The Living Winter

Winter finally runs smooth. Every seal holds, every brace runs true, and for the first time in a generation the North is quiet. Tiny should be glad-he fought for this peace. Instead he can't shake the feeling of a breath held at the top of a stair, waiting for the second boot to drop.

Then it drops. Far beyond the northern maps, a season arrives that no longer remembers why. Deep beneath a forgotten valley, an ancient reservoir pulses out a patient signal-long, long, short-knocking on a door that should have opened long ago. To answer it, Tiny must leave the warm safe yard he built and carry a weight he isn't sure he can put down, into a cold that thinks, toward a monster the North made itself.

The Living Winter is Book Four of the Heartline Chronicles, a middle-grade fantasy about listening when the world goes silent, the strange grief of a problem solved, and the truth that no one was ever meant to hold the winter up alone.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Magical winter and Santa's-Workshop worlds
• Found-family adventures and loyal, funny friends
• Quest fantasy for ages 8-12
• Heroes who lead with heart instead of strength