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February 20, 2026

I, like many of you, have been watching the Olympics. I always think about the years of training that goes into one race, one performance. “It all comes down to this.” I was blown away by the performances that Alysa Liu turned out, especially the one for her long program. I felt like she was skating for herself, not for the judges. She had walked away from the sport and came back to it with fresh eyes. She wanted to be there after a few years of living life as a teen, not just as a skater. Every move on that ice had flow. It did not feel like a required element; it was filled with a passion of “I want to do this!”

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Leodora Darlington, author of The Exes

Natalie has only ever wanted to find “the one.” The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, she’s bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. And that was before the night of the Big Fallout that left her even more alone. Then along comes James, and Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe he’s the one for her. Maybe he’s the one she’s been waiting for all along. Maybe he won’t wind up dead. But the harder Natalie tries to be a “normal” wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what she’ll do --- leaving her to question if there is a monster within her or if there is a villain toying with her from the outside.

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February 17, 2026

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 16th and February 23rd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to ReadingGroupGuides.com's BIG contest celebrating the recent release of Brisa Carleton’s debut novel, LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY, which is a 2025 Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. 

Three book groups will win up to 12 copies of the book, and they will get to talk to Brisa in May or June. In addition, we are awarding 25 book group members a single copy of the book, with a promise that they will read it and give us their feedback on it. They also will tell their group members about the book and recommend that they discuss it in June, July or August. Be sure to enter the contest by Monday, March 16th at noon ET.

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February 17, 2026

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this winter. Read more about it, and enter this year's final Winter Reading Contest by Wednesday, February 18th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of BEST BOY by Deborah Goodrich Royce, which releases on February 24th. Lisa Unger calls this gripping psychological thriller “a breathless and engrossing must-read about the lies we tell each other --- and ourselves.” Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

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February 14, 2026

February is “the short month,” so we all are cramming meetings into a month with two or three fewer days than others. That means that we all need to read and talk faster! We have no shortage of great ideas for your book group. So get ready to take some notes!

We are kicking things off with a BIG contest.

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Kaira Rouda, author of We Were Never Friends

The sorority sisters of Theta Gamma Mu --- Roxy, Amelia, Jamie, Beth and Sunny --- have been summoned to Roxy's luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of her son to Beth's daughter. But the refurbished 1920s estate is eerily reminiscent of the hotel where tragedy struck during Spring Break 25 years ago. Long-simmering tensions and shocking secrets begin bubbling to the surface like bodies --- because while the weekend was supposed to be about celebrating the future, it's not so easy to bury the past.

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Gregg Hurwitz, author of Antihero: An Orphan X Novel

Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn. When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world, has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to help him. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid. With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his help --- and sets out finding the young men responsible. But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methods --- no vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides.

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Allegra Goodman, author of This Is Not About Us

When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives --- divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals --- their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible. THIS IS NOT ABOUT US is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters.

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Sadeqa Johnson, author of Keeper of Lost Children

Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GIs, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes. Philadelphia-born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark on a relationship that will impact their lives forever. In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all-white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity. KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN explores how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives.

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James Lee Burke, author of The Hadacol Boogie: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux’s property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter, Alafair. He encounters a local handyman who leaves cryptic notes and warns of the ghosts who roam the shores of the bayou and is targeted by a vicious New Orleans button man and gangsters from the north.

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