February Releases: new books from Brandon Sanderson, Kristen Ciccarelli, BK Borison and more!
After three long months of January, February is finally here! I’m truly never more excited for the start of a new month than in the transition from January to February, and to make it even more exciting, there’s some releases coming up from my very favourite authors.
I’ve abandoned TBRs for 2026 (well, that’s the plan, anyway) so I have no general idea of what I’ll be reading, but I can guarantee that I’ll be reading a few of these new releases because I have several of them pre-ordered! I also have a couple (okay, fine, I have four) library books out which are due back in February - they’re all Discworld books as I work through the Death series.
Without further ado, 12 February releases to get excited about!
As always, the release dates below are the traditionally published physical edition UK release dates and are correct according to Amazon UK on 01 February.‘Get Over It, April Evans’ by Ashley Herring Blake (3)
April Evans' life is in shambles. Her tattoo shop has just closed, she has no money and her love life? Non-existent - ever since her ex-fiancée left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she's asked to teach a summer art class at the town's new resort, April jumps at the opportunity. She's sure that this is the silver lining she needs . . . until she meets her cabinmate: Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex. And even worse, it's clear Daphne has no idea who April is.
‘Cruelty Free’ by Caroline Glenn (3)
Ten years ago, Lila Devlin was an A-list actress with a movie star husband and a beautiful baby girl, Josie. When Josie was kidnapped out of her home and never seen again, Lila's previously pristine public image twisted into that of an Unfit Mother. Driven mad by the hungry press, incompetent cops, and relentless true crime-obsessed "fans," she disappeared into anonymity.
Now, Lila Devlin returns to LA with a grand vision for a radical new skincare brand to reinvent herself and honor Josie's legacy. She's prepared to move into the next chapter of her life with forgiveness in her heart, when an encounter with a parasitic blogger ends with him dead. Lila suddenly discovers forgiveness isn't nearly as satisfying as a body hitting the floor.
‘Nightshade and Oak’ by Molly O’Neill (3)
When Mallt, the goddess of death, is accidentally turned human by a wayward spell, she finds she's ill-equipped to deal with the trials of a mortal life. After all, why would a goddess need to know how to gather food or light a fire?
Unable to fend for herself, she teams up with Belis, warrior daughter of Boudicca, on a perilous journey to the afterlife to try to restore her powers. Frustrated by her frail human body and its inability to run a hundred miles in a single day, Mallt might not make the best travelling companion. But as animosity slowly turns to attraction, these two very different women must learn to work together if they are to have any hope of surviving their quest.
‘A Stage Set for Villains’ by Shannon J Spann (3)
The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.
When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetime – a chance for one mortal to steal a Player’s immortality – Riven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouse’s brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.
‘Isles of the Emberdark’ by Brandon Sanderson (3)
All his life, Sixth of the Dusk has been a traditional trapper of Aviar—the supernatural birds his people bond with—on the deadly island of Patji. Then one fateful night he propels his people into a race to modernize before they can be conquered by the Ones Above, invaders from the stars who want to exploit the Aviar.
But it’s a race they’re losing, and Dusk fears his people will lose themselves in the effort. When a chance comes to sail into the expanse of the emberdark beyond a mystical portal, Dusk sets off to find his people’s salvation with only a canoe, his birds, and all the grit and canniness of a Patji trapper.
Elsewhere in the emberdark is a young dragon chained in human form: Starling of the starship Dynamic. She and her ragtag crew of exiles are deep in debt and on the brink of losing their freedom. So when she finds an ancient map to a hidden portal between the emberdark and the physical realm, she seizes the chance at a lucrative discovery.
‘A Dark Forgetting’ by Kristen Ciccarelli (12)
No matter how far Emeline Lark runs, the song of the forest reaches her, luring her away from her dreams of the stage and back to her small town and its superstitions.
But every superstition is rooted in truth, and when her grandfather goes missing Emeline will be forced to return to Edgewood and the forest beyond.
There, even Hawthorne Fell, a brooding tithe collector, cannot dissuade her from her path – a path that will lead her into the court of the fabled Wood King himself – and into a bargain with the deadliest price.
‘Operation Bounce House’ by Matt Dinniman (12)
All New Sonoran colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch and keep their aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking.
But now the colossal Apex Corporation has been hired to commence an “eviction action” – exterminate all life on New Sonora in preparation for a reboot. And they charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines, remotely pilot them, and make it a game.
The game is called Operation Bounce House . . . And New Sonora is its playing field.
Determined to defend the only home he’s ever known, Oliver and his friends find themselves fighting for their lives against these machines.
‘Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter’ by Heather Fawcett (17)
Agnes Aubert is very fond of making lists. These lists kept her afloat when she lost her husband two years ago. And now, as the founder of a cat rescue charity, her meticulous organization skills feel like the only thing standing between her beloved cats - His Majesty, Banshee and sweet elderly Thoreau, to name a few - and utter disaster.
But when Agnes is forced to move the charity, she soon discovers that her new shop is being used as a front; right under her feet is the lair of the decidedly disorganised - not to mention self-absorbed and infuriatingly handsome - Havelock Renard.
‘Half City’ by Kate Golden (19)
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 just 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.
‘Cleopatra’ by Saara El-Arifi (26)
YOU KNOW MY NAME. BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW ME.
Your historians call me seductress, but I was ever in love's thrall.
Your playwrights speak of witchcraft, but my talents came from the gods themselves.
Your poets sing of my bloodlust, but I was always protecting my children.
How wilfully they refuse to concede that a woman could be powerful, strategic, divinely blessed to rule.
Death will silence me no longer.
This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.
‘Saltswept’ by Katalina Watt (26)
A pirate faces the gallows drop. A farmer is given a terrible ultimatum to save her daughter. An acolyte ascends to priestesshood, only to find that a blessing really can be a curse. These unlikely bedfellows band together with an inscrutable pickpocket and a talking ottercat in pursuit of the most hopeless of causes: to sail into the Maelstrom, a raging whirlpool from which no one has ever escaped, and find the mysterious treasure hidden within it.
‘And Now, Back to You’ by BK Borison (26)
Jackson Clark likes life neat, predictable, and preferably viewed from the comfort of his radio booth. Delilah Stewart prefers hers wild, spontaneous, and preferably in the eye of the storm, out in the field.
For years, the two have clashed like thunder and lightning - until they’re partnered against their will to cover the snowstorm of the century, finding themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together.
Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal. If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With an undiscovered chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship.
But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains, stay in the mountains?
What are you planning on reading in February?
