New Releases: February 2018

So here’s something I really really love: the smell of new books. And here’s something I do on a semi-daily basis: dream about all the books I would like to own, but don’t quite yet. So naturally, at some point, I was going to have to combine them, right? And that’s what this is! Some of my most looked forward to new releases February 2018!

Now, February really is something of a weird month. Winter and spring generally can’t quite figure out who’s supposed to be charge, so in the end they commonly settle for rain. A lot of rain. Or at least, that’s how it’s been these past couple of years in Belgium. Because of that, February is a month where I tend to still look for cosy reading. And about sixty other genres, I’m sure. 🙂 So let’s get started!

1. Surprise Me, Sophie Kinsella

After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other’s sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together and panic sets in. They never expected “until death do us part” to mean seven decades.

In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that question some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all.

Sophie Kinsella is always a bit of a hit and miss for me. I loved the first couple of books in the Shopaholic series as well as The Undomestic Goddess. Other books? Not so much. This one does sound like it could be one of the good ones, so I’m very much looking forward to reading it!

Goodreads
Amazon

2. How To Stop Time, Matt Haig

“The first rule is that you don’t fall in love, ‘ he said… ‘There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be okay.'”

A love story across the ages – and for the ages – about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

So Tom moves back to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacher–the perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city’s history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him. But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society’s watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can’t have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

How to Stop Time is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.

Sure, I know this is just a new edition being published. But, I mean, this story just sounds genious. Also, I do think one of my reading challenges requires time travel of some sorts. And I’m more than willing to let this count as such!

Goodreads
Amazon

3. A Girl Like That,Tanaz Bhathena

Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

This beautifully written debut novel from Tanaz Bhathena reveals a rich and wonderful new world to readers. It tackles complicated issues of race, identity, class, and religion, and paints a portrait of teenage ambition, angst, and alienation that feels both inventive and universal

This just sounds like exactly the type of book I should read more of. I think. I want to, that’s for sure!

Goodreads
Amazon

4. All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of QUeer Teens Throughout the Ages

Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.

From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

First of all, I would like to read more collections of stories. Second, again: the kind of book I want to read more of. Also, I’ve quite liked what I’ve read of Kody Keplinger so far, and as she’s one of the authors for this one… Well, suffice it to say: I have hopes. Maybe even high ones 🙂

Goodreads
Amazon

What new releases are you most looking forward to this month? Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar