Looking for a perfect Snow Day read? We've got you covered! Check out one of these popular titles available from Brooke County Libraries, hand picked by our staff...
Winter Brides - Novella Collection by Various Authors
Ebook Available from WV Reads: Winter Brides - West Virginia Reads - OverDrive
Happily ever after begins today. The honor of your presence is requested at three winter weddings . . .
A December Bride by Denise Hunter When Layla O'Reilly and Seth Murphy make their engagement public, she knows it's only to convince a major client that she's high-society enough to work for his agency. Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, but she's never given him the time of day. For Layla, this romantic illusion is the chance to save her career. And for Seth, it's the chance to finally win her heart.
A January Bride by Deborah Raney Novelist Madeleine Houser arranges a temporary office in a local bed and breakfast to escape the distracting renovations on her own house. Although she's never laid eyes on the inn's owner, an unlikely friendship blossoms between them as they leave daily notes for each other, and before long, Maddie finds herself falling for her mysterious host---a man likely many years her senior---and a man she's never even met.
A February Bride by Betsy St. Amant History repeats itself when Allie Andrews escapes the church on her wedding day---wearing the same dress passed down for generations of women in her family, all women with histories of failed marriages. Allie loves Marcus but fears she's destined to repeat her family's mistakes. When thrown unexpectedly together for a wedding months later, Allie and Marcus discover their own story might be far from over.
So Cold the River by Michael Koryta
Ebook Available from WV Reads: So Cold the River - West Virginia Reads - OverDrive
It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man's past -- just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life.
In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history -- a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric's stay.
Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town's dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored -- a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.
Snow by Cynthia Rylant (WV Author)
Cynthia Rylant’s lyrical descriptions of the sights and feelings evoked by falling snow blend gorgeously with the rich and beautiful world created by Lauren Stringer’s illustrations, in which a young girl, her friend, and her grandmother enjoy the many things a snowy day has to offer.
A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
Ebook Available from WV Reads: A Wild Winter Swan - West Virginia Reads - OverDrive
Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal.
Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative’s financial aid to save the family store.
As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman’s heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood.
Check back in with us in the Spring when the snow starts to melt and we have a new selection of stories to share!
As always, images and info are courtesy of other web pages like WV Reads, Goodreads, Google, etc.