up we have another YA fantasy which is a shiver of snow and sky in this book we have kind of like northern lines predicting the future. so they are kind of color-coded green means that all is well and the goddess is happy then blue means a snowstorm is on the way red is rare and red is a warning.
when we jump into the story the last time the red color was painted on the sky was 17 years ago when she was born which coincided with a massive plague that actually took a lot of lives as we jump into the story, of course, the sky goes red and our main character takes it upon herself to figure out why and how to stop the imminent disaster the rating for this one is 3.65.
5. The Snow Child: A Novel
A historical fiction set in Alaska this one is called the snow child and it was also one of the highest recommended books for this theme the reading is 3.97 and as I said it is set in Alaska in 1920 so a couple moves into Alaska. they both crumble under pressure but just for different reasons one night there is a massive storm and they just decide to take a kind of evening off and build a child out of snow the next morning that the snow child is gone.
however, there's a very real girl running between the trees while they struggle to understand this child where it came from how is surviving outside, and who it belongs to um they soon learn to love her as their own and take care of her and then it says but in this beautiful violent place things are rarely as they appear and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them so it seems like it's a little bit sinister and as I tell historical fiction and magical realism interesting.
6. Spinning Silver: A Novel
Then we have spinning silver another YA fantasy that I thought actually was an adult one but I'm not quite sure with a very high rating of 4.22 this is a fairy-like story about a girl who lives with a father who is burdened by a lot of death she goes she gets a bit desperate and she goes and tries to take care of herself.
and she very quickly becomes known for her ability to turn silver to gold after a very ill-advised boast the existence of this ability reaches a king and once he hears about her and her abilities her fate and the whole kingdom's fate are changed forever.
then it's a story of deadly choices Mariam and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice power and love I've very rarely heard that someone did not like this book it seems to be a pretty loved story from what I've heard it's also a very very atmospheric read and clearly very wintry.
7. A Winter’s Promise: Book One of The Mirror Visitor Quartet
next, we have this beauty I'm so excited to be reading this at some point definitely soon and it's called a winter's promise this is actually a translated work from french um it is a YA fantasy once again apparently the rating is again super high 4.17.
this is all about these floating cities which I'm obsessed with already and each city is its own I think kingdom if I'm not mistaken um they're called arks we follow a character that has to leave hers and go and marry someone else and she actually has the ability to speak with objects there are mirrors that act like portals she has to hide her identity.
and I heard that this is a very this is there's a lot of political intrigues so if you are into political intrigue based books I think this would be a good shout and uh it just looks so promising I don't know something about this calls to me watch me not like it but.
8. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances
moving a tiny bit away from YA fantasy we have an um YA contemporary by three authors apparently john green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, and it's called let it snow the rating is 3.76 and it actually includes three romantic love Christmas stories there's one about a hike from a stranded train there's another one about a trip to a waffle house through four feet of snow.
and another one about the early shift and Starbucks and all very holiday-ish because it's I think specifically written for like a holiday feels I have a feeling this would be a super-fast read if you are looking for something very cutesy very um probably 'Insta-lovey' i don't know but it just sounds like it could be this could be a good grab.
9. A Christmas Carol
then, of course, we have a classic and this one is a Christmas carol with an average rating of 4.06 and so this is a classic story about scrooge who is a very bitter miserable man who is visited by a ghost of his ex-partner in business and then three more ghosts of Christmas to be shown the errors of his way.
10. Winterwood
another way fantasy is winter wood this one has a 3.81 rating and seems to be about women who live by these words and are kind of whispered to be witches um however a boy goes missing and reappears in the woods um when really he should have not survived the storms and the winter that is in the woods so obviously everyone is a little bit suspicious at the start but our main character grows to really care for this boy but she cares about him deeply.
however, things in the woods seem to have very weird energy since his arrival she cannot ignore it any longer and so she has to go and inspect what sort of trickery he's up to and how he survived and what is he even doing here um so this this this is a YA fantasy with a little bit of sprinkle of mystery so if you're into something like that and something a bit shorter this could be a good shot.
11. The Afterlife of Holly Chase
the next one is a paranormal YA retelling of the um Christmas carol and that is the afterlife of holly chase with a rating of 3.99, so carol like Scrooge was visited by the three ghosts however she did not change her ways and now she is dead.
she's also now stuck working for the secret company project scrooge as the latest ghost of Christmas past and I'm sure there are some sort of lessons to be learned there too I think this was very very popular I think last year or the year before I'm not quite sure.
12. The Polar Bear Explorers' Club
another middle grade for you guys is called the polar bear explorers club with a very high rating of 4.18 it says to join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three follower fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face to face with frost fairy snow queens outlaw hideouts unicorns pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages moving on to something entirely different from from the explorers club.
13. The Terror: A Novel
it's the terror this one has a 4.04 average reading is actually a horror book this is set in the arctic circle it's following a scientific expedition that is projected to be extremely successful and mind-blowing and all those things so everyone is kind of confident there however after a while they become a little bit stranded there and they can release.
and they start fighting over food and resources but the thing that scares them the most is that it is constantly dark and they have a horrible feeling that someone or something is there in the dark and that monstrous terror is constantly clawing to get in so it sounds pretty spook.
14. The Golden Compass
the next one is, of course, the golden compass it is at 3.99 I actually never read this one so I'm gonna read a little bit about that here Lyra is rushed to the cold far north where witch clans and armored bears rule north where the gobblers take the children they steal including her friend roger north where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world can one girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors either Lyra.
and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Israel could want but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other in an already very popular series and probably even more so now that the tv adaptation started rolling out so a good time as I need to jump on that.
15. The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
the next one is the revenant with an average rating of 3.94 this is actually marked as historical fiction but we're following Hugh glass who is an explorer exploring the wilderness with a team of fellow explorers.
however, they encounter an extremely vicious bear, and after he gets attacked and mauled by it um the team decides that he is so badly injured that is very unlikely to recover or live and so they leave him behind and that action is actually something that probably motivated Hugh to actually stay alive and then this is a story about him surviving in the wild.
and so it actually says their betrayal is the only thing that kept Hugh alive overcome by desire and drive to seek revenge he must survive and the revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession and the lengths that one man will go for retribution and there's obviously, of course, a movie for this an adaptation with Leonardo Dicaprio.
16. The Night Before Christmas
if you're looking for a different classic there's also one called um the night before Christmas the average rating for this one is 3.86 this one is a dark classic from Russia it is a fairy tale and it is written in 1831 and it follows a blacksmith who is fighting a devil who has stolen the moon and also is like the kind of wreaking havoc over this village only just to woo the prettiest girl in the said village.
17. Blood Heir
another why fantasy blood air is currently ranked at 3.87 stars and yet another one is set with like a Russian vibe but this one is set in a world where some people have special abilities and anna our main character who is the daughter of the emperor is one of those people however her ability is a little bit frowned upon.
so it is not actually common knowledge amongst the public and that is that she can control blood a little bit like blood bending from avatar is what I imagine unfortunately her father the emperor gets assassinated or killed and a lot of people that were close to him are now suspecting that it was anna's fault she has to find someone to help her in a quest of figuring out what happened to her father and also proving that it wasn't due to her.
18. One Day in December: A Novel
another romance contemporary one is called one day in December the average rating is 3.94 our main character Lori does not believe in love at first sight however she does see someone that she feels an instant connection and she only gets a glimpse while she's driving in a bus and then kind of casually for the rest of the year keeps trying to check out the bus stops.
In case she will spot the person again only to be reunited with the person at her friend's party and it says what follows for Laurie Sarah and jack is ten years of friendship heartbreak missed opportunities roads not taken and destinies reconsidered.
19. Beartown: A Novel
The next one is all about small communities bear town with a whopping rating of 4.25 super high rated bear town seems to be a story of a small town a small community that really rely on one another it's about a small town that is not really well-known it's kind of dying off.
and however, they do have this ice rink and a hockey team that could possibly bring some traction to the town the hockey team now what was it all the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys exploring the hopes and spirit of small communities so if you're looking for something that involves sport and is overall I think possibly very very wholesome bear town could be the way to go and could be wrong though.
20. In a Holidaze
and then the last one is one that I'm actually really excited to read because it has one of the tropes or one of the plot devices that I am a sucker for and that is groundhog day this one is called in the Holiday current rating is 3.86 which is like a middle road I guess this is another romance contemporary and it's about Marilyn jones who is not a very happy person currently in the state that she is.
and one day when she's driving away from this cabin that she absolutely loves spending Christmas at however this is the last Christmas she will be able to do so she casually throws into the universe saying please show me what would make me happy and then I think it has alluded that we are in a car accident with her and she wakes up on a plane on the way to the cabin
and then kind of in like a red Russian doll tv show manner she lives through the day and then something happens and she wakes up again in a plane again and again and again and obviously, this is a romance so some type of romance obviously also happens but I'm just it just sounds like it could be wholesome it could be funny it could be lighthearted and the groundhog day I'm just a sucker for that.
You May Also Like: Best Winter Holiday Books
- Icefields
- The Enchanted Sonata
- War and Peace
- Spinning Silver
- Hercule Poirot's Christmas
- Christmas at the Island Hotel
- Moominland Midwinter
- Kitchen Princess
- Zuleikha
- The Colony
- The Valley of Decision
- Night Flight
- The Trip to Echo Spring
- In Vino Duplicitous
- Shelf Life
- Shocked
- Threads of Life
- The Subversive Stitch
- The Invention of Miracles
- The Children's Blizzard
- Winterlust
- The History of the Snowman
- The Man Who Invented Christmas
- Reindeer by Tilly Smith
- Penguins of the World
- Down from the Mountain
- American Wolf
- Of Wolves and Men
- Discovering the Mammoth
- Looking for the Goshawk
- Owl Sense
- The Lost Spells
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Phosphorescence
- The Reactor
- The Punch
- Collision of Wills
- Cinderella Man
- The Cost of These Dreams
- Everything They Had
Conclusion of the best winter holiday books collection
I'm excited to give it a go and that actually is the concluding book for the list. please let us know if you have found something that piqued your interest or if you have also read something and you too enjoyed it or if you didn't know just let us know.
I hope you're keeping safe I hope you're keeping reasonable I hope you found a recommendation that you think is promising so thank you so much for reading stay awesome stay kind and I'll see you in the next one bye home.
Discover literary treasures at ReadingAndThinking.com – your ultimate destination for insightful book recommendations and reviews!
Please Share These Resources with Colleagues, Friends, and Family.
