Reading Recommendations: Into The Woods

A new month means another batch of reading recommendations! August’s theme is Into The Woods. These book picks focus on stories grounded in nature, deep forests, and the great outdoors. Enjoy these picks!

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Nowhere on Earth

Sixteen-year-old Emily is on the run. Between her parents and the trouble she’s recently gotten into at school, she has more than enough reason to get away. But when she finds a little boy named Aidan wandering in the woods, she knows she needs to help him find his way home. But getting home is no easy matter, especially when Emily finds out that Aidan isn’t even from Earth. When their plane crashes into the side of a snowy mountain, it’s up to Emily to ensure Aidan and their pilot, Bob, make it off the mountain alive. Pursued by government forces who want to capture Aidan, the unlikely team of three trek across the freezing landscape, learning more about each other, and about life, than they ever thought possible. 

This novel is a Sci-Fi story set among a lush wilderness backdrop. Even though there is a sense of urgency for the main characters, I could appreciate the descriptions of the lush nature. In the midst of the action, there were a lot of quiet moments where the reader can take in the true beauty of the tundra. While reading the book, I even felt a slight chill reading about the bitter temperature and the frigid snow that lies everywhere. But the descriptions of the mountains and forest sounded so picturesque!

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It Waits in the Forest

Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology—until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.

Now her guilt over her mother’s condition keeps her tethered to the island, relegated to conning gullible tourists with useless talismans and phony protection rituals. But when one of those tourists ends up at the center of a string of strange murders, the truth that Selina has been denying can no longer be avoided: there is evil lurking in the forests that surround St. Virgil. Another thing that can’t be avoided? Selina’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel, newly employed at the local newspaper and eager to put his investigative skills to use.

Desperate to put an end to the killings and claim justice for Selina’s family, these two former lovers race to find answers. But evil bides its time. And as long-buried feelings and long-hidden secrets about Selina’s family’s past begin to reveal themselves, only one answer remains—and it waits in the forest.

From the very beginning of this story, readers will be hooked into the plot just as I was. Dass’s writing is detailed and gripping, pulling the readers into Selina’s world of a tropical wonderland and the supernatural beings that seem to haunt its residents and tourists alike. It was an immersive experience, seeing the landscape through my very eyes and also racing along the action-packed scenes of imminent danger.

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A Magic Fierce and Bright

Adya wants nothing more than to be left alone. Content to be loyal to no one but herself in the isolated jungles of South India, she dreams only of finding her lost sister, Priya, and making enough money to take care of their family. It’s too bad that her rare ability to wake electric machines—using the magic that wiped them out five centuries ago—also makes her a coveted political pawn. Everyone seems to believe that her technomancy can help them win the endless war for control over the magic’s supernatural source.

These senseless power struggles mean little to Adya. But when her enemies dangle news of her sister before her, she’s all too quick to leap at the chance to bring Priya home—even if it means teaming up with a rakish, disreputable thief in order to do it. With the threat of invasion looming ever larger on the horizon, Adya must reconcile the kind of person she is with the kind of person she wants to be and untangle the web of intrigue, conspiracy, and deceit that threatens to take all of India down with it.

Nayak’s detailed writing allows the reader to put themselves in Adya’s shoes. A Magic Fierce and Bright is action-packed including some battle scenes that left me hanging on the edge of the seat. There is also the inclusion of romance, politics between kingdoms, wars arising, and the overarching theme of greed and the devastation it can cause. The thrills and ever-lurking danger along with strong characters make this novel a recommended read!

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The Glade

Pina’s first trip to summer camp is a chance to escape her overbearing parents and finally go on an adventure with her best friend, Jo. But Camp Clear Skies hides a a clearing in the deep woods the older kids call “the Glade.” After falling asleep here, Pina and Jo are able to enter one another’s dreams, transforming into superheroes and knights in shining armor, fighting back their nightmares in epic adventures.
 
 At first, the friends think they’ve discovered a secret more exciting than any video game—until Pina’s nightmares start leaking out into waking life. Worse, something seems to have followed them back from those dreams…and whatever it is, it’s taking over Jo. Jo has always been the superhero in their friendship, but Pina can’t just abandon them to their fate.
 
To save her friend, Pina journeys deeper into the Glade than she ever has before, facing the worst of her own fears and Jo’s. There, she must confront the consciousness trying to steal her friend’s body and learn what happened twenty years ago that shut down Camp Clear Skies and changed the Glade forever.

Reading this novel felt like relishing in a tale told by the camp fireside with snacks in tow. It was engaging, fun, and its seasonal setting makes it a great addition to any summer reading list. I love Jamnia created a suspenseful, yet adventurous atmosphere for this novel with its detailed setting and characters. They essentially write the reader into the story with the writing style which made for an immersive book experience.On top of the mystery elements and eerier nature of the camp tale, I also appreciated the novel’s focus on a coming-of-age narrative

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Where The Dark Stands Still

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

The novel gives its readers a sense of wonder as we get to explore the nooks and crannies of the spirit wood and the world that the Leszy interacts with. Some creatures are haunting with descriptions of molten skin, sharp teeth, and songs that lure it’s listeners into danger. Others are mischievous jokesters or help lost ones find their way in the night. The most terrifying of all creatures cause devastation and death. Because of these elements the novel is full of action-packed scenes that deliver magical battles that are absolutely gripping.

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Stranded

Nature-loving Ava yearns to leave the noise of New York City behind for a real adventure in the great outdoors―that’s why she’s thrilled when her parents allow her to move in with her Auntie Raven in the Adirondack Mountains!

It’s a dream come true . . . until Auntie Raven is called away and Ava’s stay is cut short. But when wires get crossed, Ava finds herself alone in her aunt’s secluded cabin. Winter comes early in the mountains, and one night, a single storm will change everything. With a destroyed cabin, no cell reception, and no neighbors for miles, Ava begins to realize this adventure is more than she ever could have imagined.

Surrounded by mountains blanketed with snow and ice, Ava is completely on her own. It’s the ultimate test . . . and her newly-developed survival skills may not be enough for her to last through the winter.

Ava might not be able to fight the cold and the storms that come her way, but can she work with nature long enough to survive it?

Smith makes Stranded an intense and suspenseful read from beginning to end. The story starts slow, but once we get to the turning point the story races forward keeping readers on the edge of my seat. Smith’s descriptive writing makes you put yourself in Ava’s shoes. It truly places you within the beauty of the mountains and the many dangerous situations where Mother Nature turns its back on you. Ava’s feelings about nature come across realistically as she encounters many obstacles during her journey which adds to the overall story. She felt well developed and I loved the growth of her character during the novel.

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That concludes my reading recommendations for nature-themed books! What books do you recommend or what are your favorites? Comment below!