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Winter Reading 2016

At Bookreporter.com, we kicked off 2016 with our second annual Winter Reading Contests and Feature. We hosted a series of 24-hour contests spotlighting a book releasing this winter and gave five lucky readers a chance to win it.

Even though our contests have wrapped up, we encourage you to take a look at this year's featured titles, as these are the books you'll want to read during the winter months --- and into the warmer ones!

End-of-the-Year Contest 2015

Congratulations to the winners of our 2015 End-of-the-Year Contest! One Grand Prize winner received all 33 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2015, while 11 others won a selection of three of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2015's Bets On selections.

Mary Kubica, author of Pretty Baby

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger.

Mary Kubica, author of Pretty Baby

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger.

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

August 2015

I discovered Mary Kubica last year with her debut novel, THE GOOD GIRL, so when PRETTY BABY came my way, I was one eager reader. Now I am known as the kind of person who is not fun to watch television or go to the movies with. I am prone to saying, “I figured it out,” which makes my husband and sons crazy. Well, Kubica completely “got me” as I did not see where this story was heading.

Let me back up here. For the last few weeks on the corner by our office, there have been a number of homeless men who sit with a sign asking for money. What is interesting is that there are different men there each day, and they each have the same sign. I walk by and think that somewhere there is a camera here, and this is a social experiment to see how we are reacting. Keep this in mind as I tell you the opener of PRETTY BABY.

Week of February 1, 2016

Paperback releases for the week of February 1st include FRICTION by Sandra Brown, a gripping story of family ties and forbidden attraction; Nick Hornby's FUNNY GIRL, a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet; PRETTY BABY, a stunning psychological thriller from Mary Kubica in which a chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies; and PUBLISHING, a personal story of author Gail Godwin's hunger to be published, the pursuit of that goal, and then the long haul.