Books
If you've had a slow start to your reading year, this list of 24 February fiction releases is definitely about to help change that. This month, big names like C.J. Tudor and Samantha Shannon join buzzed-about debuts like American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson and The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray for a delightful mix of exciting bookish anticipation.
You've probably already heard the exciting news that Elizabeth McCracken is returning to shelves after an 18-year hiatus with her new release, Bowlaway, but she's not the only author making a comeback this month. Sophie Kinsella's latest rom-com release, I Owe You One (her 17th adult romance novel!) is also out this month, along with books from more beloved authors including Yiyun Li, Valeria Luisella and Jill Santopolo. Santopolo's More Than Words — which sees its heroine Nina reevaluating all the men in her life after her father's death — is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, sure to be a moving addition to any to-be-read pile
And speaking of your TBR, whether you're looking for timely contemporary fiction likeVacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin, heart-stopping thrillers like The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald, or page-turning historical fiction like The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo, you've got a ton to choose from this February. Check out the full list below:
'I Owe You One' by Sophie Kinsella (Feb. 5)
When a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop, Fixie ends up saving it from certain disaster. To thank her, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve, sparking a series of life-changing moments.
'Bowlaway' by Elizabeth McCracken (Feb. 5)
When Bertha Truitt dies in a freak accident, her past resurfaces in the form of a son, who arrives in the small town of Salford claiming he is heir of the local bowling alley.
'The Lost Girls of Paris' by Pam Jenoff (Feb. 5)
When Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench at Grand Central Station, she learns that the it belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during WWII.
'More Than Words' by Jill Santopolo (Feb. 5)
After Nina's father passes away, she begins to question everything she thought she knew and begins to see the men in her life — her father, her boyfriend, and her handsome boss, Rafael — in a new light.
'Good Riddance' by Elinor Lipman (Feb. 5)
Daphne Maritch discards her mother's old yearbook, but when it's found in the recycling bin by a busybody neighbor/documentary filmmaker, the yearbook's mysteries lead to a series of events both poignant and absurd.
'The Hiding Place' by C.J. Tudor (Feb. 5)
Joe, a teacher with a hidden agenda returns to his hometown to settle scores at the high school he once attended — only to uncover a darker secret than he could have imagined.
'The Last Romantics' by Tara Conklin (Feb. 5)
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time.
'The Curiosities' by Susan Gloss (Feb. 5)
After a devastating miscarriage, Nell Parker takes a job as the director for a new nonprofit called the Mansion Hill Artists’ Colony, where she beings to finds herself among the members of the creative community.
'The Night Olivia Fell' by Christina McDonald (Feb. 5)
Abi Knight's teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge. Now brain dead, and pregnant, she must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. When the police rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night.
'Sea Monsters' by Chloe Aridjis (Feb. 5)
One autumn afternoon in Mexico City, 17-year-old Luisa does not return home from school. Instead, she boards a bus to the Pacific coast with Tomás, a boy she barely knows, in search of a traveling troupe of Ukrainian dwarfs.
'Where Reasons End' by Yiyun Li (Feb. 5)
Written in the months after the author lost a child to suicide , this imagined conversation between a mother and child unfolds into a deeply intimate and moving portrait of the love and complexity in a relationship across generations.
'The Atlas Of Reds and Blues' by Devi S. Laskar (Feb. 5)
When a unnamed woman moves her family to the suburbs, she discovers that nothing has changed since her childhood in a small southern town. During a prejudice-driven police raid on her house, the woman is shot, and as she lies bleeding she struggles to make sense of her past and decipher her present.
'The Lost Man' by Jane Harper (Feb. 5)
Two siblings meet at the border of their vast cattle properties in the outback of Queensland, in the hopes of discovering what truly happened to their middle brother, Cameron, who was recently found dead in the desert in what is being called a bizarre suicide.
'The Girls at 17 Swann Street' by Yara Zgheib (Feb. 5)
Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her fears, she struggles with anorexia and depression. When she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, she must begin to face her disease with the other women who live there.
'The Night Tiger' by Yangsze Choo (Feb. 12)
Ji Lin, a dancehall girl, and Ren, an orphan boy, find their fates entangled over an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.
'Lost Children Archive' by Valeria Luiselli (Feb. 12)
A family sets out from New York to Arizona, heading for Apacheria. On the way, the mother becomes consumed by the news of the thousands of children being held in detention centers at the Southern Border. But as the family drives farther west, they are on the brink of a crisis of their own.
'American Spy' by Lauren Wilkinson (Feb. 12)
Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI in 1986. She's brilliant, but she's also a young black woman working in an old boys' club. When she's given the opportunity to join a task force aimed at undermining the rebel Thomas Sankara, she says yes, despite her secret admiration for the man.
'Territory of Light' by Yūko Tsushima; Translated by Geraldine Harcourt (Feb. 12)
In 12 stand-alone fragments, this novels follow the first year of a young woman's separation from her husband, telling the luminous story of living alone in Tokyo with her three-year-old daughter.
'The Care And Feeding Of Ravenously Hungry Girls' by Anissa Gray (Feb. 19)
The Butler sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian, are as stunned as the rest of their small community when Althea and her husband are arrested. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters.
'The Study of Animal Languages' by Lindsay Stern (Feb. 19)
Ivan is a tightly wound philosophy professor with a reverence for logic and order. His wife, Prue, is the opposite: a pioneer in the emerging field of biolinguistics, she is bold and vibrant. When Prue gives a lecture that doesn't go as planned, Ivan is forced to finally confront the problems in their marriage.
'The Raven Tower' by Ann Leckie (Feb. 26)
For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. But the power of the Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. When the warrior Eolo seeks to help reclaim the city, he discovers a secret that could destroy Iraden forever.
'The Huntress' by Kate Quinn (Feb. 26)
Ian Graham, a battle-haunted English journalist, and Nina Markova, a Russian female bomber pilot, join forces to track down the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.
'Vacuum in the Dark' by Jen Beagin (Feb. 26)
Twenty-six-year-old Mona moved to Taos, New Mexico to escape an ex-boyfriend, only to take up with one of her married clients. As she tries to get over the affair, she winds up on a journey of self-discovery that takes her back to her beginnings.
'The Priory of the Orange Tree' by Samantha Shannon (Feb. 26)
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction — but assassins are getting closer to her door.
