At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind--she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed--this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.

This month’s challenge celebrates Children’s Literature and Romance.

I was looking into literary holidays and February seems to be the perfect month to read some kid lit. I’m a huge fan of this genre myself and I’m stoked for this month’s challenge.

Have any middle grade books? Been wanting to read Harry Potter? Now’s the time!

Feb 1: Harry Potter Book Night
Feb 1-7: Children’s Authors and Illustrator Week

February is known as the month of love and it felt wrong not to pick Romance. I have to admit, this is the most challenging genre for me because I’m so picky about my Romance. If it’s too much I cringe, if it’s unconvincing I roll my eyes. Sooo yeah. Wish me luck!

If you need some inspiration for your picks, here are helpful lists from Goodreads:

Best Children’s Books
Popular Romance Books

I’m probably going to read Beauty by Robin McKinley and continue my Anne of Green Gables journey with Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery.

Which book(s) be reading for this challenge?

"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true.

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

Happy New Year, friends!

Did you get any books for Christmas? Have you written down your reading goals? Have you finished your first book of 2018?! (if yes, wowza!) Wherever you are in our bookish universe I hope you’re as excited as I am to explore more genres. 🙌🏼

We are kicking off 2018 with two genres we’ve never had on the Colour Me Read Challenge and they are… (drum roll)

Experimental Fiction
You’ve probably read a book from this genre without even knowing it. Experimental fiction is known for breaking the boundaries of traditional fiction or mainstream genres in form, technique, content or theme.

Some that come to mind are House of Leaves, The Illuminae Files, Flowers of Algernon, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Night Film, and The Lover’s Dictionary. Here’s a handy list of books from Goodreads!

Satire
Books from this genre are known for exposing and criticizing the foolishness and corruption of an individual/society by using humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule which intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles.

Many well-known books fall into this category and they include Animal Farm, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, 1984, The Screwtape Letters, Fight Club, and Fahrenheit 451. As always here is a list from Goodreads.

I’m not sure if I already own unread books under experimental fiction, but I do own 1984 so I will start with that for my satire pick of the month.

Which book(s) will you be reading?