Y’all know I’m almost always late with getting my ARC reviews up prior to the book being released so I thought it might be fun to do a try a chapter with the six books that I have early copies of that come out in February so we can both get some idea of what the book will be like. So the six books that I have from Netgalley are Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray, Get Lost with You by Sophie Sullivan, Maya & Natasha by Elyse Dunham, On Her Terms by Amy Spalding, Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis, and The Other March Sisters by Liz Parker, Linda Epstein, and Ally Malinenko.
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Ooh, okay, so the first chapter of Harlem Rhapsody has me sucked in. I am always nervous about historical fiction because I’m always convinced the writing will be too brain-y for me, as though I’m not perfectly capable of reading in my first language. I mean, truly. Anyway, Harlem Rhapsody sucked me in immediately. I found myself wanting to continue on to chapter two and was kind of aggravated that I can’t because that’s not the purpose of the tag! Essentially in chapter one, we meet Jessie, her mom, and Dr. DuBois. Jessie and her mom are moving to Harlem and Dr. DuBois meets them at the brownstone… Turns out, Jessie and Dr. DuBois are having an affair, despite his marriage to someone else. And, there’s the bit about the newspaper, The Crisis. I’m really excited to come back to this one!
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Maya & Natasha
by Elyse Dunham
Well. I read the full prologue and half of the first chapter of Maya & Natasha. It starts off with the day of Maya and Natasha’s birth (they’re twins) and their mother took her own life quite promptly after their birth. Like an hour or so later. They’re then raised by a woman who was in love (silently) with their mom and then in chapter one, we reunite with the girls as they’re on their way to ballet school for their final year at the academy. I’m not obsessed with the writing style, but I am really looking forward to the overall story. I can already tell that the sister bond is going to be something with a lot of tension but also love for one another and I’m really excited about that aspect.
Release Date: February 18, 2025
The Other March Sisters
by Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, and Liz Parker
The Other March Sisters is not set up how I imagined it to be in my head. Rather, it appears based on the table of contents that we will start with Amy in London, then once we’ve visited with Amy, move to Meg, then on to Beth, and then finish out the book with an Amy redux. I do like that we’re starting in London, rather than when the girls were quite young. And I’m intrigued and am enjoying the writing. I wanted to keep going in the book, definitely, which is always a good sign.
Release Date: February 25, 2025
Wooing the Witch Queen
by Stephanie Burgis
I think we’ve found the ARC where I’m absolutely going to need an audiobook to read it. There’s just something about fantasy worlds and words that make my eyes glaze over. Getting through the world-building part of a fantasy novel is my least favorite part. That said, the set up is basically that Felix knows his father-in-law wants to kill him to seize power and then his FIL and his brother have a conversation in front of him that results in Felix discovering that there’s at least one person/place that isn’t intimidated by FIL. That is the witch queen’s domain. So now, he just has to figure out how to get there. I’m intrigued but not loving it, but I also think that this book actually did require more brain power than I have available in this moment so an audiobook is seeming even more appealing.
Release Date: February 18, 2025
Get Lost with You
by Sophie Sullivan
I’m really excited about this book based on the fact that I really liked book one in this interconnected standalone series. However, I’ll be honest, Chapter One didn’t do much for me. It didn’t turn me off the book, it just also didn’t make me really excited about picking it up either.
Release Date: February 11, 2025
On Her Terms
by Amy Spalding
On the bright side, I made it to the final book of this post before I broke the rules and read two chapters. I can fall into Spalding’s contemporaries so easily. Essentially, this is about a woman who just broke up with her long-term boyfriend because she realized he wanted to get married and have kids and she… did not. She’s bisexual and she decides to explore that part of her a little more and so she finds herself googling gay bars near her. Whilst headed to said bar, she runs into our other main character and the two of them hit it off pretty immediately and exchange numbers. I’m very much enjoying the first two chapters I’ve read so far and fully anticipate enjoying the full book!
Closing Thoughts
Are you going to pick up any February new release? If so, let me know which! And also, if you have any tips about how you pick your next read when you are not full of much of an attention span, please share them!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 