Calendar Girls January: Most Anticipated 2019 Release

Hello friends!

Welcome to another edition of the Calendar Girls!

Calendar Girls was a monthly blog event created by Melanie at MNBernard Books and Flavia the Bibliophile and will now be hosted by Katie at Never Not Reading and Adrienne at Darque Dreamer Reads.  It is designed to ignite bookish discussions among readers and was inspired by the 1961 Neil Sedaka song Calendar Girl.

Just like the song, each month has a different theme. Each blogger picks their favourite book from the theme and on the first Monday of the month reveals their pick in a Calendar Girls post. 

So without further ado, this month’s theme is…

…and my response is…

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

So even though I’ve already read this book as an ARC, it’s not released until 10th January and I am SUPER excited to see what everyone else thinks about it!!! I even made a Pinterest board to show off how how gorgeous it is:

The novel follows on from The Girl in the Tower, after Vasya has travelled to Moscow from her village where she has been cast out as a witch. There will be thrills, spills – and an explosive conclusion to the series!

I love the Winternight trilogy for many reasons – Vasya is a fearless heroine, defiant about the rules governing her as a woman and strong in a way that isn’t purely based on macho “I’ll fight them at their own game” tactics. The stories are wonderfully written, combining folklore and history to create an utterly immersive world. They don’t shy away from the harsh realities of fourteenth century life but the grittiness lends itself to the starkly beautiful setting. I also adored how dark the books are – just the right side of creepy – giving a deeply atmospheric air to an utterly spellbinding fairytale.

So, what’s your most anticipated release of 2019? Have you read The Winter of the Witch? Let me know in the comments!