Our Most Anticipated New Book Releases of February 2023

An incredible novel that expertly weaves together sadness and love, courage and loss, hardship and hope. Everything comes rushing back toward the end of Lena’s life: memories of her childhood, first love, early motherhood … as well as the staggering darkness of being forced into a Siberian work camp. Profound and moving, this story of a woman finding hope in the face of impossible odds will linger with readers long after the last page. This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition includes a Q&A with author Paula Lichtarowicz and a reading group guide for book clubs.

Like most 20-somethings, Maddie wants to find her place in the world. Between serving as her ailing father’s primary caregiver and living on the whims of her difficult mother and nightmare boss, she’s ready to make some changes. Smart and touching, this brilliant debut explores what it means to live with an open heart. Tune into the Poured Over podcast this month as we discuss Maame by Jessica George. 

The ever-delightful Amy Poeppel is back with a cast of quirky characters caught in a messy situation. When three women find a baby on their doorstep, they resolve to put their differences aside to find his parents. What comes next is a journey of forgiveness, family, and friendship.

Written with Moyes’ signature warmth, this refreshing novel tells a story of the power of perspective and finding support in the unlikeliest of ways. This Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition includes designed endpapers and a Q&A with the author.

This luminous novel is an exploration of what womanhood, sacrifice, and longing looked like in pre-Roe America for young black women. Ruby and Eleanor live completely separate lives, but both are navigating the trials and tribulations of race, class, education, and motherhood. This is story about the price women pay for love, and the choices no one should have to make.

Bodie Kane has always been plagued by questions about a murder that rocked her boarding school in 1995 … When she returns to campus as a professor, the doubt she has kept at bay about the investigation comes creeping back. Does she know something that could crack the case wide open?  An enthralling mystery, an interrogation of the past, an entrancing campus novel, I Have Some Questions for You is a propulsive page-turner. Tune into the Poured Over podcast this month as we discuss I Have Some Questions for You with Rebecca Makkai. 

Twin sisters Arcade and Daffodil hold on to each other as women in their community go missing. Painting an honest and compassionate portrait of addiction, this novel asks what happens when a person doesn’t fit a victim profile. Interweaving generational trauma, community, and consequences, McDaniel leaves you breathless.

The Frys are back, and this time Maureen is going on her own journey.   Expertly and lyrically written, Maureen shows us what it means to be human, exploring grief, redemption, and love. It’s truly a deeply moving end to the luminous Harold Fry trilogy. Tune into the Poured Over podcast this month as we discuss Maureen with Rachel Joyce. 

Lucy Score’s a hit with the first book, Things We Never Got Over, in her “Knockemout” series. Knockemout, Virginia, that is. Book 2, Things We Hide From the Light continues the fancy footwork dancing around your heart. And to think, they called boxing “the sweet science.” We beg to differ. It’s reading Lucy Score.

Nocturne is a rich, lush fairy-tale reimagining that brings together elements of Beauty & the Beast, Phantom of the Opera and Persephone against the backdrop of the ballet world in Depression-era Chicago. With lyrical prose, romance, mystery and magic, this atmospheric fantasy is an enchanting read that will keep you in suspense till the very end.

A thoroughly enchanting novel that follows lovable Arthur, the caretaker of magical misfit orphans from around the world. Full of whimsy, romance, and a touch of intrigue, The House in the Cerulean Sea will make you smile from the first word to the very last. This exclusive trade paperback edition includes gorgeous full-color stenciled edges matching the beautiful cover design.

We adore TJ Klune and his charming, big-hearted books like The House in the Cerulean Sea. So, it’s no surprise that TJ has gifted us with this compassionate and funny tale about life with Death as a character and a ghost who doesn’t want to cross over to whatever’s next. A little comfort and a lot of hope go a long way, and this cathartic read is pure magic. This exclusive trade paperback edition includes stunning full-color stenciled edges matching the beautiful cover design as well as a bonus story, “A Reaper’s Guide.” This pamphlet serves as an introduction to reaping and lays out the basics on how new reapers are expected to guide humans from the end of life to the beginning of eternity.

Every adventuring party has a starting quest. What happens when a bard, barbarian, rogue, and a rather intense sorcerer set out to line their pockets with both well-earned and ill-gotten gold? Join Edgin Darvis and his team of occasionally heroic heisters in this official prequel to the film.

Get out your dice and join the McElroys as they gear up for their next thrilling adventure. The fresh, improvisational quality of the podcast is preserved in the lively writing with bold illustrations that jump off the page. If you enjoy D&D or any other TTRPG this graphic novel is a critical hit. This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition includes foil treatment on the cover and four collectible foil-stamped trading cards.

Have you been biting your knuckles waiting…waiting…waiting…for the follow up to the first book in Jones’s Indian Lake Trilogy? It’s here. Book two. Now all you have to do after finishing Don’t Fear the Reaper is bite knuckles and repeat until book three is released. Better yet, go back to My Heart is a Chainsaw. All of Jones’s oeuvre is worthy of a re-read. This Barnes & Noble exclusive edition includes two bonus chapters from the cutting room floor, providing insight into each of the first two novels of the Indian Lake trilogy. Tune into the Poured Over podcast this month as we discuss Don’t Fear the Reaper with Stephen Graham Jones. 

Lucy A. Snyder is our favorite type of horror writer; they deal with (and write about) the madness so we don’t have to. Unless we want to, of course.

Some authors make us wait a year in between books. Others like to extend that wait. Lucy Foley is back after 2020’s The Guest List.

The Paris Apartment is definitely worth the time in between so you can savor every moment of mystery as you did with The Guest List and The Hunting Party. On second thought – we can’t wait!!!!! This B&N Exclusive Edition includes a new, connecting short story as well a list of the books and films that inspired the author and some of her favorite Paris locations.

Maybe you’ve been part of The Thursday Murder Club (as written by Richard Osman) or enjoyed the literary Easter-eggs in Anthony Horowitz’s mystery Magpie Murders. If so! It’s time to join The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts as designed by Rupert Holmes. It’s the diabolical lessons they never taught you in school! Opening to the first page is your admission to a delightful read. And then some. This Barnes & Noble Signed Exclusive Edition includes a bonus story featuring one memorable lesson in murder at the McMasters Conservatory.

Sometimes we read something so fundamentally stirring that we find ourselves speechless in the face of so many tumbling thoughts. Caste is one of those books. Isabel Wilkerson is one of those writers. She reminds us that “we are responsible for our own ignorance or, with time and openhearted enlightenment, our own wisdom.” In this magnificent work of history, narrative, social commentary, philosophy and inspired storytelling, she offers us a new frame, a deeper focal point and new language to help us toward a reckoning long overdue. Quite a gift. Tune into the Poured Over podcast this month as we discuss Caste with Isabel Wilkerson.

Determined protester, author, now dominant world voice for environmental redress, Greta Thunberg provides us with a resource primer for change, bringing together, with her own commentary throughout, a remarkable congress of over 100 climate experts — scientists, philosophers, economists, and historians — true testament to her belief that knowledge is indeed powerful.

This is a guide to love that is refreshingly free of any manipulatory techniques, so if you’re looking for pickup lines or ways to change yourself to please others you won’t find them here. 8 Rules of Love is a clear, non-judgemental road map for every aspect of romantic love, from the author of the bestselling Think Like a Monk.