February 17th New Releases

Buckle up, besties! February 17th is going to pack a big punch with some seriously stellar new releases. We've got claustrophobic terror, amnesic dread, an ice-covered castle (very seasonally appropriate here in NE Ohio), forbidden storytelling, and "you're-chasing-the-wrong-guy" romance. Let's dive in!

Her Last Breath - Taylor Adams

Goodreads ratings- 4.62/5 with 350 Ratings

This is claustrophobic, terrifying, and emotionally unhinged in exactly the way Taylor Adams

does best.

Tess and Alma used to be inseparable. Now their lives couldn’t look more different. Alma is a confident, take-no-shit travel influencer living a life that looks perfect on the internet. Tess is shy, struggling, claustrophobic, and trying to survive law school while barely keeping her head above water. There’s love there, but also jealousy, resentment, and that quiet comparison that happens when your lives go in opposite directions.

So when Tess finally agrees to go caving with Alma, it already feels like a bad idea. And not in a fun way. In a “why would you tempt fate like this” way.

Deep underground, things go wrong fast. A stranger appears. He’s aggressive. He’s unsettling. Alma, being Alma, doesn’t back down. And then he retaliates. Suddenly Tess is trapped in a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet below the surface, fighting panic, darkness, and her own body just to stay alive.

That alone would be enough for a nightmare story.

But then we jump forward twenty-four hours. Tess is in the hospital. She’s survived. She’s telling her story. And the detective starts revealing things about Alma that don’t add up. Secrets. A past that Tess didn’t fully know. A possibility that this wasn’t random at all.

So now it’s not just survival horror. It’s betrayal. It’s identity. It’s realizing you might not have known your best friend the way you thought you did.

Who was Alma really? Why were they targeted? And is Tess actually safe now that she’s escaped the cave?

This feels like No Exit energy but underground and personal. Tight spaces. Rising panic. Psychological tension layered on top of physical survival. And that slow, sick realization that the danger might not be over just because you made it out alive.

I will be reading this while holding my breath and questioning all my friendships.

When I Kill You - B.A. Paris

Goodreads Ratings- 3.7/5 with 1,436 ratings

This one is pure psychological paranoia and I love that for us.

Nell Masters is convinced someone is watching her. The kind of watching that makes your skin crawl. Silent phone calls. That feeling when you’re walking alone and your instincts start screaming. A massive bouquet of flowers with no card, which is either romantic or deeply threatening and there is no in-between.

And the thing is… Nell has a reason to be afraid.

Because Nell isn’t even her real name.

Fourteen years ago, she was Elle Nugent. And she witnessed something she never forgot. A girl named Bryony Sanders getting into a stranger’s car. When Bryony was later found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who did it, and that obsession followed her into dangerous territory. Fixation. Accusations. A line crossed that can’t be uncrossed.

Now she’s built a new life. A new name. A new relationship. A fresh start that only works if the past stays buried. Except the past never stays buried in thrillers. It just waits.

So now the question becomes: Is someone from her old life closing in? Has her secret finally been uncovered? Or is she projecting guilt and fear onto shadows?

And then there’s Alex. Her new partner. Who also has secrets. Because of course he does. At this point, I trust no one in a B.A. Paris novel, and that is exactly how it should be.

This feels like classic domestic thriller energy. Quiet dread. Unreliable memory. The terror of not knowing if you’re in danger or losing your grip on reality. The slow unraveling of a woman who knows she’s not as innocent as she looks.

Is Nell being stalked? Or has the stalker become the hunted?

Either way, this is giving tension, secrets, and that creeping “nothing is safe” feeling that B.A. Paris does so well.

The Sun and the Starmaker - Rachel Griffin

Goodreads Ratings- 4.36/5 with 311 Ratings

This is the kind of fantasy that feels like a fairytale you would’ve loved as a kid, and then grew up and realized it was actually about longing, sacrifice, and devastating love.

There’s a village so far north it barely knows the Sun. Reverie survives on a miracle. Every single morning, the Starmaker crosses a massive glacier and drags sunlight over the mountains so the village can live. That alone is already romantic and tragic and unreasonably beautiful.

Aurora Finch grew up hearing stories about him like he was a legend. A myth. A necessary kind of magic. She never thought she’d meet him. And then on the literal morning of her wedding, fate says “absolutely not” and drops her straight into his world.

Because the Starmaker senses magic in her. Powerful magic. Magic that might be tied to the survival of the entire village. So instead of getting married, Aurora gets swept away to an ice-covered castle at the peak of the mountain to study under a cold, distant, emotionally unavailable sorcerer. As one does.

He’s mysterious. He’s guarded. He’s carrying secrets heavy enough to freeze the air around him. And Aurora is left wandering his enchanted castle with nothing but an immortal rabbit for company, slowly realizing that whatever he’s hiding could destroy everything.

The tension here is delicious. Ruined attraction. Secrets. A slow pull toward something dangerous and inevitable.

And the stakes are real. A deadly frost is coming. If Aurora doesn’t uncover the truth, she could be trapped in an endless winter that not even the Sun can reach. That line alone made my chest hurt a little.

This feels whimsical and sweeping and soft on the surface, but underneath it is about responsibility, sacrifice, and what it costs to keep the world warm for everyone else. It’s romance with a fairytale heart and a tragedy lurking right behind it.

If you like magical realism, icy settings, slow-burn tension, and stories that feel like folklore written for people who crave emotional damage, this one is going to hit.

The Lies That Summon The Night - Tessonja Odette

Goodreads Rating- 4.38/5 with 338 Ratings

This is sinful, seductive, and morally messy in exactly the way I want my romantasy to be.

In this world, art is a crime. Not controversial. Not restricted. Literally forbidden.

Because art created monsters.

Bloodthirsty shadows were born from creativity, and now anyone with talent is hunted and sacrificed to the Sinless, immortal royals who drink human blood in exchange for their “protection.” Which already feels like a deal made by people who definitely did not read the fine print.

So Inana survives by hiding. She tells stories in the shadows of the city to thrill-seekers who crave forbidden fiction. It’s dangerous. It’s illegal. It almost got her killed once, and she refuses to let that happen again. Until Dominic walks in.

Dominic is a Shadowbane. A monster hunter. Half-Sinless himself, which automatically makes him morally complicated and dangerously hot. And unfortunately, he needs her. Because to hunt shadows, he needs an artist to summon them. He needs Inana’s forbidden magic.

So he gives her an ultimatum. Serve him or he turns her in and claims her bounty.

Romantic. Truly.

Now they’re bound together in a tense alliance full of betrayal waiting to happen. She plans to use him and run. He plans to use her and complete his mission. Neither plans to care. And we all know how that goes.

This is enemies to lovers but make it dangerous. Forced proximity. Forbidden magic. Power imbalance. Creative rebellion. And attraction that feels like it could collapse the world.

Also the idea that making art is sinful? That alone is feral. Creativity as rebellion. Storytelling as survival. Desire as something even more dangerous than monsters.

“From the art of liars, the monsters came” is the kind of line that lives in my head rent free.

This feels like:

Dark romantasy

Morally gray leads

Sinful power dynamics

Seduction mixed with survival

And a heroine whose existence is an act of defiance

I will be thinking about this one long after I close the book.

The Ex-Perimento - Maria J Morillo

Goodreads Ratings- 4.25/5 with 76 Ratings

This is a rom-com with chaos, heart, and bad ideas that somehow turn into even worse feelings. I’m obsessed already.

Marianto Camacho is a planner. Like, life-color-coded, future-mapped-out, proposal-expecting kind of planner. She has the boyfriend. The job. The timeline. Everything is on track… until it absolutely isn’t. In one brutal overnight spiral, she loses both her long-term boyfriend and her job. Which is rude. And illegal in my opinion.

So naturally, instead of spiraling quietly, she decides to spiral creatively.

She comes up with The Ex-Perimento. A series of romantic “experiments” designed to win her ex back, all documented as a juicy article that will hopefully get her job at Ellas back too. Is it genius? Is it unhinged? The answer is yes.

But bills still exist, so Marianto takes a temporary job as a personal assistant on Venezuela’s hottest new singing competition show. And who does she get assigned to? Simón Arreaza. Lead singer of her favorite indie band. Actual real-life crush. The universe has jokes.

By day two, Simón finds her list of romantic experiments and immediately decides they’re terrible. Which is bold. But instead of exposing her, he rewrites them. Makes them better. Smarter. More romantic. And suddenly Marianto is in a deal she did not emotionally prepare for.

Help her win back Alejandro, and she’ll give Simón’s band a major profile once she gets back into Ellas.

What could go wrong?

Except they’re in close quarters. They start bonding. The lines blur. And the man helping her win back her ex might be the one she’s actually falling for.

This is sparkling, messy, and full of that rom-com tension where you’re yelling at the page because she is trying to get the wrong man back. It’s about plans unraveling, about letting go of the future you scripted, and realizing that maybe the best love stories are the ones you never scheduled.

Fake dating energy without actually calling it fake dating. Music industry setting. Forced proximity. Chaotic romance. And a heroine who needs to stop chasing the past and start paying attention to what’s right in front of her.

I already know this is going to be charming, funny, and quietly emotional in the way the best romantic comedies are.

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This lineup is pure emotional chaos in the best way. Survival horror, psychological paranoia, fairytale heartbreak, sinful romantasy, and rom-com messiness all in one place. If 2026 is bringing this kind of energy, we are absolutely not emotionally safe… and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With love,

Tiffany