Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Winter? (December-February)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS WINTER? (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(I got a few of these in eARC form though! See below). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the winter books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

DECEMBER

10th. Courtney Gould: What the Woods Took (YA)

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods—inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves—and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.

Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone—or something—new.

Note: I wished for it on NG (ha! good luck on that) and was already met with a rejection on EW. I very much enjoyed Gould's The Dead and the Dark (the link will redirect you to my mini review for now, but I plan on writing a full one eventually), so I'm keeping this one on my radar...

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10th. Amy Christine Parker: You're Dead to Me (YA)

Ruby is a scholarship senior at elite Oleander High School with a chip on her shoulder and an attitude to match—which she puts to good use as the infamous local anonymous gossip blogger ReputationKiller. When she’s outed as the voice behind the account, the entire town turns against her.

But after she’s scared witless by a vision of her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress, she is faced with an awful truth. Someone out there doesn’t just hate her—they want her dead.

With less than a week until the prom, Ruby starts investigating. Turns out Oleander Bay isn’t the picture-perfect resort town it purports to be. With so many secrets, scandals, and people hell-bent on covering them up at all costs, the murderer could be anyone. Can Ruby beat the clock counting down to prom—and her death—and survive the night?

Note: I wished for it on NG, and my EW request is still in limbo. I'm a tad wary of this novel for a couple of reasons, but the "prevent your own death" trope appeals to me...especially if ghostly visions are involved 😉.

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31th. Lora Senf: The Losting Fountain (YA)

Ember, Miles, and Sam have been called home—only home is a place none of them have ever been before. The choices they make will not only determine their own futures but will also have vast and permanent consequences—they will either restore a cosmic balance or destroy the dams that separate two worlds, ending them both. Ember was called because she belonged, Miles because his mother belonged, and Sam . . . well, Sam arranged his own invitation. 

The Fountain itself is beautiful and alluring—yet so is the light of an anglerfish. Hidden below the surface, the world of the Fountain is unexplored and unmapped and full of wild things—leviathan and tiny, scuttling things and all manner of creature in between. There are other entities as well, entities that haunt and hunt in the Fountain, because it rewards nearly as often as it punishes, and it has been punishing the greedy and merciless and cruel for a very long time. For those, the Fountain becomes a prison.

The borders between our world and the world of the Fountain are already porous. If the balance between them is upset and control of the Fountain is lost, the consequences will be rapid, merciless, and world-ending. In every timeline that has been or will be, everywhere that water stands in our world will become a passageway for the violent damned to enter ours from the Fountain. For Ember, Miles, and Sam, all from different times, what starts as a journey to take control of their lives quickly becomes a quest to save—or destroy—both worlds, depending on whom you ask.

Note: This book was blurbed by Seanan McGuire...but regardless, I would have given it a chance based on the synopsis alone. I did get an ARC, read it and scheduled my review for December. I have to admit I expected a more immersive reading experience, but it was good!

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JANUARY

7th. Seanan McGuire: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (YA)

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn't her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyrreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyrreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure.

Note: Book 10th in the Wayward Children series. Alas, while at the end of 2023 I managed to score an ARC of the latest installment in the series, the publisher went back to ignoring me this year 😂 😢 (well, not ignoring...they flat-out rejected my request LOL). But of course, I'll buy a physical copy anyway...I'll only have to wait a tad longer to read it! 

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7th. Mallory Pearson: Voice Like a Hyacinth (NA)

Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another’s muses—so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they’ll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual.

In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together—as women, students, and artists—is starting to crumble.

To right the wrong they’ve done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back.

Note: This one was (still is) Read Now on NG, so I was quick to snatch a virtual copy...not only because the premise intrigued me. You see, me and Pearson have history - you might remember that a few months ago I reviewed her debut novel We Ate the Dark. Despite the abundance of purple prose, I liked it quite a bit, and I could see Pearson growing into a damn fine writer, if only she would rein in her penchant for (sometimes extravagant) metaphors. Heck, I was willing to bet on it. Turns out I was right, and I want my money now 😂. Review coming in January. 

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14th. Dan Hanks: The Way Up Is Death (Adult)

When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone…is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move.

Note: This premise! Just WOW. Also, I enjoyed Hanks' novel Swashbucklers, so I had every reason for requesting this one. And the publisher kindly obliged 🙂. I've read it already, and it was a blast!  Review to come in January.

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FEBRUARY

I don't have any February releases on my wishlist! It's funny, because last year I had a few, while I didn't have any December ones. Anyhow, these are slow months usually in the publishing world - wait until you see my spring list...😱

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Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the month of December:

• December 3th: What is your favorite breakfast food?
• December 10th: What are your favorite books/audiobooks that you read in 2024? 
• December 17th: Do you enjoy reading holiday-themed books at the holidays or year-round?
• December 24th: Taking a break (no question)
• December 31st: How do you celebrate New Year's Eve/the new year?

I'm not planning on joining the meme until next year (what's new? I keep procrastinating...), but I'll make a point of visiting your blogs and reading/commenting on your answers anyway...

Now tell me something...which winter books are on your TBR list?