Happy Friday Junior, and Backlist Blast day! This week I’m featuring a book that’s been on my TBR for quite a bit of time! And I plan on reading it this winter, especially now since the same friend who granted my #bookishwish with Strange the Dreamer sent me a copy of this book too! I’m so grateful! And I don’t know what else to say! Also, we’re so happy to see that so many of you have decided to join Backlist Blast, and in order to make your post for this meme more visible (and your blogs, Instagram, or Twitter accounts too), I decided to add a link-up form/widget to the bottom of every Backlist Blast post from now on! So, don’t forget to add your links to the form!

– About the Meme –

Backlist Blast is a meme created by Milana from A Couple Reads and myself, and is meant to encourage book bloggers to feature and talk about backlist books (meaning books that were published 6 months ago, or earlier). We all get excited about all of the newest books coming out, but many of us also have a looming TBR of books published 6 months ago or earlier that we still need to read!

The main purpose of this meme is to talk about those books, and remember why we wanted to read them in the first place. Another purpose is for readers to find out about awesome backlist books that they might have never heard of before! For more information on the meme, and for optional themes, please see the info page here.

– My Backlist Blast Choice –

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

To see the other pics for this meme, go follow me on Instagram!

– About the Book –

Title: The Bear and the Nightingale
Author: Katherine Arden
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Historical, Fairytale
Publisher: Del Rey Books (Penguin Random House)
Published: January 10, 2017
Source: Gift from a friend

A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.

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.

– About the Author –

Born in Texas, Katherine studied French and Russian at Middlebury College. She has lived abroad in France and in Moscow, among other places. She has also lived in Hawaii, where she wrote much of The Bear and the Nightingale. She currently lives in Vermont.

– Purchase Links –

– Link-up –

Welcome to the new link-up feature! Please link up your Backlist Blast post specific to this week, rather than your blog or social media account in general. You can either share a blog post, an Instagram post, or a tweet from Twitter on here (or all 3 if you so desire)!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING MY BACKLIST BLAST POST! HOW HUGE IS YOUR BACKLIST TBR, AND WHICH BOOK/BOOKS DO YOU THINK YOU’LL GET TO FIRST? WHY? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!