February Book Releases To Read

There are so many great books coming out right now, guys. All spring, actually. I am so excited for all the reading I am gonna get to do this year, haha! Today, I am sharing a few, new February book releases to read!

New Book Releases

These five books are all hitting the shelves soon, and need to get onto your reading list!

The Mistress Next Door

The Mistress Next Door is available February 15; you can preorder it here.

I received an audio ARC of The Mistress Next Door via NetGalley for an honest review*

Was The Mistress Next Door the most original thriller I’ve ever read? Nah. Was it a page-tuner that had me guessing until the end? Yup. Well played, Lesley Sanderson, well played.

Harriet has a secret. But so does her husband. Their children’s lives could potentially be in danger, and they live in a VERY close neighborhood with lots of gossip, and eyes everywhere.

The beginning of The Mistress Next Door was absolutely gripping… but after that, it progressed sooooo slowly. Things picked back up, and I enjoyed that everyone was a suspect, and it had a “who-done-it” vibe. For once, I truly didn’t know where this wild ride was going to take me. I love to predict endings, but this one managed to keep me guessing!

The Mistress Next Door is a must-read out of all these February book releases – it earned major points for unpredictability (for me, at least!)

It Ends at Midnight

I received an audio ARC via NetGalley for an honest review*

I recently read (and loved) Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce, so I was more than excited to read It Ends at Midnight! It’s available February 27.

In It Ends at Midnight, we follow Sylvie who goes from having it all to literally having it all ripped away from her in a matter of weeks.

It was Something Borrowed meets Blood Orange. Again, we are back with Barristers and the court system. But then we have this wedding/weird threesome vibe like Something Borrowed. One of the characters was even named Marcus!

It Ends as Midnight moved really slowly. There were 3 parts, and the majority of the book was part one… but everything happened in parts two and three!

That said, those last two parts were phenomenal. You just LOVE to hate Tess. She was perfectly written. And I was rooting Sylvie for the entire time! What a twist!! 🤌🏻

I also thought the flashes to the impaled/dying scenes and the witnesses/crime scene procedural was SO powerful, and I was VERY eager to find out who it was!! This was a solid 4 stars for me!

Kill Joy

Kill Joy is available February 28. Preorder it here.

I received an ARC of Kill Joy via NetGalley for an honest review*

You may recognize author Holly Jackson from the A Good Girls Guide to Murder Series (which I read and loved!) Kill Joy is a mini novella/spin-off from the series. I went into this thinking it was a “where are they now” story. Instead this is #0.5 of the series; an inception, if you will.

I had lofty expectations for Kill Joy. Despite being in the teen/young-adult thriller genre, I thoroughly enjoyed these books (likely in part due to the ease of reading since they’re teen/YA). Johnson fully delivered. Kill Joy is a super-short, quick read of 5 friends hosting a murder mystery party… and it really sets the tone, and gets inside Pip’s head. And to be honest, I looooved the release order. I liked the whole “Sal’s a murderer” thing and why Pip is so anti-the-easy-answer in the AGGGTM series! A fun read for fans of the series.

The Wife List

*I received an ARC of the Wife List via Book Sirens for an honest review.

The Wife List will be available on Kindle Unlimited on February 20! Or you may purchase it in paperback here.

The Wife List had such a unique plot. This was the first JA Schneider book I’ve read, and it promised to thrill. There have been two unsolved murders to people close to Beth, and she’s freaking out. But has she crossed the line from average grief to panic and obsession? With her life-threatening asthma on top of rising crime rates, getting Beth out of the city and into the relaxing suburbs seems like the right call for loving husband Brad.

While I wanted to love The Wife List, I ran into some issues. First, the ending was way too happy. Tied up so nicely with a bow. Second, the sex scene seemed so out of place and wildly inappropriate. (And if you knew me, and you’ve likely never heard me say a sex scene was inappropriate before 😅). Also, it really escalated quickly. Like 0-60. Seemed rushed, underdeveloped, and clearly was a distraction to the reader (me). Third, it was a SLOWburn. This took me forever to read. I actually stopped reading it, and did two audiobooks, then came back to tackle it (meaning it teetered on the edge of DNF, but did redeem itself a bit)

I think, if the book would have just ended with the closet scene, The Wife List would have been a 4.5 star, must-read, favorite of my February book releases. I went with 3 stars, though, because that’s how distracted/confused I was by the ending. Overall, a good story, but too many plot issues toward the end.

The Girl With The Dragonfruit Tattoo

Though technically, The Girl With the Dragonfruit Tattoo did release 1/31, I received/read it in February, so a February book release it is 😉

*I received an advance audio copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

I’m a big fan of judging a book by the cover. The Girl With the Dragonfruit Tattoo’s cover was super fun, and immediately drew me in. I also liked the play off “the girl with the dragon tattoo” with the title. I had high hopes.

I found the characters extremely shallow and unlikable. I didn’t connect with any – especially not Plum. Maybe because this was part of a series? (Book 3) I actually had no idea it was part of a series… I had/have not heard of the other books, and this was my first Carrie Doyle title.

For me, The Girl With the Dragonfruit Tattoo was just okay. I could see this as a great beach read/lite-thriller for someone who doesn’t get into really darker/twistier titles (like What Lies in the Woods or The Perfect Marriage which are favorites of mine 😬). 2.2 stars for me on this, though, admittedly I may be coming down harder because it’s a Thriller Lite and I’m definitely Team Darkity Dark Dark when it comes to reading😉

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