Winterveil

by Ava Reid

Bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Fable for the End of the World Ava Reid is back with a thrilling new duology unlike anything you’ve read before.

It’s a game—until it’s war.

—A disgraced politician from a powerful American dynasty.
—A coldly brilliant strategist who will sacrifice anything to win.
—A former pageant queen with a talent that could change the world.
—An expert female soldier with an enigmatic past—and a dangerous secret.

In an alternate future where the Cold War still rages, four precocious teenage criminals with dark skills and darker secrets are offered a fresh start at a secret military academy. But instead of training to end the war, they find themselves on a mysterious mission that will test loyalties, forge romances, and maybe end the world as they know it.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Alternate History, Dystopia, Science Fiction

448 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 24, 2026

About the author

Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of gothic fantasies, including A Study in Drowning, Juniper & Thorn, and Lady Macbeth. She lives in California.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

ava reid making me have faith in dystopian books again bless!!

klaudia and julian having the most intense stare downs and academic rivalry meanwhile giselle and nadiya off in the corner like: omg did we dream of each other (but actually all four of them are equally traumatized)

thank you to edelweiss for providing me an advance review copy. full review to come!

Bookstagram | Blog

[Livvy 𝜗ৎ {matching with Shy!!}]

‎♡‧₊˚ Pre Release: 🎀

I don’t even have a cover, genre, or description yet… BUT IM STILL SO EXCITED 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 SHES feeding me omg her books are AMAZING 🤭

[tiana ♡]

pre-read notes:

I JUST LET OUT THE BIGGEST SCREAM!! 😭 Thank you HarperCollins and Ava Reid for the ARC of this book!! You guys have NO idea how insufferable I'm about to be 😮‍💨❤️
I'm so excited to read this!!

🗓️: Releasing on September 15, 2026

[ᯓ★ emely ⋆˚✿˖°]

screaming, crying, throwing up… what do you mean i got the arc for one of my most anticipated releases?? 😭

thank you so much to harpercollins and netgalley for the opportunity. i genuinely can’t put my excitement into words ❤️

[Beenish]

I mean, the Ava Reid book covers are just!!! 😍🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼


my ratings/reviews of
A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning #1) — 3★
Juniper and Thorn ☆☆☆☆☆

[Kristina]

"An alternate future where the Cold War still rages" with four teenage criminals.

I'm sold.

[Azhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

plays in the dystopian YA sandbox but doesn’t really bring anything super exciting or new to it. there’s threads of good ideas here but they don’t really go anywhere. the characters however really shine (loved klaudia & giselle), more so than the world which feels quite flat for parts of it. wish it ended with more of a bigger bang. guess we’ll see what happens in the second book but i won’t be holding my breath for vast improvements.

thanks to edelweiss for the advanced reading copy!!

[klaudia. · Rating 4 out of 5]

୨୧ 一 3.75 stars

→ thank you netgalley and HarperCollins for the arc

The beginning of the book sounded promising. A dystopian world where the Cold War is not over and the four students suddenly become weapons in this war. Well, only in theory. Not everything was bad, I just feel like the pacing is bad. We spend half of the book in the academy, which was not very interesting to me.

This is my first book by an author and I still plan to read more because I liked the writing. The characters were well created, layered, complex. They were not two-dimensional, each with it had its own flaws and problems. I liked Klaudia the most, I feel very attached to her because we share the same name. I really liked her relationship with Julian, I LOVE RIVALS TO LOVERS and they served it just right. The opposite was Giselle and Nadiya's relationship, which was pure and so cute, they were adorable together. The relationships were well developed, but I didn't feel the same when it came to their friendship, I expected a deep found family, but I didn't feel it completely 🤷‍♀️ overall I don't think this book is really bad, it just lacks details, I liked the last 100 pages.

[Trista Woelfle]

I am freaking out!!! I just got approved for this ARC on NetGalley today and I cannot wait to read it!

The description sounds so intriguing, and I’ve been wanting to read something by Ava Reid for a while now. The premise feels right up my alley, so I’ll be starting this ASAP. I’m so grateful I was approved! Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this story!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[Jinny]

No synopsis, no problem. Still buckled in and eagerly waiting!

[Lauren Kamran · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5⭐️

Unfortunately Winterveil was a huge disappointment for me. While the premise was incredibly unique and had great potential it fell completely flat. The lack of world building and actual plot for the first 50% of this book left me with a lot to desire and then we are just dropped in a whole new setting with even less explanation.

Trigger warnings below.

Every character (except julian actually) had redeeming qualities which is the only thing that kept me going. Klaudia was especially my favorite but the way the author described her was just horrible. I am so over constantly harping on how ugly and unattractive a female character is but “despite that” she’s still a main love interest. So overdone and distasteful. Also it seemed she was just “unattractive” because she was Russian? So so odd to me…..

Julian was horrendous as a character and my absolute main gripe with this entire book was the fact that MULTIPLE times he is fantasizing about this girl “on her knees” right after she was assaulted. Both in a “I feel bad for her” and “I wanted to be the one to put her there (sexually and rivalry wise)” the entire concept of the SA was just unnecessary and for shock value which is disgusting in and of itself. There were also way too many instances of adult content in this YA book surrounding Julian. There was ZERO reason for him to have so many borderline explicit scenes with multiple people. Also another gripe was him giving away his precious watch at the end for no reason. This bothered me an insane amount and should be taken out.

There was also zero reason for the teacher/student dynamics being so incredibly creepy and predatory (Blanchard with Giselle AND Iver with Nadiya) Again just another example of trying to add shock value in the most distasteful way.

The relationships in the story genuinely felt so forced and made very little sense. These were children being forced to train/fight in the ongoing Cold War I’m not sure how they all had so much time to be falling in love with each other but with zero chemistry at all. The only actual relationship of any substance was between Mikhail and Jane and they weren’t even main characters….

The structure of this story was also a mess and left so much to be desired. I will take more time to formulate real thoughts on this but I’m just so stuck on all the other issues mentioned above.

Overall this book was honestly really hard to read. While I loved Klaudia and occasionally Nadiya, I just wanted so much more. The Thymos game could’ve been way better explained (this was actually cool), we could have eliminated so many disgusting plot lines, and instead spent more time explaining the story, war, academy as a whole, purpose of the mission, and so on. Instead we got 400+ pages of teachers assaulting students, students assaulting each other, and zero resolution to any of our problems. This was a huge disappointment for such a promising story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[bells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.75⭐️


This book is giving Shatter Me x Divergent x The Naturals x Inception energy and I physically could not stop turning the pages. I really love how all four main characters each come with their own baggage and unique skills, and the way their backstories slowly unfold had me locked in.

The futuristic dystopian atmosphere was so immersive. The game simulations. The training sessions. The secret missions. The next-gen tech. Everything felt so vivid I could literally see it playing out in my head like a film. And don’t even get me started on the corrupt government system, the underlying Cold War tension, and that secret military academy setting. It scratched something in my brain. It gave me that nostalgic 2010s dystopian era that I will NEVER shut up about.

Klaudia and Julian did NOT come to play. That rivalry was sharp and borderline unhinged. The tension was tensioning at maximum capacity and I was served with the best meal of my life.

Meanwhile, Giselle and Nadiya’s dynamic was so soft and natural, and the slow build-up of their relationship felt so genuine. Watching them warm up to each other was so delightful.

And the group dynamic overall was chef’s kiss. They’re all so different, but somehow they fit together perfectly like chaotic little puzzle pieces. I LOVE THEM.

Also, the side characters are actually well-written and relevant instead of just existing for decoration. Everyone had a purpose and I appreciated that so much.

AND THAT CLIFFHANGER!!! You can’t just do that and expect me to be okay. This better NOT be a standalone because I need the sequel immediately or I will actually riot. This is officially my favorite Ava Reid book. Maybe it’s not as poetic and lyrical as her other works, but the flow and sheer addictiveness were life-changing. Thank you for the buffet!


════════════════════════

Thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss+ for the ARC!

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ava Reid never lets me down!

This was such a cool read, and for a few different reasons. First, it’s worth noting that this is one of Ava Reid’s YA novels, so it feels pretty different from something like Inamorata or her more horror-leaning work. It’s still dystopian, but less thematically heavy and honestly, it really worked for me.

What I loved:
-This book takes place in a very unique, cool version of our world that's unlike anything I've seen before. It's sci-fi-ish, but only lightly so. A lot of it is very recognizable, down to versions of Elon Musk and JD Vance popping into the narrative.
-This book takes a lot of inspiration from the field of international relations. I have a M.A. in International Relations so I really enjoyed a lot of the references/in-jokes. Nothing too complicated though - it's all pretty basic stuff that's here. If you've taken an intro to IR class, you'll probably get a lot of it. Still, it was fun to see it in the book.
-The plot. It's a dystopian spy school thriller. It's like the Americans, but sci-fi, and also at a SCHOOL, training SPIES. How cool is THAT.

What didn't land:
-It's one-half of a duology so there are a lot of questions left unanswered at the end - I know this complaint will disappear after I read the second book but I didn't realize it was a duology at first so I kept being like "how is this going to be wrapped up??"
-The romances aren't as fully realized as some of Ava Reid's other books - not bad, just didn't knock my socks off. Hopefully book two will deepen. them.

Overall: I had a great time with this. It’s smart, creative, and genuinely fun, and I’m very curious to see where the story goes next.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huge thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the eARC of Winterveil. This will be publishing on September 15, 2026 for all to enjoy.

I was very interested in the premise of this book. It is set in the not so distant future but the events of the past are very much still active. The Cold War rages on and the United States is falling behind in their attempts to remain the reining super power.
In come the four main characters of this novel, they are all criminals sent to a top secret school hidden in the Virginia countryside- their main objective is to become the next superpowers of national intelligence and security.
For me, this book started off so cool and interested- but it quickly fell flat and became confusing. I usually enjoy Ava Reid's writing but I did notice that the language used in this books was almost too adult. As a 30 year old person, I was confused by some of the terms being used regularly and found myself googling what things meant and even how to pronounce things. Some of the subjects in this were also very adult, making me feel like some chapters were written for a YA book, and others as an adult urban fantasy book- those two things never meshed well for me.
I also felt as though we were dropped into this with little to no world building, which quickly became worse with the introduction of a VR game in the first portion of the book. I felt confused, irritated and it took me away from the minor connections I had previously felt to the characters. The strange VR situations continued in different aspects throughout.
Overall, this book left me confused more than it did satisfied.

[Fernanda (ivyfer_isreading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winterveil started perfectly but it just fell apart as it went on, which is a shame.
We're in a world where the cold war was never over, the US and USSR are still in a conflict and our protagonists are caught up in the middle of it.
Julian is a teenager, and also a corrupt politician, Giselle is a pageant queen with an eidetic memory, Klaudia is a prodigy, and Nadiya lost her family and was raised to be a soldier. Pretty great cast of characters.
They all end up at a military academy of sorts, and that part is really good. My problem is with the ending, it felt cheap, it's the easiest copout. And don't get me started on what Julian does, I get he is a teenage boy holy shit he can't be this stupid.
The saving grace might be the sapphic couple, but they don't even get much attention in this book.
I enjoyed the writing, might try other books by the author and I think I'll read the sequel but I had higher expectations because the beginning was so good.

Thank you Netgalley and Harpercollins for the ARC.

[Val 𓍯ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The structure of this book is interesting, as is the way it's written. Ava Reid is known for her beautiful prose; however, the story didn't quite hook me the way her other books have.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy of Winterveil, to be published on September 15th, 2026.

[BookishKB]

🕵️‍♀️ Winterveil 🕵️‍♀️

📖 Bookish Thoughts
I’ll be sharing my full review closer to publication date.

🎯 What to Expect
• Alternate future
• Secret military academy
• Teen criminals
• Dark secrets
• Mind games
_ _ _

📅 Pub Date: September 15, 2026
📝 Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if it was my book slump but I struggle with this so much. The pacing is glacial and characters fell shot to me. Vibes and atmosphere are carrying this book.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[daisy]

got an arc!!!! will be reading sooo soon