6 Fantastic Novels New in Paperback This February

Lisa Genova has a special talent for blending fact and fiction. She tells stories with heart and hope that remain based in scientific truth. You may know her work from her previous bestselling novels like STILL ALICE and INSIDE THE O’BRIENS. In EVERY NOTE PLAYED, we meet accomplished concert pianist Richard, who now has ALS and is quickly losing control of his body. For someone like Richard, to whom each finger on his hand was a carefully calibrated instrument, the gradual loss of movement is devastating. For his ex-wife, Karina, Richard’s disease is a chance to find forgiveness in herself. She reluctantly becomes his caretaker and their journey together heads in a new direction. The February Book Club Favorites pick, this novel is masterful in its exploration of redemption.

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If you love stories about siblings or stories that explore the enigmatic afterlife—this is your book. Truly fun to read, this unique and unusual novel asks: What would you do if you knew the day you would die? This Jewish American family saga is about four siblings whose lives are changed by a fortune teller and whose fates are intertwined forever more. Magic, logic, and emotion figure into a story that covers several decades and allows readers to know a fictional family as well, or perhaps better, than they know their own.

The rollicking first installment of Tom Miller’s Philosophers series, THE PHILOSOPHER’S FLIGHT is an epic historical fantasy set in a World War I–era America where magic and science have blended into a single extraordinary art. We’re not kidding when we say this genre-bending novel has something for everyone in your book club: historical fiction, sci-fi, romance . . . At once a fantastical reimagining of American history and a beautifully composed coming-of-age tale, THE PHILOSOPHER’S FLIGHT is for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

We promise that you’ve never read a historical mystery quite like Ariel Lawhon’s I WAS ANASTASIA. When a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Anastasia Romanov—presumed killed by a firing squad in 1918—comes forward with memories and claims that she is the lost princess, a suspenseful story of twists and turns unravels. The novel alternates between Anna trying to argue her case before Romanov relatives and Russian courts, and a young Anastasia as she’s held captive by the Bolsheviks. The result, as the two narratives collide, is a page-turning, brain-bending, addictive tale of fact and fiction that will have you wondering if history has actually got it wrong.

Read the full review of I WAS ANASTASIA.

Among the most terrifying books in the Stephen King library, we’re equally excited and anxious to see this novel come to life on film this April. When the Creeds—along with their friendly family cat—move into a beautiful old house in idyllic rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true. But the nearby woods hide a bone-chilling truth, more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.

“My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.” If that first sentence doesn’t hook you, I don’t know what will. From the internationally bestselling author of UNRAVELING OLIVER, LYING IN WAIT is a propulsive thriller about a Dublin family whose dark secrets and twisted relationships are suddenly revealed.