Imagine lighting a toasty vanilla candle, burning close to you as the sound of rain or even snow pours down outside your window. You sip a hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate after turning the page of your latest winter read. Some would say that this is the perfect scenario for reading, and for all of them I have news.
From fan favorites to surprising gems, here are five great new releases coming out this winter!
“Iron Flame” by Rebecca Yarros
One of the most awaited books of 2023 is this sequel to “Fourth Wing,” a book that quickly exploded with great reviews from the BookTok and BookTube community.
Released on Nov. 7th, “Iron Flame” picks up where “Fourth Wing” left off with Violet now proving herself with all the skills she learned from the Basgiath War College.
This book is the second of a five-book series and has already been confirmed to become a television show at Amazon, with Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society involved with the project.
In an interview with TODAY.com, author Rebecca Yarros said that the main character’s chronic disease is inspired by her and her sons’ struggle with Ehlers Danlos. This syndrome is characterized by a group of disorders that affect connective tissues supporting the skin, bones, blood vessels and many other organs and tissues.
In the interview, she also commented about the book’s cover saying, “I love how it flows with the first one, and how they designed the series to go back and forth with each other[.]”
“Check & Mate” by Ali Hazelwood
“Bride” by Ali Hazelwood
It is no surprise that one of the BookTok community’s favorite romance authors is bringing a new book to their bookshelves. But what if I told you that for the winter, Ali Hazelwood has surprised us all with two books!
“Check & Mate” (which came out on Nov. 7th) is another good YA romance in which the main character, Mallory, meets the handsome world champion of chess during a charity chess event. From then on, Mallory dives into the chess world while trying to keep her family separate from the sport they despise.
In an interview with American Booksellers Association, author Ali Halzewood says that she herself has played chess since a young age but not enough to take on grandmasters and more proficient chess players. However, she says she has always been fascinated by them due to their dedication and discipline to get to the top.
This book is still part of Hazelwood’s STEMfiction romance genre, but it is her debut in the YA crowd. She told the ABA that “[the characters] needed to be at a delicate stage in their lives, where they had to make important decisions about their futures, so writing about an eighteen- and a twenty-year-old felt like the perfect spot.”
Her next release will be “Bride,” coming out on February 6th. The book is about a paranormal romance in which the daughter of a powerful line of vampires is promised a marriage with the family’s mortal enemies as a peacekeeping measure.
In the same interview with ABA, Hazelwood talks more on how she was inspired by Nalini Singh, Kresley Cole, J. R. Ward, Christine Feehan, Patricia Briggs and other writers. She also adds that her fanfiction roots can be clearly seen in this book.
“It was so fun to be able to come up with a story in which the stakes are high and the plot can be unhinged. I hope people will like it, because I would love to write more!”
“House of Flame and Shadow” by Sarah J. Maas
BookTok’s fantasy queen is back with the third book in the Crescent City series called “House of Flame and Shadow.”
The plot revolves around Bryce Quinlan’s struggles in finding her way back to Midgard while Hunt Athalar tries to break out from prison to find her.
Even though the book will not be out until January, fans have already been speculating the story and plots, with one of them being shut down by author Sarah J. Maas.
Due to some interconnection with her best known series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” people started saying that Bryce’s mate might be ACOTAR’s character Azriel. But in an interview with Live Talk, Maas said that Bryce and Hunt are, in fact, mates. “Since this is a spoiler talk, I will say yes, he is her mate.”
“House of Flame and Shadow” is set to release Jan. 30th.
“Fourteen Days” by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a very praised author due to her literary fiction writing, and on February 6th, book lovers will experience another one of her masterpieces.
“Fourteen Days” will be a collection of stories of different building residents during the pandemic. The unique thing about this book is that Atwood is bringing more authors to each write a different story. Some of the writers involved in the project are John Grisham, Celeste Ng and Suzanne Collins.
Atwood released a statement saying the cast of lively fictional characters have a lot to say to one another about life during the pandemic, which often led to discussions, debates or outright quarrels. She says that the resolutions were always found in empathic and connective moments.
Atwood also prepared us all for how the narrative framework will work: “we structured the work so that the building’s super records the stories and conversations on her cellphone to create an unauthorized guerilla text.”
Now it is time to decide which one will make your TBR (to be read) pile first!
