Skip to main content

Week of February 10, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of February 10th include A CALAMITY OF SOULS by David Baldacci, a courtroom drama set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, where a racially charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully accused Black client; Vanessa Chan's THE STORM WE MADE, a spellbinding novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII --- and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family; THE SECRET LIVES OF BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, a compilation of stories from various booksellers and librarians who talk about the book business; and SLOW NOODLES, a haunting memoir from Chantha Nguon, a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but found hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen.

Week of February 3, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of February 3rd include THE COMFORT OF GHOSTS, the final installment in Jacqueline Winspear's groundbreaking series starring psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, who unravels a profound mystery from her past in a war-torn nation grappling with its future; THIS IS WHY WE LIED, Karin Slaughter's 12th thriller featuring GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, whose honeymoon is interrupted by a bone-chilling scream that cuts through the night; EXPIRATION DATES by Rebecca Serle, a gripping, emotional, passionate and heartbreaking novel   about a young woman who decides to finally live for herself rather than rely on the universe for answers;   and THE MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE, a harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir from Lara Love Hardin, who recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot-caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter.

February 2025

February's Books on Screen roundup includes the season premieres of Prime Video's "Reacher" and Netflix's "Sweet Magnolias"; the season finale of "Dexter: Original Sin" on Paramount+; the films Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy on Peacock and Reality Bites: A Hannah Swensen Mystery on Hallmark Mystery, along with The Monkey and The Unbreakable Boy in theaters; the continuation of CBS's "Tracker" and "Watson" (both return February 16th), in addition to ABC's "Will Trent" and Hallmark Channel's "When Calls the Heart"; the series premiere of "Apple Cider Vinegar" on Netflix; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Wicked; The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim; Oh, Canada; and Across the River and Into the Trees.

February 4, 2025

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 3rd and February 10th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Reader-Selected Best Books of 2024 on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Over the last couple of months, we asked you to tell us your favorite book that you read with your book group and your favorite book that you read outside your group in 2024. The results are in, and we’re happy to share them with you here! The #1 pick in both categories is THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah, which was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection when it released last February.

February 4, 2025

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this winter. Read more about it, and enter our Winter Reading Contest by Wednesday, February 5th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of A FORTY YEAR KISS by Nickolas Butler, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Freida McFadden, author of The Crash

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn't realize she's heading straight into a blizzard. She never arrives at her destination. Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she's made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn't right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn't what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet. And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself --- and her unborn child.

Walter Mosley, author of Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right: A King Oliver Novel

Joe King Oliver’s beloved Grandma B has found a tumor, and at her age, treatment is high-risk. She has only a single, dying wish: to see her long-lost son. King has been estranged from his father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was a young boy. But Grandma B’s pure ask has opened King’s heart, and he gains a deeper understanding of his father. Although Chief was released from prison years ago, he’s been living underground ever since. Now, King not only must find Chief, he has to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Marigold Hart, the wife of a powerful California billionaire, has gone missing, along with their seven-year-old daughter. Orr is brutish and dangerous, and King realizes after locating her that it’s in her best interest to stay hidden. But are his motives pure?

Emma Knight, author of The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows that her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s --- now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox --- lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time. As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life.

Joseph Finder, author of The Oligarch's Daughter

Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who seemingly can predict his every move. Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana --- unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several U.S. intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government.

Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Good Dirt

When 10-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved, and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England, the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. When Ebby's high-profile romance falls apart without any explanation, she flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day 18 years ago --- the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor.