Happy Holidays!

I hope you all have a safe and merry Christmas! This year we’ll be driving a little more than usual, hopefully giving me plenty of extra reading time to finish up my holiday TBR. For this TBR, my choices were almost exclusively based on cover art – they are all gorgeous!! There’s nothing better than choosing a book by its cover to find an equally beautiful story within. I probably won’t get to all of them, but you can never have enough variety!

Some Kind of Happiness by Clair Legrand

Loosening the boundaries between reality and imagination, Some Kind of Happiness is a beautiful Middle Grade novel of family, magic, and frightening sadness. Her parents on the verge of divorce, Finley’s sent to her grandparents’ home for the summer, but never having met them, and afraid of what she might return to at the end of the summer, her blue days are quickly outnumbering the happy. Her one retreat is Everwood, a magical forest only found in the pages of her notebook, until she discovers the vast forest beyond her grandparents’ home full of mum pirates, trees covered in ash, and strange wizards. To save the dying woods, she’ll have to save herself first as the sadness within grows beyond her control.

Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin

Set in a future post-apocalyptic world, a devastating epidemic caused by electro-magnetic pulses has led to the abandonment of technology. Meanwhile, Nell Crane, always an outsider, struggles to connect with her peers and neighbors, especially now that her father’s always away in his lab, creating biomechanical limbs for survivors. Alone and misunderstood, how will she ever live up to her father’s reputation? But after finding a tattered old mannequin, she decides to take matters into her own hands, to create a companion of her own. Someone without judgment, or expectation. Surrounded by a growing fear of technology, she’ll push the boundary between humanity and technology once and for all.

To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin

The year is 1887 when Caitriona Wallace and Emile Nouguir meet in a hot air balloon, floating high over the glittering expanse of Paris, France. Cait, a widow, is in Paris as a chaperone to two wealthy siblings from Scottland, while Emile, working on the construction of the Eiffel Tower, is expected to take reigns of the family business and choose a suitable wife (i.e. wealthy). Neither is a match made in heaven, but circumstances aside, the attraction is clear. Raising questions on the importance of tradition in a changing world and the woman’s place in that world, to find their happiness Cait and Emile will have to look past duty, past controversy, to find the true worth of love.

The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins

An epic tale of magic and lore, The Last Days of Magic lifts the veil on ancient kingdoms, when humans and magical beings lived side by side. From ruling goddesses to warring kings, to Celts and mystical faeries, the magical kingdoms of the Emerald Isle are under threat from Rome as the Vatican Commander is tasked with vanquishing the last remnants of magic and otherworldly creatures. Exploring the beginning days of Britain, Tompkins weaves a tale of impossible magic, quests for power, and inevitable change.

What will you be reading over the Holidays?