February may be the shortest month of the year, but it’s packed with terrific new books to get you through the final month of winter! Bestselling authors are back with new titles and debut authors have great surprises in store for readers, so make sure to add these books to your TBR piles!
The Great Alone, by Kristin 
Hannah (February 6): After the blockbuster success of her World War II-era novel The Nightingale (2015), Kristin Hannah is finally back with a new book! In her latest work, Hannah turns her attention to a family struggling to survive in 1970s Alaska, where a Vietnam veteran hopes a small plot of land will give him a fresh start – but no one banks on how the harsh landscape will prove devastating for their second chance.
Perfect if you love: stories about how families come together in times of crises. Try this smart, compassionate young adult take: The Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Kristin Hannah is one of the library’s Automatic Holds authors: subscribe once, and we’ll add you to the holds list for her future novels!
Surprise Me, by Sophie Kinsella (February 13): Kinsella’s bestselling novels never fail to bring a smile to readers’ faces – no matter what the story is, she delivers on laughs, romance, and uplifting endings. Her new book is no exception: when young couple Sylvie and Dan discover that they’ll live for at least another 68 years, they’re initially overjoyed…until they realize just how long a marriage can be, and try to out-do each other to keep the romance alive, with very surprising results.
Perfect if you love: witty British heroines with grit and gumption. Try the Louisa Clark series by Jojo Moyes, starting with Me Before You.
The French Girl, by Lexie Elliott (February 20): Are you tired of the psychological thriller genre yet? Almost six years after Gone Girl changed the publishing game for good, thrillers with unreliable narrators are still going strong – and if you are going to read just one this year, make it The French Girl. Six friends from Oxford University visit a French farmhouse one summer, and return with a dark secret after a young woman goes missing during their stay. But no secret stays buried, and ten years later, they have to answer for their actions when the missing girl is finally discovered.
Perfect if you love: Ruth Ware, the British thriller author taking the bestselling list by storm! Start with The Lying Game, and then try these other two novels for more excellent thrills: He Said/She Said, by Erin Kelly, and The Perfect Girl, by Gilly Macmillan.
The Gone World, by Tom Sweterlitsch (February 6): And now for something completely different! I am not much of a science fiction reader – I lean towards the fantasy side of the speculative fiction scale – but the premise of The Gone World has me hooked. As a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent searches for the perpetrators of a brutal murder, she discovers that former astronauts may be responsible – except they were lost on a secret mission several years before, so how have they returned to earth? Take one part thriller/mystery, one part science-fiction, add a little time travel and apocalyptic action, and I can. Not. Wait.
Perfect if you love: There may not be anything quite like this book (did we mention there may be an alien invasion?), but for a similar feel, try the works of Chuck Wendig, or The Three-Body Problem trilogy, by Cixin Liu.
The Queen of Hearts, by Kimmery Martin (February 13): Feel like diving into an unabashedly soapy medical drama? Get ready for a great, absorbing read about the intense, competitive friendship between a surgeon and a cardiologist*: they’re balancing their careers and their families, but the arrival of an old flame threatens their carefully planned lives. And it shouldn’t come as any surprise to readers that there are, of course, secrets between them.
*Complete with authentic medical details – appropriate, since author Martin is a doctor herself.
Perfect if you love: Grey’s Anatomy. ER. Even General Hospital! If you like a story that’s just as much about the personal lives of physicians as it is about their cases, this is the book for you.
Get more reading recommendations from our staff: find our booklists for adults and teens online, or subscribe to our Recommended Reads e-newsletter for a monthly delivery of staff picks!
