Let it Snow! Winter-Themed Fantasy Books to Curl Up With

It's somehow already December and the temperature is starting to drop. It even snowed a bit the other day!

What better way to stay warm and cozy than to curl up with a good book? Here are some fun winter-themed fantasy novels to check out, and two booklists I made for more recommendations: 

• BKLYN BookMatch: Wintery Reads for Teens
• Wintery YA Set in Fantastical Worlds

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos: Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima and, what's more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. Ophelia must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, Ophelia slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust: At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone--has never beat at all, in fact, but she'd always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, 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, at her father's order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do--and who to be--to win back the only mother she's ever known...or else defeat her once and for all. 

The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner: Raised in a small village surrounded by vast forests, Liba and Laya have lived a peaceful sheltered life, even if they've heard of troubling times for Jews elsewhere. When their parents travel to visit their dying grandfather, the sisters are left behind in their home in the woods. Liba discovers the secret that their Tati can transform into a bear, and their Mami into a swan, she realizes the old fairy tales are true. She must guard this secret carefully, even from her beloved sister. When a troupe of mysterious men appear in town and Laya falls under their spell, they are not the only dangers lurking in the woods. Can the sisters save their people from the dark forces that draw closer? Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles: In a magic competition to find the next headliner for the Conquering Circus, tricks become dangerous, rival magicians mysteriously disppear, and ambitious showgirl Kallia, her nightclub manager Jack, and competition judge Daron are forced to face their deepest secrets.

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett: She survived the curse. Now she must survive the throne.All Ekata wants is to stay alive--and the chance to prove herself as a scholar. Once Ekata's brother is finally named heir to the dukedom of Kylma Above, there will be nothing to keep her at home with her murderous family. Not her books or her experiments, not her family's icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness, and no one can find a cure. In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's captivating warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without--and within--her ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family's magic and power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield them both. 

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett: At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland. At 11, she battled an ancient body-stealing evil. At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you're thirteen ... But the Wintersmith isn't exactly a boy. He is Winter itself--snow, gales, icicles--all of it. When he has a crush on Tiffany, he may make her roses out of ice, but his nature is blizzards and avalanches. And he wants Tiffany to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever. Tiffany will need all her cunning to make it to Spring. She'll also need her friends, from junior witches to the legendary Granny Weatherwax. They--Crivens! Tiffany will need the Wee Free Men too! She'll have the help of the bravest, toughest, smelliest pictsies ever to be banished from Fairyland--whether she wants it or not. It's going to be a cold, cold season, because if Tiffany doesn't survive until Spring--Spring won't come.

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw: Be careful of the dark, dark wood... Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even. Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it's this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman -- the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago -- and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he'd been missing. But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver's presence. And it's not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn't know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own -- secrets he'll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn't the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.