Highlights: February 2018

What? It’s only February? How is winter not over yet?! But I guess we have Valentine’s Day to look forward to! And the most important love of both of our lives: books (jk, husbands…it’s our cats.) Here are the books we’d most love to get our hands on this month!

Serena’s Picks

Book: “Tempest and Slaughter” by Tamora Pierce

Publication Date: February 6, 2018

Why I’m Interested: Um, because I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce?? This book has been torturing readers for five years now, showing up on Goodreads and then having the publication date get pushed back year by year. But it’s finally here guys! For those familiar with Pierce’s world of Tortall, this book is a prequel to her “Immortals” series and follows the early life of Numair, the romantic hero of those stories. Which is super exciting. But also super worrying. What will these books be like, taking place before he’s even met Daine? From what we got in those books, Numair was a bit of a ladies man before meeting her, and I’m just not sure I’m up for reading about his romantic entanglements when I am all “Numair/Daine forever!” But, what am I talking about, it’s not like that concern is going to stop me!

Book: “The Queen’s Rising”

Publication Date: February 6, 2018

Why I’m Interested: This book has a plot synopsis that sounds fairly familiar to those who read a lot of YA fantasy: young woman dreams of only one thing, but is perhaps too average to accomplish said thing. Suddenly gets caught up in political shenanigans and realizes her role is something more than she had imagined. But I like those stories, so I’m always up for another! Plus, this one seems to have an interesting system set up with five “passions” that people can be skilled in that will earn them patronage once they come of age. So I will be curious to see how that will play out in the story of a brewing war.

Book: “Honor Among Thieves”

Publication Date: February 13, 2018

Why I’m Interested: I’m always on the look out for a good YA sci-fi story. They’re sadly underepresented it seems. So I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this new release by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre. I’ve read a few books by Rachel Caine in the past and enjoyed her writing. Plus, the plot description of this one is right up my alley. Zara is a criminal on the run. That is until she gets caught up in a group that recruits people to explore space with sentient alien ships. And when Zara meets her ship, Nadim, she realizes that much more is going on. I love that this story seems to be focused on the pairing of Zara and a sentient ship! How fun is that!

Kate’s Picks

Book: “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer” by Michelle McNamara

Publication Date: February 27, 2018

Why I’m Interested: As you’ve all probably figured out, one of my weaknesses is true crime, and while I don’t read as much of it anymore I still enjoy a good book about it. Michelle McNamara was a crime writer who did extensive research on the unsolved murders perpetrated by The Golden State Killer, but sadly she passed away unexpectedly at age 45 in 2016. Now the book she was working on has been finished, and word is that it’s well researched, atmospheric, and potentially could bring up new leads in the Golden State Killer case. Her death was a tragedy, but her words will always live on.

Book: “The French Girl” by Lexie Elliott

Publication Date: February 20, 2018

Why I’m Interested: When a group of college students spend a week at an idyllic countryside farmhouse and a sexy interloper shows up, you KNOW something terrible is going to happen. And that means that I am one hundred percent interested in it. Switching between the past and the present, “The French Girl” sounds like it’s going to be a paranoid and tense thriller in which the puzzle pieces are presented slowly but surely between two times. Also, it’s going to involve a body that’s found in a well, and desperate people trying to cover up their culpability. Yes please. I have high hopes that this will be a page turner.

Book: “The Prince and the Dressmaker” by Jen Wang

Publishing Info: February 13, 2018

Why I’m Interested: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this new graphic novel looks like a sweet and lovely story about friendship and identity. When Frances is hired by Prince Sebastian to be a personal dressmaker, she is surprised to find out that Sebastian wants her to make dresses. For by night, Prince Sebastian turns into Lady Crystallia, a fashion icon like no other who longs to be the toast of Paris. Representation is so important in books, and I’m excited to see that “The Prince and the Dressmaker” has a main character who appears to be gender non-binary.

What books are you looking forward to that are coming out in February 2018?