Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in February 2022
Another month has flown (honestly, it seems that as soon as I get used to typing “January”, I have to start typing “February”!) and it’s time for another look at the new and upcoming releases the AAR team is most excited about reading over the coming weeks. As always, your comments as to what YOU’RE looking forward to are most welcome – and if you’d ever like to send me some titles you’d like included, you’re welcome to drop me a line!
Releasing 1st Feb 2022
Releasing w/c 7th Feb 2022
Releasing w/c 14th Feb 2022
Releasing w/c 21st Feb 2022
I’ve been enjoying this list displayed by covers in recent months. I’ve made it a point to look at the cover art on my nice big computer screen, side-by side, to see what stands out as appealing to me, before paying attention to author names. Generally, there isn’t much that really appeals but this month I have a clear favorite: Feb. 1 week release Ladies and Lumberjacks. Being of a certain age, I immediately flashed back to the television show Here Come the Brides . . . Turns out it is an anthology of short stories, set in 1850s Maine, written by not just Inspirational Romance Writers but CHRISTIAN Romance Writers. That gives me pause. Anyone here at AAR know anything about these organizations and/or writers?
Looking forward to a lot of these, mostly In Step. I didn’t know Luke was coming out in Feb and I haven’t heard of Kosoko Jackson, so February is looking to be a fun reading month.
A note: The link for Sink or Swim goes to Her Heart’s Desire on Amazon.
Oops – I’ll fix that.
February is always a good romance novel month and In Step is the book I am most excited to read.
I’m also excited for Wilder With You. I just read the first 2 Wilder Adventure books last month as well as the novella about the Wilder sister in the Tinsel and Tatas anthology and liked them all.
Deanna Raybourn’s latest Veronica Speedwell book is always a must read.
I’m also planning to read Luke and Sink or Swim.
For books not listed above, I am interested in these M/M romances:
The Real Baxter by Lane Hayes
Finding Finn by Charlie Novak
Egotistical Puckboy by Eden Finley and Saxon James
I just got a e-mail newsletter from N.R. Walker that she anticipates her latest book called Code Blue (also M/M romance) to be out in late February. It is in the same world as Code Red.
Not a romance but I know we have talked on these blogs about Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series and the latest (The Deepest of Secrets) comes out Feb 15. That’s a must read for me too!
I listened to Code Red and reviewed it for AudioGals, but I was very disappointed. I might read the next one, though, as I usually like NRW’s stuff and am hoping that one was an anomaly.
In Step is excellent.
I’m really looking forward to In Step!
And I plan to listen to Sink or Swim and hope I like it better than Sailor Proof. I liked Sailor Proof ok, but it felt like it was more about Arthur and his family than about Arthur and Derrick. Not much plot. If it’s being narrated by Greg Boudreaux and Joel Leslie again, then I know at least I’ll enjoy the narration!
I just finished In Step and am writing the review, so watch this space! And yes, Sink or Swim is narrated by Greg and Joel.
I feel the same way as you about Sailor Proof – I thought it was just OK. But I do like Annabeth Albert’s books so I am hoping I like Sink or Swim better.
Same here! I’ll keep reading her books because they are almost always good,and occasionally great.It helps that someone at my local library is a fan, because almost all Albert’s audiobooks are immediately uploaded into the system through Hoopla on release day.
Now that Harlequin Presents is dropping its ebooks late in the month rather than the first day of the new month, I’ll be reading Caitlin Crews’s latest, THE SCANDAL THAT MADE HER HIS QUEEN, on its release date of January 25. Which means the first book I’m waiting for in February is Karla Sorensen’s THE PLAN (February 9), which features a bodyguard-client romance—with the bodyguard being a grumpy former football player.
Serena Bell’s WILDER WITH YOU, the latest in her Wilder Adventures series, arrives February 15. This is my most anticipated February release. In this book, the widowed Wilder brother gets involved in a fake relationship with a friend of his late wife. Then they have to share a tent on a camping trip.
February 22 is a red-letter day with a bumper crop of new releases: Jackie Ashenden’s latest HP, THE INNOCENT’S ONE-NIGHT PROPOSAL; Ruth Cardello’s HE SAID TOGETHER, the next in her Lost Corisis series, this one featuring a male dancer/stripper; Amelia Wilde’s BINDING CONTRACT, the third and final book in her dark Wealth trilogy; Ella Frank’s m/m, WICKED HEAT, the start of a new series called Chicago Heat; and Sybil Bartel’s ROMEO, the latest in her Alpha Elite romantic-suspense series.
And finally on February 28, C.M. Nascosta releases PARTIES, the sequel to her GIRLS WEEKEND. In this book, three female elves (yes, you read that correctly) have to decide if the orcs (yes, you read that correctly) they met on a girls’ weekend are going to be long-term relationship material. I love Nascosta’s world where humans, monsters, mythological creatures, and anthropomorphized animals co-exist (and have sex with each other), but YMMV.
Every month I’m completely bewildered by the HQN release schedule. If you look on their web site for February books, you get books that released Jan 25 or Jan 18 or even Jan 1. Why????
At least for their Presents & (the now-discontinued) Dare lines, Harlequin used to release the physical books during the last week of the month and drop the ebook on the first of the following month. I just got in the habit of grabbing my Harlequin Presents fix on the first of the month, but lately they’ve been releasing the ebooks during the last week of the month. Very confusing!
I haven’t checked lately, but Harlequin Historicals used to release two weeks earlier in print than in ebook. And I think publishers still call books released in the last week of the month ‘next month’ releases, so Jan 25th books are Feb releases, Feb 25th releases are March, etc. In fact, back in the “olden days” of AAR, we used to do our Eagerly Awaiting by release month, so there would be a lot of January books in the Februray lists, and so on. It’s only in the last few years that we’ve started to go by actual release DAY – and a lot of that is due to the fact that indie/self-publishers didn’t follow the same pattern and went by the day rather than the month. And once I took over doing this feature, it just made much more sense to me to include books released in that month and not whatever th publishers label them!
The release dates of Mills & Boon where I buy my “Harlequins” lately are confusing too.
The historical ebooks were released one month before the print books. The explanation was big difficulties in getting enough paper.
What is the logic behind releasing ebooks later than print books? Does it increase sales? Does the second launch of the same book (although in different formats) increase interest and exposure for the book? Why do most mainstream books get released on Tuesdays? I have so many questions. . .