Crown of War and Shadow by J.R. WardKingdoms of the Compass #1

 

Title: Crown of War and Shadow

Series: Kingdoms of the Compass #1

Author: J.R. Ward

Publisher: Tor Publishing Group|Bramble

Release Date: February 17, 2026

An outcast burdened with a curse and a mercenary who's out for himself collide in this star-crossed, slow-burn, high-stakes romantic fantasy

In the dead of night, passions rise and empires fall.

Welcome to Kingdoms of the Compass.

The Fulcrum is failing, and demons are slipping into the mortal world, stalking the night.

No one is safe.

Especially not Sorrel. An orphan and an outcast, she’s spent her whole life within the walls of her small village, ostracized for her mystical abilities. She wants to survive…and maybe find somewhere she can call her true home. But Fate has other plans.

Sorrel has been chosen. Cursed.

She must cross the Badlands to return the Queen's crown and convince the fearsome female to save their world from destruction.

Well aware she’s no brave hero, Sorrel makes a dangerous deal with Merc, a brooding, commanding mercenary known only by his unscrupulous profession.

The deal? A night in his bed that she will never forget, in exchange for her safe passage.

But Merc has secrets of his own, and even though passion runs hot between them, enemies are around every corner, and danger and betrayal threaten at every turn.

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A fantasy novel by J.R. Ward

Sorrell is an orphan who is gifted with herbs and helps deliver babies with her abilities. The town knows what she does, but no one acknowledges it in the daylight. She has only one friend, whose health is declining. For the most part, she is an outcast who works at the local pub.

There are whispers that the Fulcrum is failing and demons are slipping into the mortal world, stalking the night and killing unsuspecting humans. If the Fulcrum fails completely, the demons will win.

Sorrell is told that she is the future. In order to preserve the Fulcrum, she must travel to the Badlands to ask for the Queen’s help. She is given a crown to take on her journey. However, Sorrell can’t do it alone. Bad things are waiting for her on the way to the Queen’s land. She enlists the help of a mercenary named Merc, who mistakes her for a prostitute and offers to help her in exchange for sleeping with him. Can she reach the Queen in time, and can she give her body to him? I guess you’ll have to read it to find out.

I love the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward, and I wanted to read The Crown of War and Shadow to immerse myself in a new world created by her. Sorrell is a determined young woman, and her character growth was well done. Merc came out of nowhere but was willing to help and protect her. The world-building was extensive and will help set up the next book in the series.

As a whole, I enjoyed this novel, but not as much as the BDB books.

Cliffhanger: Yes

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Tor Publishing Group|Bramble via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Murder at 30,000 Feet by Susan Walter

 

Title: Murder at 30,000 Feet

Author: Susan Walter

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Release Date: February 17, 2026

Under the cover of turbulence, a killer strikes. With nowhere to land and nowhere to hide, who will save the passengers from this nightmare at 30,000 feet?

It’s a ticket to paradise. Flight 868 has nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over a dozen tipsy passengers are off to a destination wedding. A team of high school baseball players is headed to a tournament. The plane is packed with people eager to escape their lives, and others who can’t wait to return to their beloved home.

But sweet anticipation turns to terror when a lightning strike short-circuits the avionics and plunges the plane into darkness. When the lights come back on, a passenger is found brutally murdered, with only a bewildered air marshal to solve the crime. He soon realizes that several passengers are harboring dark secrets, but the identity of the murderer eludes him. There’s only one The killer is on the plane.

Thousands of feet above the earth with thunderstorms closing in, the danger outside is as grave as the mounting threat within. Can the captain outrun the storm? Or will the murderer among them bring the plane down first?

Passion, betrayal, and murder collide in this high-stakes, locked-room mystery. A must-read for fans of T. J. Newman and Jeneva Rose.

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A trifecta with a side of murder!

Flight 868, nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico, is about to be in trouble.

Among the passengers are a group of high school baseball players heading to a tournament, a wedding party traveling to a destination wedding, and a grieving mother searching for answers about what happened to her son. Who ran him over and left him to die on the road? Then, the plane is struck by lightning, short-circuiting the avionics and plunging the cabin into darkness. When the lights come back on, a man has been murdered in the bathroom.

Flight 868 also has an air marshal who is dealing with a very recent breakup with a flight attendant who was supposed to be part of the crew. At the last minute, the crew was pulled due to required rest. His head was not in the game, and now someone has been murdered on his watch. He has no clue who did it. He might lose his job, but he has to figure it out before the flight ends.

Murder at 30,000 Feet is full of suspense. There are so many suspects, and at first, we aren’t given the victim's identity, but it soon becomes clear who was murdered and why. Many secrets will be revealed with a very satisfying ending.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Blackstone Publishing via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ours Is a Tale of Murder by Nora Murphy

Title: Ours Is a Tale of Murder

Author: Nora Murphy

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Release Date: February 10, 2026

One quiet neighborhood

Three different families

Bound by murder

Klara never wanted the house with the white picket fence. Troy never wanted anything else.

Nothing is quite right with this happy couple, but they fit right in. The mother in the blue house, Mary, is cleaning out her son's old room before she sells, haunted by the mistakes of her past and afraid of what her home has become. Next door, Henry, freshly laid off and back living with his parents, has plenty of time to watch everyone – especially wives. He knows something is wrong. But then nothing is quite as it seems, and sometimes you miss what is right in front of you.

Murder will soon thread its way through this world in ways no one will see coming ---unless you've been plotting all along.

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Three storylines that seem unlikely to cross paths—until they do.

Klara is a wife trapped in an abusive relationship. She meets Troy, a man who, little by little, isolates her from the world. She is a personal injury lawyer in her thirties, working toward a promotion when she meets him. Troy seems to be there for her on her bad days. He appears likable and understanding at first, but he gradually isolates her and makes her completely dependent on him.

Mary, a woman in her sixties, reminisces about the time when her only son, Owen, was just a kid and her husband was abusive toward her. In the present, she is cleaning the house she has lived in for years because she is ready to sell it.

Then there is Henry, a young man who was recently laid off and spends his time watching his neighbors—specifically the women.

Ours Is a Tale of Murder was dark and suspenseful. I was desperate to know how the storylines would connect, and when they finally did, it all made perfect sense. What a twist!

The last paragraph of the epilogue got me.

As a whole, it was a deeply satisfying read.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. JamesFell, New York

Title: A Box Full of Darkness

Series: Fell, New York

Author: Simone St. James 

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: January 20, 2026

Siblings return to the house they fled eighteen years before, called back by the ghost of their long-missing brother and his haunting request to come home.

Strange things happen in Fell, New York: A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie the final straw was their little brother's shocking disappearance, which started as a normal game of hide-and-seek.

As their parents grew increasingly distant, the sisters were each haunted by visions and frightening events, leading them to leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. Now after nearly two decades it’s time for a homecoming—because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared.

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A ghost story.

It's the 1980s, and the ghost of their brother, Ben, is calling the Esmie siblings—Violet, Vail, and Doddie—back to their childhood home in the town of Fell, New York.

Ben was six when he disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek. He was never found by the police, and each of the siblings blames themselves for his disappearance. In almost two decades, none of them has set foot in the house. They all ran away as soon as they could from a place that reminded them of their pain and the terrifying moments they survived as children.

As adults, they return together to finally uncover what truly happened to Ben.

A Box Full of Darkness is a gothic novel by Simone St. James, set in the same world as The Sun Down Motel. Between the suspense, the atmospheric setting, and the spooky factor, I had to listen to it during the day.

The novel was entertaining, but I didn’t love it as much as I loved The Sun Down Motel. Will I read the next book set in Fell? Yep, I would.

Kudos to narrators Saskia Maarveled, Ari Fliakos, and Anna Caputo for scaring me!

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Title: Mad Mabel

Author: Sally Hepworth

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: April 21, 2026

From Sally Hepworth, the New York Times bestselling author of The Soulmate and The Good Sister, comes a twist-filled, darkly funny mystery about the two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.

Meet Mad Mabel.

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?

Told with Sally Hepworth's twists, humor, charm, and heart, MAD MABEL is novel that weaves past and present together--through the power of justice and redemption, and all the way to its stunning conclusion.

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Another success in my book!

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old when her past comes back to haunt her.

Elsie was minding her own business when the girl next door tried to strike up a conversation with her. The young girl, Persephone, needs to complete a homework assignment that involves talking to an older person, and Elsie fits the bill. At the same time, it turns out that Elsie’s neighbor hasn’t been seen for a while, and packages are piling up at his front door. Elsie decides to investigate and finds his dead body. Soon, the cops are swarming the scene.

Was it foul play? Was he murdered? And who is Mad Mabel?

We learn from Elsie that, as a child, her mother owned a large property that her father fell in love with. They got married and had Mabel. But Mabel’s life was never easy. Her parents lacked warmth toward her, and her life only became more difficult from there.

Quite an interesting novel with a memorable main character. It’s painful at times, and I won’t lie—some tears might have come out at the end.

I’m a fan of Sally Hepworth. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Half City by Kate GoldenHarker Academy #1

 

Title: Half City

Series: Harker Academy #1

Author: Kate Golden

Publisher: Ace

Release Date: February 17, 2026

Welcome to Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. Keep your daggers sharp, and your wits even sharper.

Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesn’t even like in the hopes of winning her prickly mother’s approval.

She just also happens to be a demon hunter.

Ever since her father's murder, she's been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider. . . . Until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she'll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.

But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about. Not when the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv's father’s death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, and fast. All while trying to ace her classes, not fall for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

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Since her father’s murder, Viv Abbot has been hunting deviants alone for over a decade in the streets of Astera. Then, at twenty-one, she learns she can join the Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. She is told about the school by a reformed deviant named Reid Graveheart.

Viv’s first instinct is to kill Reid, but as the weeks of defense training with him go by and she sees him in action, she begins to see a different side of him. Yes, he has taken many souls in his life, but at least he is now helping hunters become better at killing the truly evil ones.

When one of her classmates goes missing, Viv begins investigating with the help of her new friends. They are told that the girl quit school overnight, but that doesn’t add up—she loved being there. Was she taken for nefarious purposes, and if so, what is the endgame? Viv doesn’t know who is behind the strange things happening at the academy, but she knows it can’t be good.

A strong first installment with a solid plot, interesting world-building, and engaging characters. The ending leaves you with so many questions about what is really happening. I really liked the secondary characters—Elliot, Sophie, and Penny all stand out as trustworthy and memorable.

There’s also romance in the air. There’s the tension between Viv and Reid, but I’m also intrigued by the owner of the club. I wonder if something will come of that.

The second book is coming out in October, and I'm excited to read it.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Ace via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

And Now, Back to You by B.K. BorisonHeartstrings #2

 

Title: And Now, Back to You

Series: Heartstrings #2

Author: B.K. Borison

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group 

Release Date: February 24, 2026 

Two competing meteorologists are forced to find common ground in this opposites attract, When Harry Met Sally inspired romance, from New York Times bestselling author B.K. Borison.

Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they’re partnered against their will to cover the snowstorm of the century, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together.

Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal. If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With an undiscovered chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship.

But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains, stay in the mountains?

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This was a cute opposites-attract trope romance.

Delilah Stewart is a meteorologist at the local TV station. She does funny pieces—sometimes wearing a turtle costume—but she always has a smile on her face. She loves her grandfather, who raised her after her mother decided that playing an instrument in Europe was more important than being a mother. Unfortunately, her grandfather has dementia, and watching her do her weather segments is what keeps him from forgetting her, since he always tunes in to the weather on TV.

Jackson Clark is a meteorologist too, but for the local radio station. He’s all about organization, schedules, and calendars. He also took on the responsibility of raising his twin sisters at a young age. His mother was always on the go and never really cared for him when he was a kid, so he knew he had to step up to prevent that uncertainty from happening to his sisters. Lately, their mother has been trying to reach out to get more involved in the girls’ lives, but Jackson isn’t sure he wants that to happen.

Then Jackson and Delilah are sent to cover the snowstorm of the decade, and they’ll have to share more than the spotlight. At first, they’re not sure they can survive it when they’re so different, but as they get to know each other, they start caring about what the other one wants and realize the other person isn’t what they thought.

And Now, Back to You was a cute romance. It was easy to like both main characters. They were both products of their upbringings, but they showed resilience instead of bitterness.

Bonus points to B.K. Borison for showing us that the characters from the first book were still happily in love.

Would I read the next novel? Of course—I can't wait.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.