6 Fiction Favorites Out in Paperback This February

If you, like millions of others, read Fredrik Backman’s debut A MAN CALLED OVE, add this to your TBR pile immediately! The writing is masterly, and Backman’s characters are show-stopping. This is a book about a small community that pours its heart into its youth hockey team, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about hope, failure, coming of age, and the human spirit.

The stakes don’t get much higher than when you’re trapped in the vast void of space with only minutes of oxygen remaining. Carys and Max have nothing to hold on to but each other, and as they fall, they look back on the world they left behind. HOLD BACK THE STARS is a gripping, heart-pounding adventure that fans of David Nicholls’s ONE DAY will enjoy.

I don’t even know where to start with LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. It has been heralded as a masterpiece, won the Man Booker Prize, and affected readers across the nation. If you haven’t read it yet, the paperback release is the perfect time to pick it up. In 1862, one year into the Civil War, President Lincoln’s young son dies, and a grief-stricken Lincoln mourns his passing. From that kernel of historical truth, George Saunders develops an unforgettable and strikingly original story. At once heartbreaking and humorous, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO is a deeply moving and wildly imaginative work of fiction.

Read the full review of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO.

While the snow continues to fall, escape to summer on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island with Elin Hilderbrand’s charming novel. Though the two islands are only 11 miles from each other, they might as well be worlds apart for Harper and Tabitha Frost, identical twin sisters who look exactly alike but couldn’t be more different. This is a summer neither will soon forget, as idle gossip, secrets, and lies make their way across the islands. Pack THE IDENTICALS for your midwinter vacation, or stay home and dream of sandy beaches as you delve into this treat of a novel.

This book will sweep you up and knock you off your feet. Beginning with the explosive first line, “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her,” Liz Nugent draws an unsettling, skillfully crafted story of psychological suspense. Oliver Ryan has the perfect life, but none of his neighbors, friends, or even wife know the dark secret he hides behind his polished facade.

When the Washington Post describes a book as “dazzling and complex” with “fearlessly funny storytelling,” I sit up and listen. In the 2016 of Tom Barren’s world, technology has solved all of humanity’s problems—that is, except his broken heart. This earnest novel follows Tom as he tries to go back in time but ends up stuck in a messy and imperfect alternate reality—our version of 2016. He desperately tries to fix the mistake and make it home, but soon realizes he may have found the love of his life. Tom faces a choice: go back to his perfect and loveless life, or try to stay in our reality with his soul mate.