There exists a peculiar enchantment that settles upon the world when frost traces its delicate patterns across windowpanes and snow blankets the earth in hushed white. It is in such moments that certain books call to us—tales in which magic crackles through frozen air and supernatural wonders lurk beneath winter’s crystalline veil.
Come, dear reader, and allow me to introduce you to the finest urban fantasy and contemporary fantasy novels where winter itself becomes a character, where cold winds carry whispers of ancient powers, and where the turning of seasons marks the boundary between our world and realms far stranger.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
In the frozen wilderness at the edge of old Russia, where winter claims most of the year and darkness falls early, young Vasilisa grows up listening to her nurse’s fairy tales by the fire. She loves best the stories of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon who claims unwary souls.
Katherine Arden has crafted something quite extraordinary here—a tale woven from Russian folklore where household spirits protect the living and ancient evils stir in the deep woods. The cold fairly seeps from the pages, and one finds oneself reaching for a blanket while reading. Vasya emerges as a wonderfully willful heroine, possessed of dangerous gifts she must wield to protect her family from terrors sprung directly from her nurse’s most frightening stories. This is the first volume of the Winternight Trilogy, and it shall leave you desperate for the next.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
When Miryem, a moneylender’s daughter, makes an idle boast that she can turn silver into gold, she draws the attention of the Staryk king—those grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh. In a snowbound world of Eastern European inspiration, three remarkable women must untangle a web of magic that threatens two kingdoms.
Naomi Novik has spun a reimagining of the Rumpelstiltskin tale that glitters like fresh-fallen snow. The Staryk are wonderfully terrible, their frozen realm bleeding into the human world with each passing winter. Through multiple perspectives, we witness ordinary women discovering extraordinary strength, and the prose carries all the lyrical beauty of the fairy tales that inspired it.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
To the tiny village of Hrafnsvik in the far north travels our heroine, Cambridge professor Emily Wilde—the world’s foremost expert on faerie studies and currently quite terrible at dealing with people. She comes to complete her encyclopaedia, armed with notebooks and scholarly determination, only to find herself entangled in mysteries far more personal than academic.
Heather Fawcett has given us something deliciously cozy here—a book that feels like drinking hot tea while snow falls outside. Told through Emily’s wonderfully awkward journal entries, complete with footnotes, the tale unfolds in an icy northern landscape where the fair folk prove every bit as dangerous as the legends warn. The arrival of her charming academic rival only complicates matters most entertainingly.
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
In Chicago, where winter winds cut sharp as knives off Lake Michigan, there works the only professional wizard listed in the phone book. Harry Dresden takes cases both mundane and supernatural, and as the series progresses, he becomes increasingly entangled with the Winter Court of the Fae.
Jim Butcher has created something rather marvellous in this long-running series—a perfect marriage of hard-boiled detective fiction and modern magic. The books grow more ambitious with each installment, and the winter elements become increasingly significant. In Cold Days, Harry finds himself transformed into the Winter Knight, bound to the coldest of fae queens. It is urban fantasy at its finest, crackling with wit and wonder.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Alaska in 1920—a brutal place for homesteading, and especially difficult for Jack and Mabel, a childless couple drifting apart under the weight of isolation and grief. During the season’s first snowfall, they build a child from snow. The next morning, she is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde girl running through the trees.
Eowyn Ivey has crafted a novel that exists in the liminal space between fairy tale and reality. The child Faina, who hunts with a red fox and survives alone in the wilderness, may be an orphan—or something else entirely. The Alaskan landscape becomes a character unto itself, beautiful and merciless, and the question of magic versus reality haunts every page. This was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and deservedly so.
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
Young Tiffany Aching, almost thirteen and training as a witch, makes a rather significant mistake: she dances in a ritual celebrating winter’s arrival, and the Wintersmith—the elemental embodiment of winter itself—mistakes her for the Summer Lady and falls quite hopelessly in love.
Sir Terry Pratchett has given us one of his finest works here, part of the Tiffany Aching series set in his beloved Discworld. As Tiffany-shaped snowflakes fall from the sky and the season refuses to end, our heroine must find a way to set things right—with the help of the wonderfully chaotic Nac Mac Feegle and the formidable witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. It is funny and wise and rather more moving than one might expect.
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
At Whitespring Castle, where winter never releases its grip, Mina discovers that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. Meanwhile, Lynet learns she was created from snow in the dead queen’s image. Both young women must navigate a court where they are valued only for their appearances.
Melissa Bashardoust has reimagined Snow White in the most wonderful way, subverting the evil stepmother trope entirely. There is no rivalry born of jealousy here—only two women fighting to be seen for who they truly are. The frozen setting perfectly mirrors the emotional landscape, and the relationships between women take centre stage in this dark, ultimately heartwarming tale.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Eddi McCandry, recently separated from her boyfriend and their band, finds herself pursued through nighttime Minneapolis by a shape-shifting phouka. She has been chosen, quite against her will, to serve as a mortal pawn in the ancient war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.
Emma Bull essentially invented modern urban fantasy with this 1987 novel, and it remains a joy to read. Minneapolis comes alive in these pages—the clubs, the streets, the parks where ancient faerie battles play out. Eddi’s rock band becomes intertwined with fae magic in unexpected ways, and the balance between our world and theirs proves wonderfully precarious. If you wish to understand the roots of the genre, begin here.
Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Nora Walker comes from a long line of witches whose name is as legendary as it is notorious. When she discovers a boy left for dead in the snow-covered woods near her mountain home, she must unravel the mystery of his arrival while dark forces gather around them.
Shea Ernshaw writes atmosphere like few others, and Winterwood drops you directly into its cold, mysterious setting. The magic here is folk magic, infused with whimsy and danger in equal measure. The winter woods hold secrets, and not all of them are meant to be discovered. It is the perfect book for reading while snow falls outside your window.
Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson, mechanic and coyote shapeshifter, must travel to Montana when her brother arrives under a mysterious curse. There, she and her werewolf husband Adam discover that Norse mythology has come calling, and a frost giant’s stolen property threatens everyone at a mountain resort.
Patricia Briggs continues her bestselling series with this fourteenth installment, expanding the supernatural world into Norse territory. The winter setting proves essential to the plot, and the relationship between Mercy and Adam remains as compelling as ever. For those who love their urban fantasy with werewolves, fae, and now frost giants, this delivers admirably.
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
James Stark spent eleven years in Hell, fighting as a gladiator against demons. Now he has escaped, returning to a Los Angeles haunted by vampires and darker things, and he wants revenge on those who sent him there.
Richard Kadrey has created something wonderfully dark with this series—urban fantasy with a blackened heart and gallows humor. While not strictly a winter book, the noir atmosphere and supernatural chill make it perfect cold-weather reading. Stark’s voice crackles with misanthropy and wit, and the supernatural underworld of Los Angeles proves endlessly fascinating.
Finding Your Perfect Winter Fantasy Read
The books gathered here offer different flavours of winter magic, from the cozy academic fantasy of Emily Wilde to the hard-edged noir of Sandman Slim. Some, like the Winternight Trilogy and Spinning Silver, draw from Eastern European folklore and make winter itself magical. Others, like the Dresden Files, use winter’s fae courts as sources of power and peril.
Whatever your preference—whether you seek romance or revenge, scholarly inquiry or supernatural warfare—there exists within these pages a winter world waiting to welcome you. So brew your tea, find your warmest blanket, and let the cold magic in.
