Ah, February, when the Hallmark stores, train station florists, mass produced chocolate makers, and jewelers everywhere rake it in. But what about the books? They have V-Day well covered too. From mothers to daughters and sisters to disloyal friends and lousy house guests, there is a book here for you this month.
Sophie Ward, The Schoolhouse
(Vintage)
The Schoolhouse was an experimental school in the 1970s. The children were given room to roam and indulge the worst of childhood’s impulses, especially as they turn on each other. Now a librarian with an austere and quiet life, Isobel is still in the grips of what happened in the Schoolhouse. When her childhood nightmares come to life again, Isobel has to defend her quiet life. Ward’s book is skillful and surprising, and the formal risks Ward takes by integrating Isobel’s childhood journal entries helps to tie fears past and present.
Rachel Koller Croft, Stone Cold Fox
(Berkeley)
Koller’s debut deserves to be big—Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood big, Samantha Downing’s My Lovely Wife big, Liv Constantine’s The First Mrs. Parrish big. Of all those books, it resembles Constantine’s most closely: the story of a poor girl on the grift in a rich man’s world is embodying a universal truth (see William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady, or Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth for the high-class version of this story). Croft gives us a delicious heroine in Bea (definitely not her real name), whose ambitions in her job at a much-feared PR firm are only outmatched by her pursuit of Collin Case. Case is high born and bred, the member of a circle of elites who look down on marrying outside of the clique. Will Bea defeat the machinations of her boyfriend’s childhood best friend, the frumpy, nosy, and wily Gale Wallace-Leicester to keep her from her beloved and his bank account? Don’t bet against Croft’s stone cold fox.
Robin Yeatman, Bookworm
(Harper Perennial)
Bookworm is catnip for a book critic—it’s a shiny gift with a big bow; it’s free shrimp; it’s your tenth cup of coffee on the card so you order the most decadent and least coffee-like thing on the menu. It’s a book about a woman, Victoria, who likes to read books. She really likes to read them now, as her life is less than ideal. Her husband is a workaholic lawyer. Her job blows. She hates her in-laws and isn’t too crazy about her best friend. A man she spots in the cafe where she goes to read and daydream becomes a fixation, and Victoria is faced with the challenge of getting rid of her husband. But books will surely show her the way to the happiness she deserves, won’t they?
Hank Phillippi Ryan, The House Guest
(Forge)
In another anti-Valentine’s day February book, Allyssa Macallen has split with her wealthy husband, who has left her broke and very bitter. But Alyssa has made a new friend, Bree Lorrance, and offers Bree the use of her guest house. The women become close quickly, and it does not take long for Bree to suggest to Alyssa that they can help each other out. Ryan is a pro, and House Guest is a very polished thriller.
Zoje Stage, Mothered
(Thomas & Mercer)
Stage’s problem is that her debut, Baby Teeth, was so singular and taut. Her subsequent books, Wonderland and Getaway, don’t have the same power as Baby. Mothered is not quite a return to form but it’s a cringey fun read: Grace allows her mother, Jackie, to move in her when Jackie is suddenly widowed and the pandemic leads to Grace losing her job. Is this Odd Couple territory? Or Single Mom Female? Closer to the latter, as it turns out. Jackie does not look kindly on Grace’s number one hobby, catfishing people. And Grace is reminded about just how menacing her mother can be.
