Books To Beat The Winter Blues

Winter is my least favourite season. Especially winter without snow. Winter always brings a sense of stillness - the days are shorter, temperatures drop, it is always dark outside and you only leave the house if necessary. However, for these reasons, winter is also the best time to get lost in a good book, wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket with a hot cup of tea. 

Here are some books to help you beat the winter blues, when it feels like the darkness and chill are never-ending:

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

If you crave magic this winter, The Night Circus might be the perfect book. It is one of my favourite books of all time and I would sell my would to read it for the first time again. This atmospheric novel is set against the backdrop of a mysterious circus that only opens at night.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

 Jane Eyre is the perfect novel to immerse yourself in when the world outside feels dark and cold. The haunting atmosphere of Thornfield Hall and the passionate relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester provide the perfect escape from dreary winter days, while the novel’s themes of resilience and self-discovery will warm your heart.

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.

"Chess Story" by Stefan Zweig

Sometimes all you need is a short book that you can finish in one sitting. Chess Story is one of them - it is easy to digest and keeps you hooked and those long winter nights.

Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.

"Divine Rivals" by Rebecca Ross

Divine Rivals has it all. It was my favourite book of 2023 and saved me from the all-consuming reading slump I was in. If this book was a Taylor Swift song, it would be Invisible String. Gods at war, enemies to lovers, two rivals who share a magical connection.

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, their fate depends on their facing the depths of hell… together.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again…

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands – that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper – an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

"Daisy Jones & The Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reid has never disappointed me! I read countless of her books and have to admit that I am always captivated by her writing. Her stories always come alive and transport me into a completely different world - exactly what you need when the world outside is cold and grey!

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. 

"Make My Wish Come True" by Rachel Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Nothing is better at beating the winter blues than a sapphic winter romance book. To be fair, I haven't read this book yet. I discovered it last week when I visited the bookshop with my friend. She said she loved the book, so I trust her judgement. The author also wrote She Gets The Girl, which is one of my favourite sapphic books. so this Winter-romance must be good as well.

Hollywood teen actor Arden James' messy reputation is interfering with her career when a notoriously picky director won't give her a role based on her party-girl image. So she and her publicist make up a lie – not only is she from a small town (true) but her childhood best friend Caroline, is her long-term girlfriend (false) and she can prove it when she goes home for Christmas.​

Caroline Beckett hasn't thought about her ex-best friend Arden James for years, focusing instead on her dreams about becoming a journalist. When Arden turns up on her doorstep and promises her an article in Cosmopolitan magazine on their twelve snow-covered romantic days together, Caroline agrees to play along.
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But when old feelings start to bubble up, what will fall faster – Arden and Caroline or the Christmas Eve snow? ​