As the nights draw in and the scent of cinnamon starts drifting through the air, there’s no better time to curl up with a book that warms you from the inside out. Whether you’re after something snowy and magical, dark and atmospheric, or delightfully escapist, we’ve gathered our top winter reads to help you settle into the festive spirit. Grab a blanket, make a mug of something steaming, and let’s dive into the stories that will keep you company all season long.
The Gingerbread Bakery
by Laurie Gilmore
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9780008728090
As owner of her beloved Gingerbread Bakery, Annie Andrews should have a love life to match her business; sugary and sweet. But instead, she’s locked in a game of words with the irritatingly upbeat bar owner down the street.
Mac Sullivan has everything he wants, except the girl he dreams of. It’s easier to argue with Annie than get her to talk to him but with Jeanie and Logan’s wedding coming up, they're about to spend a lot more time together.
As the snowflakes fall and with romance in the air, will Annie see that the one she loves to hate might just be her perfect match after all?
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9780755380534
Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?
Written with the clarity and vividness of the Russian fairy tale from which it takes its inspiration, The Snow Child is an instant classic.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9780008138301
‘Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.’
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.
When the Moon Hatched
by Sarah A Parker
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9780008710262
She's an assassin on the run
Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. Until a rival assassin devastates her world, and she is captured by a group of powerful fae.
He's the dragon rider who'll stop at nothing to save her
Crushed by the loss of his great love, Kaan Vaegor hunts the world for answers. Then a clue lures him to the capital's high-security prison, where he finds Raeve …
Together, they'll burn it all down
Now they seek truths that threaten to shatter everything they knew about their world – and each other.
The Seed Keeper
by Diane Wilson
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9781571311375
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.
On a winter’s day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.
The Christmas Cottage
by Sarah Morgan
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9781848459229
A PAINFUL SECRET
Imogen loves her job as an events organiser, and her colleagues are in awe of her. But Imogen isn’t the person she pretends to be, and she’s hiding painful truths about her past. But as long as she can keep on top of her work, Imogen can put everything else to one side.
AN ACT OF KINDNESS
And then Imogen makes a catastrophic mistake at work, and finally realises it's time to reset. When her favourite client, Dorothy, invites her to spend Christmas with her and her family, in her cottage in the Cotswolds, it sounds like the perfect way for Imogen to take stock.
FINDING HAPPINESS AT CHRISTMAS
Imogen soon settles into idyllic cottage life, especially with the prospect of a new romance on the horizon … but when long-buried secrets and unwanted faces from the past resurface, Imogen’s new peace is threatened. Will Imogen end up alone this Christmas, or can she find it in her heart to forgive and move on?
Winter Trees
by Sylvia Plath
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9780571330102
The poems in Winter Trees were written in the last nine months of Sylvia Plath's life, and form part of the group from which the Ariel poems were chosen. They reveal the poet at the height of her creative powers, exhibiting the startling imagery and dramatic play for which she became known. Published posthumously in 1971, this valuable collection finds its place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.
Witsh
by Mari Ellis Dunning
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9781916821361
Talk of witchcraft, convictions and hangings begin to cross the border from England, reaching and influencing gentry families and villagers alike.
Told from the perspective of Doli Maredudd, a naive but headstrong young gentry woman living in the outskirts of the fictional Llyngwrach on the border of Wales.
Having suffered her third miscarriage, Doli seeks the help of mysterious local wise-woman and healer Sara Gwen, who is able to offer her a fertility charm.
When a servant finds this charm, amidst rising gossip and accusations of witchcraft, aspersions are cast against Sara Gwen by Doli''s husband Hywel, who is keen to gain favour with other gentility and noblemen across the country.
A Child's Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9781510114104
All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hand in the snow and bring out whatever I can find . . .
Dylan Thomas's lyrical account of his childhood Christmases in a small Welsh town, featuring wolves, bears, hippos and Mrs Prothero's cat, has become deservedly famous. Beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Edward Ardizzone, this classic edition celebrates 70 years of Thomas' beloved work and is a perfect Christmas gift for young readers creating their own childhood Christmas memories.
One Last Gift
by Emily Stone
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10722/9781472289896
For as long as Cassie can remember, it had been the three of them: Cassie, her big brother Tom, and Tom's cocky, gorgeous best friend Sam.
Now, Tom is sorted, Sam is flying high, and Cassie thinks she's figured it all out. Then life takes an unexpected turn.
For Cassie starting again seems unimaginable. Until she finds an envelope with her name on it, with a letter asking her to follow a trail to one last gift.
And, suddenly, what seemed like an ending promises to lead Cassie to a love that is surprising and new... if she is brave enough to follow her heart...
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