Must Read Fiction For February

Nick is the most intriguing man Nella has met in a while. He’s a 9 in the looks department (no one gets a 10), he makes her laugh, and he keeps her company when she ends up in A&E. But they live hundreds of miles apart.

Then Nella loses her job. There’s a perfect role on offer at a Cotswolds holiday retreat. The catch is that her boss would be Nick. And that makes Nick the one man she can’t risk falling in love with.

While Nella struggles with her feelings, a Hollywood star has found a haven at the retreat. Lizzie’s sworn off people – especially men – until her friendly new neighbours entice her out of her shell. Maybe she needs a flirtation – with gorgeous Nick, perhaps? Not with taciturn local Matthew, though, who definitely isn’t a member of her fan club. Then an astonishing secret revealed changes everything . . .

The scene is set for a fabulous new novel full of friendship, warmth and romance.

Coming Soon – February 2025

He’s on edge while she’s en pointe in this fake-dating sports romance from the author of the smash hit Collide.

If you loved The Striker by Ana Huang, you’ll love this…

Elias Westbrook, a newly drafted hockey player for the Toronto Thunder, is facing the challenges of fame and media scrutiny. The tabloids are reporting on his every move, including which woman he was last seen with, but all he wants to do is escape the spotlight.

Enter from stage left Sage Beaumont, an aspiring ballerina whose lack of popularity online has put her at a major disadvantage for securing the roles she dreams of. When Sage finds herself with the chance to change her luck by fake-dating Elias, she takes her shot.

Soon enough, the flimsy rules they set in place fall away. But before things can spiral out of control, Sage and Elias will have to decide if they’re willing to take the leap together or if they’ll have to call it quits.

Coming Soon – February 2025

A compulsively readable debut novel about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence.

‘An utterly captivating fever dream of a novel.’ Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life

When Paul enters university in early 1970s Pittsburgh, it’s with the hope of moving past the recent death of his father. Sensitive, insecure, and like a stranger to his family, Paul feels isolated and alone. When he meets the worldly Julian in his freshman ethics class, Paul is immediately drawn to his classmate’s effortless charm.

Paul will stop at nothing to prove himself worthy of their friendship. But Julian is as volatile and cruel as he is charismatic, and Paul begins to suspect that he can never live up to what Julian expects of him.

As their friendship spirals into all-consuming intimacy, they each learn the lengths to which the other will go in order to stay together, their obsession ultimately hurtling them toward an act of irrevocable violence. From then on, everything changes…

These Violent Delights is an exquisitely plotted excavation of the depths of human desire and the darkness it can unleash upon us…

We all know a George. He’s the kind of guy who’s brimming with potential but incapable of following through; he doesn’t know if he’s in love with his girlfriend, but he certainly likes having her around; he’s distant from – but still reliant on – his mother; he swears he’ll finish his novel one day.

Sure, you might find him disappointing. But no one is more disappointed in George than George himself.

As funny as it is astute and as singular as it is universal, The Book of George is a deft, unexpectedly moving never-coming-of-age tale and a portrait of one man, but also countless others.

Coming Soon – February 2025

SOMEONE’S ABOUT TO TURN THEIR LAST PAGE…

‘One of the most iconic British fictional detectives of the 21st century.’ DAILY MAIL
‘These are must-read detective novels.’ MARK BILLINGHAM
‘One of my favourite detectives.’ ELLY GRIFFITHS

THE SETTING
The body of a bookseller is discovered, lying in a pool of blood in his Bristol bookshop. Police have one question: how did the man meet such a violent, murderous end in this peaceful place?

THE CONFLICT
DS Cross’s ability to dismiss red herrings is challenged by a worrying development in his personal life. Hopelessly distracted, he needs to rely on those around him in a way he has never been comfortable doing before.

THE MURDER PLOT
It may be a quiet profession, but it’s full of passionate, ambitious characters who know the value of a rare book. Their extensive reading means they also know how to get away with murder.

But is that enough to fool the tenacious DS George Cross?

A Japanese mystery bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective – from the Youtube sensation Uketsu

A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death.

A child’s disturbing picture of his home.

A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments.

Each contains a chilling warning.

Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.

Uketsu’s eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?

Coming Soon – February 2025

The funny and moving publishing sensation about an unassuming apartment building in Paris Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building.

To the snobbish residents she is all they expect from a caretaker – hard working, dowdy and unsophisticated. But Renée has a secret. Beneath this façade she is a self-taught intellectual, devoted to arthouse Japanese cinema and has a cat named after Tolstoy. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma has also learned to conceal her gifts.

The precocious and lonely daughter of pampered parents, Paloma is convinced that life is meaningless and plans to commit suicide on her next birthday. But the arrival of a new charismatic resident will bring dramatic change to number 7, Rue de Grenelle, altering the course of both their lives forever.

Coming February 2025

June 1940. As World War Two rages, Daphne Devine remains in London, performing each night as assistant to stage magician Jonty Trevelyan, aka the Grand Mystique.

Then the secret service call.

For, aware of Hitler’s belief in the occult, the war office has set up a hidden cohort to exploit this quirk in the enemy’s chain of command.

Daphne and Jonty find themselves far from the glitz and glamour of the theatre, deep inside the lower levels of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Here, they join secret ranks of occultists, surrealists, and other eccentrics co-opted to the war effort. There is one goal: to avert invasion on British shores.

Soon Daphne realises she must risk everything if there is any chance of saving her country

A dead art historian. Cold War skulduggery.
A reluctant Danish sleuth. And an extremely hungry dog.

Dame Charlotte Lazerton – eminent art historian and mentor of Danish academic Torben Helle – is dead. And to make things worse, she was found partially eaten by her Irish wolfhound, Mortimer. While the police believe that she died of natural causes, Torben becomes convinced that Charlotte was murdered, although as usual no one pays any attention to him. That is, until he gains the confidence of a policeman who has watched too many Nordic Noir television shows and is ready to listen to any Scandinavian in a fetching woolly jumper.


Aided by his old friend Leyla, Torben soon realises that there are plenty of people who might have wanted Dame Charlotte dead, from her competitors for a prestigious academic presidency to old enemies from her time in intelligence during the Cold War. One thing is for sure: Torben Helle is woefully unqualified to catch a killer, and the killer knows it…

This witty murder mystery puts a modern spin on the classic Golden Age whodunnit. A must-read for fans of Tom Hindle, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.

Coming Soon – February 2025

From P. C. Cast, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the landmark House of Night urban fantasy series, comes an epic, lusty, magic-filled romantasy about British warrior queen Boudicca. Perfect for fans of Sue Lynn Tan and Madeline Miller!

In Roman-occupied Britain, the Iceni tribe crowns an extraordinary new queen. Tall and flame-haired, Boudicca is devoted to Andraste, the Iceni’s patron goddess, known for her raven familiar, her fierceness and her swirling blue tattoos. Boudicca and her two young daughters will carry the tribe forward in dangerous times.

Roman tax collector Catus Decianus, expecting weakness in a female ruler, launches a devastating attack on the tribe’s stronghold. Boudicca and her family barely survive—but they refuse to bend the knee. She calls a war council, bringing together her most trustworthy allies, including her childhood friend Rhan, now a powerful Druid seer, and the horse master Maldwyn, whose devotion to Boudicca runs deeper than a warrior to a queen.

Surprising the Romans, Boudicca’s armies sack the wealthy cities of Camulodunum, Londinium and Veralamium. As the snow falls, the Celts retreat to a hidden valley to plot their assault on the remaining Roman legions, determined to force the invaders from Britan.

But in the jagged ice of winter the Druid Rhan foresees a tragic end to Boudicca’s rebellion. Although the defeat of the Iceni is spelled out in signs sent by the gods, Rhan swears she will alter the future and save her queen. Now the battle-hardened Boudicca must put her trust in the powers of the otherworld to save her from both the traitors in her midst and from Rome’s mighty legions.

Inspired by the rich history of Boudicca’s attack on Roman Britain, bestselling author P. C. Cast crafts an epic, mythic retelling of one of time’s most legendary female warriors.

Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.

Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first degree murder.

Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent-it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.

How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:
 
If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?
 
Thea has a secret.
She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them.
Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.
Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.

Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.
Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.
Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.
But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.

How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?

Coming February 2024

Two twins. An unbroken bond. A truth unspoken.

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’s deep connection with her twin brother, Johnny, has gone beyond intuition – she can feel what he feels. So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone – truly alone – for the first time in her life.

When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settle her brother’s affairs, she’s forced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.

But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one.

What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.

From Wall Street Journal bestsellers L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington comes a twisted second-chance romance between a prince haunted by a dark secret and his reluctant Sleeping Beauty.

I’m marrying a beautiful monster.

A crooked fraud. America’s wealthiest bachelor.

He claims we’re in love, yet all I taste in our kisses is hate and lust.

I don’t remember why or how.

But I do remember he’s the enemy.

Now, I’m stuck inside a nightmare.

And Oliver will do anything to keep me in the dark.

Authors’ Note: My Dark Prince is a standalone enemies-to-lovers Sleeping Beauty retelling, in which a damaged billionaire with a dark past and his childhood sweetheart fall in love-literally. It is set in the decadent Dark Prince Road universe.

ate Kay is the most famous author on the planet. But it’s just a name. Somehow, despite her bestselling novels and the record-breaking film franchise, the writer has remained completely anonymous.

Anne Marie Callahan is the name nobody knows. Only the people she left behind. And Annie knows there’s no one there anymore who could connect the dots between the girl who ran away all those years ago and the famous novelist.

If you asked, she’d say her name was Cass Ford. That’s what her barista shouts each morning. And it’s how she introduces herself to the woman she’ll eventually call the love of her life.

Three names, three lives. But Cate Kay is finally ready to tell you who she really is.

And when the truth is out, will everyone’s favourite novelist hold on to her place in our hearts or are some betrayals impossible to forgive?

Kate Fagan is the author of several New York Times bestselling non fiction books. The Three Lives of Cate Kay explores the cost of ambition, the longings of first (and second and third) love, and how it’s never too late to go home.

Traci Beller was only thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now a super-popular influencer with millions of followers, she finally has the money to hire a new detective to uncover the truth. And that detective is Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a losing game, though Elvis quickly picks up a lead in Rancha when he learns that an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter Anya might have a line on the missing man. But when he finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, will it be possible to save them all?

Calling on the help of his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, Elvis follows Tommy Beller’s trail into the twisted, nightmarish depths of a monstrous evil, even as what he finds tests his loyalty to his clients, and to himself. But the truth must come out, no matter the cost.

Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done.

With the dark, mythical magic of the Winternight trilogy, and the slow-burn romance of Spinning Silver, NORTH IS THE NIGHT is a feminist fantasy adventure that shows the power of female friendship and how love – both romantic and familial – can conquer even death itself.

In the harsh interior of the Finnish wilderness, best friends Aina and Siiri are inseparable despite their opposite natures: Aina is gentle and cautious while Siiri is headstrong and brave. But their friendship is put to the test when Aina is kidnapped by a death goddess and taken to the mythical underworld Tuonela.

Determined to save her friend, Siiri embarks on a dangerous journey north to seek out Väinämöinen, the only mystical shaman to travel to Tuonela and return alive. As the dark winter looms, Siiri uses all the strength she possesses to survive her journey, which is plagued by trappers, a band of roving wolves, and a cunning snow witch with her own quest for power. But finding Väinämöinen is only the beginning. Siiri must convince him to share his magic so she can sneak into Tuonela and save Aina.

In Tuonela, Aina is forced to play the sadistic games of Tuonetar, the cruel queen of the underworld, alongside other captured maidens. But Aina’s kindness allows her to make allies in the dark, harsh environment. She soon discovers that Tuoni, the god of death and king of Tuonela, is also a victim of Tuonetar’s spells that can only be broken when he remarries. To save him and the other girls, Aina offers herself as his bride.

As she spends more time in the underworld, Aina falls in love with Tuoni and must make a decision that will alter the course of her fate forever . . . not knowing her fearless friend is on the way and plotting a daring escape.

THIS BOOK IS NOT SAFE TO READ AT WORK.

And honestly, the less you know about it before reading . . . the better!

Twenty year old Temperance Verus has never been kissed. But that’s what the basilisk is for.

Along with thirteen other contestants, Tem must train with a basilisk to learn the power of seduction and win the prince’s hand in marriage. When Tem is matched with Caspen, the Serpent King, she realizes she might actually stand a chance.

But with tensions rising between the basilisks and the humans, Tem is torn in two directions. As her bond with Caspen deepens, so does her connection with the prince. And when she uncovers a terrible secret about the royal family, Tem finds herself caught between two worlds . . . neither of which she can survive without.

Read this book if you like any of the following: Golden fangs; inappropriate use of a claw; hot men with daddy issues; hot women with daddy issues; witty banter; long, dextrous fingers

Guaranteed to make you blush (and then some), Kiss of the Basilisk is like if fanfic Draco Malfoy went on the Bachelor and had to compete with a snake. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? That’s because it is!!

Coming February 2025

Will her new love story be the one she’s read before?

A decade after they said goodbye after graduation, old friends Harri and Annie reunite in the beautiful village of Clove Lore in Devon – what more could these bookworms want than a holiday running the tumbledown bookshop?

Unbeknownst to Annie, Harri is arriving with a bruised heart after the end of his long-term relationship, while Annie is running away from painful memories in Texas.

Elsewhere in Clove Lore, the mysterious owner of Castle Lore has died, causing much gossip in the village. When Harri and Annie are sent to investigate the huge Gothic library, they find themselves locked in overnight and soon, are discovering their connection might be more than just good friends…

A gorgeously uplifting friends-to-lovers romance that will make your heart sing. Fans of Jenny Colgan, Trisha Ashley and Heidi Swain will adore this.

A Barack Obama Reading Pick 2024

When the store manager at an upstate New York superstore announces he’s leaving, the motley crew members of Team Movement take the news surprisingly well. Overworked and exhausted, they spend their early morning shifts scheming about their jobs and their futures. Now is their only chance to get their hated line manager Meredith promoted up and away from them. And then one of them can replace her – but who will it be?

Marisha’s time is running out. She’s already lost her family to the sleeping plague, and she fears she’ll be next. Penniless and desperate for protection, Marisha is forced to accept a job as apprentice to the notorious koldunya, Baba Zima.

Despite Baba Zima’s reputation for cruelty, Marisha finds herself drawn into the magical world of koldunry, and is thrust into looking for a cure to the plague – if Marisha finds it, she will finally be free.

As the search grows increasingly dangerous and seemingly impossible, Marisha uncovers hidden connections between the sleeping plague, her own family’s history, and her haunting dreams: of a masked ball where sleepers are trapped endlessly dancing – and a monstrous beaked man who shadows her every step . . .

A short novella based on the beloved characters from Alice Oseman’s acclaimed debut novel Solitaire and graphic novel series Heartstopper – now a major Netflix series. From the author of the 2021 YA Book Prize winning Loveless.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

CHARLIE: “I have been going out with Nick Nelson for two years. He likes rugby, Formula 1, dogs, the Marvel universe, the sound felt-tips make on paper, rain and drawing on shoes. He also likes me.”

NICK: “Things me and Charlie Spring do together include: Watch films. Sit in the same room on different laptops. Text each other from different rooms. Make out. Make food. Make drinks. Get drunk. Talk. Argue. Laugh. Maybe we’re kind of boring. But that’s fine with us.”

Everyone knows that Nick and Charlie are the perfect couple – that they’re inseparable. But now Nick is leaving for university, and Charlie will be left behind at Sixth Form. Everyone’s asking if they’re staying together, which is a stupid question – they’re ‘Nick and Charlie’ for God’s sake!

But as the time to say goodbye gets inevitably closer, both Nick and Charlie question whether their love is strong enough to survive being apart. Or are they delaying the inevitable? Because everyone knows that first loves rarely last forever…