COZY WINTER BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS ✨ john green, erin morgenstern, katherine arden and more!

It is so wonderful. It is just... Hello. Welcome back to my channel. I'm Megan and today we're getting COZY! Lux is here getting cozy with us. You okay? Do you want to say hi? He's very sleepy. Today we're going to be going through the coziest winter reads that I can think of because I think in winter when it's like the Christmas holidays and you're at home, you just want to be reading books that make you feel really cozy and wintery. So I'm going to be giving you some recommendations for that that make me feel cozy and let's just get into it. Lux is feeling really cozy. So my first recommendation is going to be the Winter Night series. I am doing very bad job of holding it up. They enjoyed it. They loved it. So that makes me happy. It's worth all the stress. Burning the Lights of Girls is the first book in this series and oh my god, it is incredible. I'm trying to figure out what my favourite book of the year is. I really don't know. This is definitely up there. I read them all fairly close to each other, not like one after... well I read the first two one after the other but there was a bit of a gap between these two and I find it really difficult to separate in my head between them. It's just all one big story. To me, does that make any sense? I think they're all as brilliant as each other so I kind of just... I can't even pick a favourite between these. I don't have a favourite in the series. To me it's just like one big magicalness. In this we follow Vasya who is a young girl in Russia and it's her story of self-discovery, discovering her magical powers. We have the Winter King who plays a big part in this series. I don't want to give anything away. The way I always like to describe it is that this series expands really really well. So in the first book she's having to kind of save her town. In the second book she's kind of having to save her country, her city or whatever. And then in the last book she's having to kind of save the whole world essentially. She's up against so many different forces because obviously the society is quite... not only kind of really negative towards women doing anything by themselves but also it relies really heavily on religion and religion is used to manipulate people in the society so she's got that to fight against as well. And just on the whole this series is just so magically written. I always say it reads like you're reading a Russian fairy tale, like someone just handed you an old Russian fairy tale and you're just reading that because it is so wonderful. It's just... it's so good. It's one of my favourite reads of this year by far. I just loved it. I read this in summer but it still made me feel so cosy and so wintery and I think maybe next winter, kind of this time next year, I might reread this because I want to reread it in the winter and god just holding these books makes me feel so happy. You know when just a series is just... it's just everything. So I would really recommend picking this series up if you haven't already. I always say I don't feel like enough people talk about it on here. These are out of every book I could possibly think of... Stop it, mate. Come on, stop it now. Yeah, bitch, it was me. I did it. Life goes on. I think out of every book I could possibly ever think of, ever read, this is just the cosy... I mean just... don't the covers... come on. Come on. Don't the covers make you want to get cosy. You cannot tell me. The magic in this is so well thought out. The politics in this, so well thought out. Everything... sometimes I read... I just read Shadow and Bone, for example. Let's talk about that. I just read Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and it was like fine. It was good but I didn't fully understand the world. Like I felt like the world was a bit like... are you leaving? Yeah, sometimes with the world I just didn't feel like it was fully thought out and it is a debut novel but is this... I think these are a debut novel as well and I just felt like I completely understood everything in the world. Like I just got it and it was so complex and things were revealed to you at the right time and it's just... it's just perfect. Like I don't know how anyone could read this and not give it at least four stars. Like I understand that some people have different tastes but it's just... you've got to recognise art when you see it. So next, one of my... another new favourite books is The Starless Sea. I haven't got it in this jacket at the moment but The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I just read this and I posted a vlog of me reading this which I will link. It's that side, isn't it? I think I've... I think I've learned it now. And in the description down below. Now this is essentially impossible to describe to you. I'm not the best... I'm not the best at describing books. We all know this but I just... I read it a couple weeks ago maybe, a week or two ago and I still don't know how to describe it to you but essentially... We follow Zachary as he finds a mysterious book and as he reads the book he discovers that he himself as a child is in the book and he doesn't know how anyone could have written the scenario that was in the book. He was alone, he doesn't know how anyone could know how he felt, stuff like that and so it freaks him out and it takes him on a twisty and turny journey into the starless sea where he meets some mysterious people and he goes... Okay, so he goes to the... It's just impossible. There is a library with loads of mysterious books and the story switches between Zachary's story and passages from the books that are mentioned in the book. Does this make sense? And then those stories, because the books in this magical world hold importance, those stories then somehow affect Zachary's story. Does this make any sense? I hope it does and it's just so cosy because it's books and cats and libraries and mysterious worlds and warm inns and it's... Oh my god! It's amazing. I still... I'm still... I just... I still don't have words when it comes to this book. I didn't when I wrapped up that vlog and I don't now because it's just, like, it's impossible. I feel like I'm not clever enough or, like, worthy. I feel like I'm not worthy to describe it to you. It is just the most magical thing ever. I'm obsessed with it and I want to reread it straight away. It's just perfect. It's just perfect for you to be sitting by a fire with a cat on your lap because there's cats in the book and just feeling all, like, warm and cosy, you know? Pretty legendary if you ask me. I love it and this era will always have such a close place in my heart. If you haven't picked up yet, I really don't know what you're doing and, yeah, you should know better by now, so... No, never. So the next recommendation I'm gonna give... I've spoken about this a few times on my channel, but it's Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. Now, I didn't love this. I gave it four stars, but I think what it's perfect for is it's the kind of book that you can read over the Christmas break and it's kind of quick, it's kind of light, but it's got enough mystery and kind of, like, intrigue that you get, like, something out of it. I'm not saying you don't get anything out of books that are just light with no mystery or intrigue, but I just feel like sometimes over Christmas, what I want to read is kind of light books, but also something that gives me a bit of, like, ooh, you know? And this is what this book is. So we follow Stevie as she attends a famous private school where there were murders related, kind of, to the owner and students, uh, in the, I don't know what years it is. Hang on, this is bad. Yeah, 1930s, there were murders, and at this school, everyone who attends is kind of got a specialism at something, and what she is really good at is kind of true crime, solving crimes, and she believes that she can solve the murders, because they're unsolved to this day, and so that's why she's there, and when she's there, things start kicking off, you know? Things start, whoa, thing, oh, okay, and it's a little bit, you're a little bit, you don't know who to trust, and you're just sitting there, like, there were a few twists and turns. It didn't quite, I want it to be a bit more, like, you know? I want it to be a bit more crazy. It wasn't quite as crazy as I want it to be, but we were almost there, and I feel like at a private school setting where there's kind of, like, old 1930s houses, that's a very cozy environment to read about. I'm really excited to read the rest of the series. I think the third one comes out in January. I haven't read the second one yet. I need to get my hands on it, but really good, really good, so I recommend you pick it up. So my next recommendation, bear in mind, I haven't read this for, like, six years, but I feel like I would be letting myself down if I did a cozy winter recommendation, and I didn't recommend Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Miracle. Maureen Johnson is actually the person who wrote Truly Devious, so she's lucky. She's getting two recs from me today. So this is kind of like, it says three holiday romances. Everyone knows John Green. It's done in his marketing style to get people to buy it, and we essentially follow three different stories in this same town, and then, of course, they kind of all come together and intersect, and as you can see, this copy was well-loved by 13-year-old Megan. I just really, I really enjoyed it, and I think it's just a really fun, uplifting, easygoing book to read over winter, and I mean, you can't really get more wintry than it, right? And I think it's really fun to read anthologies over, like, the winter break, because you get to dabble in a lot of different short stories and a lot of different authors, and I think that's something really fun to do over the winter break. I just think, I don't know, I just feel like anthologies feel wintry to me. I don't know. This isn't quite an anthology. It's not quite an anthology. It's three authors, whereas anthologies are usually, like, 10, right? But, like, I don't know. I think it's a lot of cute stories, and if you're looking for something cute YA, I just think if you haven't read this, then you should just go for this, because it's kind of like the epitome of cute YA Christmas books. I thought I'd go with a bit of a different recommendation for the last one. I spoke in my 1k Q&A, which I'll again link. I'm sure I'm right. I need a drink. I'll link that up above about how, you know, nonfiction is something that's really, uh, important to me, and I try and read a lot of, but I've been reading much less of since starting booktube, and if you ever wanted more Rex, just let a gal know, and, um, a few said yes, so that's all I needed. This book I read, oh, let me just hold it up. So it's Remember This When You're Sad by Maggie Van Eyck. I think that's how I pronounce her name, and so I read 15 books last year, and I wanted to read 15 really badly, and I had only read 14, and so I picked this up. My boyfriend's mum got it for me, and I picked this up on the 31st or the 30th or something. I read it on the last day of the year, and it was, it, it just, it was really, I've spoken about this, I think I've once before, and this was really just a turning point for me, um, over last winter, and things got worse, they got better after this, but this was a really big part of, um, just my journey, I think, and I would really recommend it. Maggie Van Eyck, she has experienced a lot of different mental health, um, struggles, and she kind of takes you through, uh, her life, and speaks to you about the different methods that have really worked for her, so we have sections like remember this when you want to hurt yourself, remember this when you're falling in love, remember this when you're alone, remember this when you're getting help, uh, remember this when you're in a relationship, all of these things, and she just gives you really, kind of, practical ways to work through things in a really accessible way, but in a way that doesn't seem preachy, right, it's just like you're talking to a friend, and I think that's really helpful in mental health books, to, you need to feel like you're talking to a friend, in my opinion, otherwise it just feels, I feel like the advice can kind of float over your head, I mean, as you can see, I was, like, highlighting bits of this, I really, it really spoke to me, and I just felt like it came to me at a good time. If anyone doesn't know, I experience seasonal affective disorder, and kind of last year and the start of this year was quite bad for me, um, yeah, like, it was just difficult, and I think this really was something that I think about a lot, in reminding myself some of the things she recommended, and I've spoken about this before, like, how much we all love reading fiction, especially when we want to escape from the this, but I believe that the most important relationship you're ever going to have is with yourself, right, like, and you've probably heard that quote so many times, but we really do spend the most time with ourselves, and if you hate yourself, or you're upset with yourself, then the relationship, like, that affects all your other relationships, and so I really try to always stay on top of my mental health, it doesn't always work, and sometimes you really get yourself into a hole, but I think that this, something like this really helps you see light at the end of the tunnel, and um, I hope you understand that, you know, it's not, you're never gonna have a quick fix, right, like, mental health is something that we're gonna experience throughout our whole lives, and have to work on our whole lives, so yeah, that's, I would really recommend picking this up, I read it, as I said, the 30th December, and it just feels really cosy to me, in a really, really great way, it feels something really warm, and positive, and really effective, so for me, yeah, I just think of this as a really cosy read, maybe that's because of the time of year I read it, and how it affected me, but if you can get your hands on this, I would recommend picking it up so, so much, especially if you are struggling, especially during the festive period, I know it can be difficult for so many people, it throws up a lot of emotions, and it's a really, really hectic time, so I think it's more important than ever to take care of yourself during this time, and yeah, I really, really, really recommend picking this up. So there we have it, that is all my cosy winter recommendations, I hope you enjoyed this video, let me know down below what some of your winter recommendations are, I would love to know, because I'm always looking for more, I feel like I don't read enough cosy winter recommendations, so yeah, let me know what some of yours are, I can't wait to hear it, and I will see you really, really soon with another video. Bye!