This was a cozy and really well put together group of stories. Definitely meant for a winter night with a cup of tea.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I love seasonal reading, especially collections of different kinds- short stories or poetry, but unfortunately this one left me disappointed. I found the title misleading, as I expected more about nature - animals, plants, weather - anything related. However, the book contained not stories but a series of random extracts, some a couple of sentences, others several pages long. I wanted to enjoy this collection very much but it failed to put me in a wintry mood and overall felt disjointed.

Im not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this arc generously given to me in exchange for an honest review but whatever I was expecting this book unfortunately did not deliver. It felt disjointed and filled less with “tales” than descriptions. It wasn’t all bad, as some experts were more interesting than others, but the editor misses a trick as one of the most interesting parts is her own introduction.

Short stories are perfect in the busy winter months around the holidays. Loved this. It wasn’t what I expected - the writing was more complex, but it’s perfect for a winter night.

In all honesty, quite the surprisingly poor collection of extracts, as opposed to, you know, actual stories. The pieces, author biographies, sources and copyrights are in four places and not one, so it's not done handily for anyone, very few of the works generate much, and the lower case contents page is just so Taylor Swift last year. To call it a smallest-room diversion is probably being generous, and I know the book thinks it's so, so much more. One and a half stars.

I want to thank Netgalley for an advanced ARC of this book

I found this a nice read and I enjoyed the stories, is it a book I will re read no but it was fun to read it once.

Firts things first: this book was not quite what I was expecting it to be. I thought it would actually contain folktales and about winter, but most of the texts are actually not proper "tales", but extracts from stories or non fiction books, essays, letters, poems, and so on. They were still well-chosen and pleasant to read, though, but I have to admit that I was a little disppointed when I figured out there wouldn't be any talesin this anthology.

Of course, just like with any anthologies, I liked some entries more than others, and I even kept some titles to (hopefully!) read the full texts later!

Bland. Boring. Forgettable.

This is an interesting book to review; it has a seemingly great concept/theme and a vivid, eye catching cover, and unredeemably poor writing selections.

But look a little closer and perhaps, like me, you would think it was all done by AI. It feels like someone/thing collected all the esoteric pieces of writing that contain the word "winter" or references the concepts and stuck them together haphazardly.

I was hoping for a charming, evocative, diverse and varied mix of literary elements that would work well together and play off each other, as good collections do—but this is not that book—keep searching.

A huge Thank You to NetGalley and Publishers for access to the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

I am a big fan of Nancy Campbell, who I first discovered through their poetry.

This is a lovely collection of stories and non fiction. I love the presence of land, nature and the vastness/smallness of time in so much of the work Nancy does and it connected to.

A charming read for a cold winter’s night.

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. Unfortunately I really couldn't get into it and it was a pretty quick DNF :(.

A lovely book, filled with short stories and interesting snippets about winter. Delightful to read in the evening with a cup of tea. A good range of stories from many sources as well. Overall a lovely anthology.

Such a beautiful selection- am actually buying a hard copy as such a nice one to dip into 💓
An eclectic collection which is perfect to curl up with on a dark evening

Not quite what I oexpected, which was a non fiction, science-based naturalistic writing. The fiction passages were lovely, I just think the transition between the two types of prose were a bit jarring at times.

"Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC*

The tales, fiction and non fiction, were sometimes more lyrical and others more informative, and i did not care about all of them but the idea behind it is cool and i had a good time. But I admit that i was expecting a more non fiction vibe of it. ;

While I enjoyed reading this book, I think it could have been improved with an introduction to each tale, saying why it had been chosen. I had expected this to be a book of original stories all on the theme of winter, but instead it was a collection of extracts. Some were from personal favourites of mine, such as Villette and The Wind in the Willows. It was enjoyable and would make a lovely gift, but I don't think I will purchase the book when it is released. I would have been happier with a collection of original tales.

The cover of this book conjoured up a magical feel and lures you in and I was not disapointed - the book features a collection of short stories around the winter theme.

Really interesting well written poems and short stories for winter - ideal as a gift

Unfortunately this book was not for me, first because of the title 'winter tales" and instead of completed tales or stories I received a bunch of fragments from other stories/books, and in most ocassions too short to enjoy it, and even if there were some "completed stories" the book felt incoherent.

I was so disappointed with this book. I love all things winter - it is my favourite season - and I love nature, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, rather than a collection of modern short stories, this was a mishmash of extracts and short stories that had no relationship with each other. There was nothing to show why each extract was chosen, which meant they felt that they had no context within the wider book.

I had to force myself to finish this, skim reading large parts just to get to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I read this over a busy December and New Year and it was the perfect book for dipping into short extracts and seasonal descriptions. I enjoyed recognising old favourites such as a familiar and much loved passage from Charlotte Bronte's 'Villette' and mole's excursion into the Wild Wood in 'Wind in the Willows'. I discovered new authors and have ordered a copy of 'The Stopping Places a journey through Gypsy Britain' by Damien Le Bas because I was so entranced by his writing.
There was a great range of styles from the oldest, and too brief, extract from 'The Exeter Book', which I had not heard of before but will follow up next time I visit relatives in Exeter, to the scientific facts of John Rae's meteorological journal
I would have found it helpful to have had an introduction to each piece giving at least the date, and the place of writing. Sometimes this is immediately clear from the opening sentence but at other times it took me a while to place the writing in context and this was distracting. Information is available at the end of the collection but I would have preferred to have the title, author, place and time summarised at the start. In the copy I downloaded only the last few listings on the contents page had live links, which was frustrating when trying to look back to an favourite piece.
In spite of these drawbacks, I found the range of stories and extracts enchanting, and it made me look for the mystery and wonder of dark nights and wild weather through a damp and gloomy British Winter.

Nature Tales For Winter Nights is a fiction compellation of winter-related stories that are new for the collection or taken from well-known works (Bronte, etc).

Now, this is my bad, I thought this book was going to have a more non-fiction lean a la Braiding Sweetgrass about plants and parts of nature that grow in the winter. This book was not that. The stories are all fictional, and several I think were really only included because they happen to occur during winter. And happen to happen outside.

I think I had difficulty with this book because it wasn't what I expected. I wasn't really interested in the general winter stories and was looking forward to what I thought were really nature specific stories. If that is for you, definitely recommend reading this book! It wasn't for me. 2 stars. Thank you to Elliott & Thompson and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy, my thoughts are my own!