Feb 17

Feb 17 18 Books Publishing This Week

The evening in mid-February settles in with a softness that feels almost intentional, like winter loosening its grip just enough to let you breathe. The sky darkens slowly now, not as abruptly as it did in January, and the last traces of daylight linger at the horizon in pale blue and lavender. Outside, the air is still cold, but there’s something different about it—less sharp, less absolute. You can feel the season shifting, even if it’s only in the smallest ways.

Inside, the world feels warm and contained. You turn on a lamp instead of the overhead lights, letting the room fill with a golden glow that softens every edge. The house hums quietly around you—the heater clicking on, the faint creak of wood settling as the temperature drops outside. It’s the kind of evening that doesn’t ask for productivity or plans. It asks for comfort. It asks for presence.

You make yourself something warm to drink, more out of ritual than necessity. Tea, maybe. Cocoa if the day has been long. You wrap your hands around the mug, feeling the heat seep into your fingers, grounding you. There’s a familiar comfort in these small gestures, especially this time of year, when darkness still arrives early and evenings stretch long and quiet.

The book you’ve been meaning to start rests nearby. You pick it up slowly, appreciating the weight of it, the smoothness of the cover, the crisp promise of untouched pages. There’s something especially right about starting a book on a February evening—when the year is no longer new, but still open. When you’re no longer thinking about who you’re supposed to become, but instead settling into who you already are.

You pull a blanket across your lap and settle deeper into your chair. Outside, wind brushes lightly against the windows, but it sounds distant from here, softened by warmth and walls and lamplight. You open the book, the spine giving that quiet, satisfying sound that always feels like the beginning of something important.

The first lines meet you gently. There’s no urgency. The story begins in a way that feels steady and grounded, and you follow it easily, letting your mind shift away from the day and into something slower, quieter, more expansive. You take a sip of your drink and turn another page.

The room feels still, but alive with small sounds—the faint clink of your mug as you set it down, the soft rustle of paper as you turn pages, the steady hum of warmth filling the space around you. Outside, a car passes, headlights briefly sweeping across the ceiling before disappearing. You barely notice. You’re already somewhere else, following characters into a world that is slowly opening itself to you.

Mid-February evenings hold a particular kind of magic. Winter is still here, but it’s no longer overwhelming. You can feel spring somewhere ahead, distant but certain. The book in your hands feels like a companion to that feeling—something unfolding at its own pace, something you don’t have to rush.

You read longer than you meant to. The pages begin to blur together in the best way, the story pulling you deeper without effort. You shift under the blanket, more comfortable than before, more settled. Time moves quietly around you, unnoticed and unimportant.

When you finally close the book for the night, you mark your place carefully, holding it in your lap for a moment before setting it aside. The room is warm. The night outside is deep and quiet. You feel grounded, calm, accompanied.

This is what mid-February evenings offer you—not urgency, not transformation, but presence. And tonight, with a new book beginning softly in your hands, that feels like more than enough.

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Books Publishing February 15 - 21

A Day of Judgement by Charles Todd

Inspector Ian Rutledge returns in a case set in Northumberland pitting the history of Saint Cuthbert against hatred left from the Great War

A Little Buzzed by Alys Murray

A sex toy engineer with one big secret finally meets her match, and together they’ll put their own products to the test in this steamy romantic comedy.

Scout Porter is screwed. Not literally, of course. Literally, she’s a twenty-six-year-old virgin, thanks to a relationship so disastrous she swore off love and sex for good. Metaphorically, she’s screwed because the entire office of BuzzCorp, the sex toy start-up where she’s head engineer, just found out. Scout needs her team to stay focused on their upcoming launch, not her lack of a sex life, so she finds the simplest solution: lose her V-card, and fast, then back to business as usual.

Enter Hudson Bailey, the nerdy and charming software developer hired to build the app for Scout’s latest creation. The only problem is, he’s as inexperienced with sex toys as she is with sex. Fortunately, he’s all too eager to learn, and they agree that one very educational, totally professional hook-up will solve both of their problems. All for research, obviously.

But their little experiment yields unexpected results—chemistry so off the charts Scout starts to think she might actually want more than just a one-time fling. When their budding relationship is threatened by the return of Scout’s notorious ex, both Scout and Hudson will have to decide if they’ve reached their climax as a couple, or if they’re willing to risk everything for a chance at true love.

The Ex-Perimento by Maria J. Morillo

A woman enlists the help of her favorite musician to win her ex-boyfriend back in this sparkling romantic comedy set in Venezuela by debut author Maria J. Morillo.

Maria “Marianto” Camacho is a planner. At twenty-seven, she has her life perfectly mapped out. Her long-term boyfriend, Alejandro, is perfect on paper, and she's expecting a proposal any day now. She has a stable job as a lifestyle columnist at Ellas, one of Latin America's biggest digital magazines. Her future is set; she's sure of it.

Until everything falls apart overnight: Marianto loses her boyfriend and her job. But she's determined to get them both back with an idea that is either delusional or ingenious—a juicy new article for Ellas that documents a series of romantic experiments to get her ex back. Thus begins The Ex-Perimento. With her bank account dwindling, however, Marianto lands a temporary gig on Venezuela's hottest new singing competition show. Her job? Personal assistant to Simón Arreaza, the lead singer of her favorite indie band.

It's only her second day on the job when Simón discovers Marianto's list of romantic experiments, striking her ideas and replacing them with his own better ones. Out of desperation, she offers a proposition: Help her win back Alejandro, and she'll give Simón's band a profile in the magazine once she returns to Ellas. But between the close quarters on set and the blurred lines of a budding friendship, Marianto and Simón find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other, caught in a whirlwind of unexpected romance.

Half City by Kate Golden

Welcome to Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. Keep your daggers sharp, and your wits even sharper.

Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesn’t even like in the hopes of winning her prickly mother’s approval.

She also happens to be a demon hunter.

Ever since her father’s murder, she’s been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider . . . until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she’ll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.

But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about, not if the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv’s father’s death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, all while trying to ace her classes, avoid falling for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

Laws of Love and Logic by Debra Curtis

A woman finds herself torn between her first love and her devoted husband in this extraordinary debut novel that asks the question: Can one heart hold two great loves?

In the serene town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback whose spectacular athletic talents are matched only by his fierce devotion. But their dreams of a life together are cut short one night in 1977 when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choice—one which tears them apart and leads Lily down a path of heartbreak from which she may never recover.

Lily has already known the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her mother—a tragedy that left deep scars on both her and Jane, her gifted younger sister. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics; that is, when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist whose love is as steadfast as the migration patterns he studies. Yet, the shadows of her past linger.

When the boy who was once everything to Lily reemerges, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school. Can she reconcile the wild wonderment of her first love with the comfort and safety of her second? Laws of Love and Logic explores love's enduring power and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and redemption.

A Woman in Pink by Megan A. Schikora

In A Woman in Pink, an unnamed woman recounts her deeply intertwined relationship with Dutch, a man she meets in her twenties and immediately loves.

Dutch tells her he has distanced himself from the substance-fueled chaos that once consumed him, while she explains she has left her eating disorder in the past.

Together, they convince themselves they've outrun their darkest histories.

But over the span of their fifteen-year relationship, those shadows loom large, influencing their bond in ways they never expected.

She wants to free herself from the turmoil of addiction.

She also wants to believe that Dutch is her Johnny Cash, that she is his June Carter, and that theirs is a great love story.

When their histories and choices finally collide, she is forced to confront everything she thought she knew about love, identity, and what it means to truly heal.

In the Shadow of Silence by Rae Dumont

Eva’s lonely childhood has given her an intuitive connection with kids and teenagers. She is a gifted child psychiatrist. Single, she dreams of having her own children, and she yearns for love. The future seems bright when she meets Lyman; They build a family. They share adventures. They meet life’s challenges as team. They navigate a bout of Lyman’s depression; treatment works.

They share rich, fulfilling years while their careers develop, and their children grow up.

When their sons enter adulthood and their daughter is a teenager, they plan an entire summer as a family. But Lyman abruptly stops both therapy and medication. He spirals into a dark and irritable isolation that none of them can penetrate.

After his brutal suicide, Eva is left to cope and to guide her children through the trauma, as they each rebuild their lives.

I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig

After a decades-long stint in prison, former serial killer Carol is looking to kick back and relax in her new retirement home…until a fellow resident drops dead and Carol has to prove she actually didn’t do it this time….

Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She’s hoping her past as a serial killer won’t come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it’s not long before a fellow resident—who happens to be a former police commissioner—drops dead, and Carol’s true identity is leaked—making catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward.

Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn’t the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaks—it’s filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol’s guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong…without killing anyone, for once.

Breaking the Barnyard Barrier by Linda Rhodes

In the late 1970s the golden valley between Utah’s Wasatch Mountains was home to some of the best dairies in the country. That was also where Linda Rhodes, a newly minted large animal veterinarian, had to prove that a woman could do what the Mormon dairymen were sure was a man’s job. She was often scared that they were right. Throughout her experience, she tackled a menagerie of challenging medical and surgical cases that forced her to be fearless. Every bovine life she saved helped her confidence grow, but each failure left her feeling defeated—as did the mounting tensions between pursuing a demanding career and saving a crumbling marriage.

In Breaking the Barnyard Barrier, Linda Rhodes tells the story of how a woman, through grit and tears, made her way in a man’s world and blazed a path that prevailed against career stereotypes.

Where The Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris

From acclaimed author Terah Shelton Harris comes a poignant story of survival and redemption, asking readers to question what it means to stop surviving and start living.

Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die.

Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what’s in her nature. She survives.

While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn’t expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm’s owner, who sees through Leigh’s defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she’s not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.

But the past isn't so easily buried.

No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she’s come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.

Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama

Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a seasonal cherry blossom sits on the river. Nearby is the Marble Cafe, where a woman writes in a notebook and a young waiter prepares her favorite hot drink. Both wonder about each other and about the other lives of the clientele who frequent this charming little cafe behind the trees...

Without even realizing it, we may touch and change someone else's life.

Taking a walk along the river, cooking the best tamagoyaki, ordering hot chocolate, forgetting to remove our nail polish... The small, everyday acts that we do can lead to unexpected encounters and reverberate far beyond your own circle and ultimately make a difference in the world.

Hot Chocolate on Thursday is a tapestry of slice-of-life moments that each open and close with a woman ordering her regular hot chocolate at the mysterious Marble Cafe. What happens in between will touch and swell your heart, as we connect with a community of untold unfolding lives.

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montréal turns to a grouchy but charming magician to help save her shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

“Absolutely magnificent! Full of cats and magic, this is the kind of book you want to instantly reread. I loved every character, every cat, and every moment with all my heart!”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats.

Now it’s the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock—who also happens to be the world’s most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past—including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse.

Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop—and the cat shelter—in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart.

Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. . . .

The Vanishing Bookstore by Helen Phifer

Every story needs a happy ending. And you can’t have yours until you find the bookstore.

1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes into thin air ...

Present day. Stepping inside a pale-pink house on one of the oldest streets in Salem, Dora can’t believe she’s about to finally meet the mother she thought died tragically when she was just a child. But the excitement is short-lived. Dora’s mother has fear in her eyes, and with a trembling voice she whispers: "My life is in danger, and now so is yours…"

Desperate not to lose her mother all over again, Dora digs into her family’s mysterious past, and stumbles upon a seemingly impossible secret: the key to their survival is hidden in a bookstore that no one has seen for generations. Losing herself amongst thorny brackens and twisted ferns, Dora eventually finds the path that leads to the bookstore. But someone is watching her. They’ve been waiting for her.

As she pushes open the beautiful blue door hidden amongst the sharp brambles, and stands in front of rows of crumbling leatherbound books with faded pages, she has no idea of the secrets she is about to uncover. Or that her life is in more danger than ever before ...

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams

From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.

After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Allie's globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be?

As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.

Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all.

Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?

Without a Clue by Melissa Ferguson

A laugh-out-loud rom-com wrapped in a whodunit, this high-seas adventure proves that sometimes the best love stories start with a little murder.

Penelope Mae Dupont has one superpower: keeping her cool. Which is essential when you're the personal assistant to renowned mystery author Hugh Griffin. But when Pip organizes a luxury book cruise featuring The Fabulous Seven--a glittering cast of seven bestselling authors known for both their brilliance and their drama--her trademark composure starts slipping. One boat. Seven egos. Hundreds of fans. What could possibly go wrong?

Well . . . murder, for starters.

On day two, Hugh is found dead--and the cruise security team proves to be utterly incompetent. Stranded in the middle of the Atlantic with no help in sight, Pip realizes if anyone's going to solve the case, it'll have to be her. And so, with her friend and ally Nash, the dreamy Western author who's just as rugged as the cowboys he writes about, she puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test.

As Pip and Nash navigate an ocean of secrets, shocking twists, and one too many red herrings, she'll have to decide whether she's meant to stay behind the scenes--or finally step into the spotlight . . . and maybe, just maybe, find love along the way.

In the world of mystery and love, sometimes you have to risk going overboard to find the truth.

Crown of War and Shadow by J.R. Ward

Crown of War and Shadow is a brand new, sweeping, slow-burn romantasy from #1 New York Times bestseller J. R. Ward, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, and Jennifer Armentrout!

An outcast burdened with a curse. A mercenary out for himself. A kingdom that must be saved.

In the deep, dark, dead of night, passions rise, and empires fall…

The Fulcrum is failing, and demons are slipping into the mortal world.

No one is safe.

Especially not Sorrel. An orphan and an outcast within the walls of her small village because of her mystical abilities. She wants to survive…and find somewhere she can call her true home. But Fate has other plans.

Sorrel has been chosen. Cursed.

She must cross the Badlands to return the Queen's crown and convince the fearsome female to save their world from destruction.

Well aware she’s no brave hero, Sorrel makes a dangerous deal with Merc, a brooding, commanding mercenary known only by his unscrupulous profession.

The deal? A night in his bed that she will never forget, in exchange for her safe passage.

But Merc has secrets of his own, and even though desire runs hot between them, adventure, danger, and betrayal lurk around every corner.

Crown of War and Shadow is the first book in the Kingdoms of the Compass series.

Tiny Little Earthquakes by Hays Blinckmann

Elliot Hase is a sharp, observant nine-year-old girl growing up on a horse farm in 1980s North Carolina, where the adults are far less stable than the barn animals. Her mother, a charismatic alcoholic with a flair for drama and denial, careens through life in a haze of wine and self-pity. Her father, a distant doctor with a new family and a wife who rewrites history, offers more guilt than guidance. Caught between the two is Poppy—Elliot’s older sister, partner-in-crime, and cautionary tale—whose battles with addiction and self-destruction echo through Elliot’s own attempts to break the cycle.

As Elliot navigates funerals, failed interventions, AA and Al Anon meetings, and an elite boarding school that teaches more about co-dependency than calculus, she slowly begins to question not just the people raising her, but the identity she’s been forced to adopt to survive them. Her coming-of-age is shaped by secrets she didn’t ask for, betrayals she doesn’t deserve, and moments of brutal clarity that land like aftershocks.

The central conflict is Elliot’s internal struggle to define herself apart from the chaos of her family—trying to reconcile loyalty to her mother and sister with self-preservation, and survival with healing. Through humor, heartbreak, and sheer stubbornness, she learns that resilience isn't about being unbreakable—it's about breaking and rebuilding, again and again.

I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Kat Paige

First rule of demonic possession: don't fall in love

Lacy Gordon, amateur paranormal investigator, is experiencing the supernatural world in a way she never expected. While climbing out the window of a haunted house, an unseen force collides with her, thrusting her into the unknown. She soon finds herself trapped in the depths of her own mind, desperately screaming for freedom. To her surprise, someone responds.

This disembodied voice belongs to Tonkitgrol, or "Kit," as he prefers to be called—a demon with somewhat of a heart. Even so, Lacy isn’t about to relinquish control of her body. Armed with relentless curiosity, she bombards him with questions, hoping to annoy him into leaving her be. As she delves deeper into the mystical realm, she uncovers more about Kit’s tormented past. Once human like her, he endured centuries of suffering in Hell before choosing to become a demon.

Despite their differences, Lacy and Kit forge an unlikely partnership. Together, they work on a submission for a paranormal investigation reality show contest that Lacy plans to win. As Lacy finds her feelings for Kit inexplicably deepening, she faces an agonizing decision: should she exorcise him and shatter her heart, or dive into the chaos of sharing her life—and her body—with a demon straight from Hell?

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