If you’re new to Hide Your Wallet, this is where we list new releases we’re pretty excited for in the coming month.
Each reviewer has a book maximum (five per person), and we’ve separated HYW into two parts. The first HYW of the month will cover books that release from the 1st to the 14th. The second HYW will cover books released from the 15th to the end of the month.
We also think this will help us feature books from smaller publishers who don’t have buy links up as early as the bigger trade houses.
As always, if we missed any books that you’re particularly looking forward to, tell us all about them in the comments.
-
Artfully Yours
Author: Joanna Lowell
Released: February 21, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, RomanceSparks fly between a lordly art critic and a lady forger in this enthralling Victorian historical romance from the author of The Runaway Duchess.
Nina Finch isn’t suited for a life of crime. Raised by her art-forger brother, she can paint like Botticelli. But she’d so much rather be baking gooseberry tarts. She finally has the money she needs to open her own bakery. Unfortunately, her brother’s carelessness lands her—and their forgeries—directly under the nose of London’s most discerning art critic, Alan De’Ath. De’Ath knows the paintings are fake. He doesn’t know that Nina had a hand in their creation. In fact, he offers her a job in his household. Accepting it is the most dangerous thing she has ever done….
Alan takes pride in seeing things other people miss. He plans to catch the forger and cement his reputation. There’s only one problem: the closer he gets to the beguiling woman he hired, the less he trusts his perspective. Nina isn’t what she seems. But despite their false start, she just might hold the real key to his heart.
As Nina and Alan’s attraction grows, divided loyalties threaten to pull them apart and shatter their worlds. They’ll lose everything, or discover how powerful true love can be…
Amanda: An art forger heroine!
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
For Her Consideration
Author: Amy Spalding
Released: February 28, 2023 by Kensington Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceWhen an aspiring L.A. scriptwriter falls head-over-heels for a bossy and beautiful movie star after a devastating break-up, the two take a risk on love and cast themselves as the leading ladies of their own star-struck romance in this sweet and spirited love story from critically-acclaimed writer Amy Spalding in her adult debut.
A funny, flirty, and heartwarming novel about bad breakups, found families, and embracing life. A moving love story sure to appeal to fans of Casey McQuiston and Meryl Wilsner.
Since a crushing breakup three years ago, Nina Rice has written romance, friends, her dreams of scriptwriting for TV, and even L.A. proper out of her life. Instead, she’s safely out in the suburbs in her aunt’s condo working her talent agency job from home, managing celebrity email accounts, and certain that’s plenty of writing–and plot–for her life. But a surprise meeting called by Ari Fox, a young actress on everyone’s radar, stirs up all kinds of feelings Nina thought she’d deleted for good…Ari is sexy, out and proud, and a serious control freak, according to Nina’s boss. She has her own ideas about how Nina should handle her emails–and about getting to know her ghostwriter. When she tells Nina she should be writing again, Nina suddenly finds it less scary to revisit her abandoned life than seriously consider that Ari is flirting with her. Between reconnecting with her old crew and working on a new script, a relationship with a movie star seems like something she’ll definitely mess up–but what could be more worth the risk?
“I loved how joyful, how thoughtful, and how real For Her Consideration was. . . . Amy Spalding made me adore Nina and her friends, fall in love with Nina and Ari, and want to live in their world forever.” —New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory
Elyse: As always, I am a sucker for celebrity romance.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
The Magician’s Daughter
Author: H.G. Parry
Released: February 28, 2023 by Redhook
Genre: Historical: European, Science Fiction/FantasyIt is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known.
Orphaned in a shipwreck as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. He himself leaves almost every night, transforming into a raven and flying to the mainland, and never tells her where or why he goes.
One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. When Biddy ventures into his nightmares to rescue him, she learns not only where he goes every night, but the terrible things that happened in the last days of magic that caused Rowan to flee to Hy-Brasil. Rowan has powerful enemies who threaten the safety of the island. Biddy’s determination to protect her home and her guardian takes her away from the safety of Hy-Brasil, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world.
Sarah: A secret island with magic, and an orphan who has to find her magician guardian when he fails to return home one night? OK!
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Scorched Grace
Author: Margot Douaihy
Released: February 21, 2023 by Gillian Flynn Books
Genre: LGBTQIA, Mystery/ThrillerSister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this debut crime novel.
When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding community are thrust into chaos. Unsatisfied with the officials’ response, sardonic and headstrong Sister Holiday becomes determined to unveil the mysterious attacker herself and return her home and sanctuary to its former peace. Her investigation leads down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets in the sticky, oppressive New Orleans heat, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way.
Sister Holiday is more faithful than most, but she’s no saint. To piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must first reckon with the sins of her checkered past-and neither task will be easy.
An exciting start to Margot Douaihy’s bold series for Gillian Flynn Books that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Amanda: A badass crime-solving nun is everything I didn’t know I needed.
Shana: I want to read this so badly!
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Best Served Hot
Author: Amanda Elliot
Released: February 21, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceTwo restaurant critics learn their opposing tastes might make for a five-star relationship in the next foodie romantic comedy from the author of Sadie on a Plate.
By day, Julie Zimmerman works as an executive assistant. After hours, she’s @JulieZeeEatsNYC, a social media restaurant reviewer with over fifty thousand followers. As much as she loves her self-employed side gig, what Julie really wants is to be a critic at a major newspaper, like the New York Scroll. The only thing worse than the Scroll’s rejection of her application is the fact that smarmy, social-media-averse society boy Bennett Richard Macalester Wright snagged her dream job.
While at the Central Park Food Festival, Julie confronts the annoyingly handsome Bennett about his outdated opinions on social media and posts the resulting video footage. Julie’s follower count soars—and so does the Scroll’s. Julie and Bennett grudgingly agree to partner up for a few reviews to further their buzz. Online buzz, obviously.
Over tapas, burgers, and more, Julie and Bennett connect over their shared love of food. But when the competitive fire between them turns extra spicy, they’ll have to decide how much heat their relationship can take.
Amanda: Back on my foodie romance bullshit.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Wolfish
Author: Erica Berry
Released: February 21, 2023 by Flatiron Books
Genre: NonfictionAn original and probing debut work of nonfiction by a brilliant new writer, rooted in her years-long quest to study the cultural legacy of the wolf
In this enthralling, kaleidoscopic exploration of wolves both real and symbolic, Erica Berry weaves historic and scientific findings alongside criticism, journalism, and memoir to illuminate the strands of our cultural constructions of predator and prey, and what it means to navigate a world in which we can be both.
From 17th-century Europeans referring to mysterious bodily sores as wolves, to contemporary xenophobia about wolves crossing national borders, wolves have long been made to carry our most entrenched sociopolitical, environmental, and bodily fears. Intimate and thought-provoking, Wolfish is a lyrical inquiry into the relationship between humans and wolves, anchored in the dual stories of one legendary tagged wolf, OR-7, and the author.
Charting OR-7’s long-distance solo journey after he leaves his pack in northeastern Oregon beside the author’s own roaming trajectory away from her Oregon home, Wolfish wrestles with inherited narratives around fear, danger, and the body. From her grandfather’s sheep farm to a wolf sanctuary on an aristocratic English estate, Erica Berry untangles binaries of predator and prey, self and other, and wild and domestic, finding new expressions for how to be a brave woman, human, and animal in our warming world.
Perfect for readers of cultural criticism, environmental writing, Rebecca Solnit, H is for Hawk, or anybody trying to navigate a world that is often scary. A timely and necessary book for current and future generations.
Aarya: I’ve been on a streak of nature nonfiction lately, so this is perfect.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Of Love and Forge
Author: Carly Spade
Released: February 27, 2023
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Beyond a Contemporary Mythos #1The god of the forge…
Life was good in the Neosphere District. I’d made a name for myself as a renowned supernatural bounty hunter, holding the record for most harpies slayed. But the best part about living in the future? Avoiding the other Olympian gods. Banishing a guy from Olympus because he was “imperfect” tends to make one hold a grudge. Go figure. And no other god possessed the means to time travel. But I did. Thanks to the portal hopping device I forged.
Yup. Life. Was. Grand
Until a bounty popped up on a certain love goddess. Aphrodite and I had been friends since we were wee gods. I’d be lying to myself if I never thought our “innocent” flirting banter were real on occasion—kidding myself if I said I never wanted things to go beyond platonic. Hence, why I recently kept my distance. For my own sanity. So, of course, I made the grave mistake of taking the godsdamned bounty.
The goddess of love…
Since reconciling with my son Eros, after centuries of bad mojo, I’d decided it was time to clean up my act. Ride the straight and narrow. My companion service, Sans Solo, became just the ticket I needed. And it allowed me to use my powers in disguise in modern California under the name Vena Milo.
With the aid of my best friends, and fellow goddesses, the Graces, we ran a legitimate business. All was right in the world.
Until the volcano god showed up. Hephaistos. Heph—a lifelong friend who never failed to confuse me mind, body, and soul. Especially when he showed up with a magical pair of handcuffs. His audacity pissed me off, but the mere sight of him, the smell of him, made my stomach flutter. That…I couldn’t deny. And when Heph’s plan goes to Tartarus things got even dicier and we became…the hunted.
-A cyberpunk fantasy Hephaestus x Aphrodite romance that defies myth but answers true love’s call-
Amanda: I’ll always give mythology a peep.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
A Day of Fallen Night
Author: Samantha Shannon
Released: February 28, 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Roots of ChaosThe stunning, standalone prequel to the New York Times bestselling The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Intricate and epic, Samantha Shannon sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.
A standalone prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
The Neighbor Favor
Author: Kristina Forest
Released: February 28, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceIn this heart-fluttering romance by Kristina Forest, a shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he’s the obscure author she’s been corresponding with.
Shy, bookish, and admittedly awkward, Lily Greene has always felt inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family, who strive for Black excellence. She dreams of becoming an editor of children’s books but has been frustratingly stuck in the nonfiction division for years without a promotion in sight. Lily finds escapism in her correspondences with her favorite fantasy author, and what begins as two lonely people connecting over e-mail turns into a tentative friendship and possibly something else Lily won’t let herself entertain–until he ghosts her.
Months later, still crushed but determined to take charge of her life, Lily seeks a date to her sister’s wedding. And the perfect person to help her is Nick Brown, her charming, attractive new neighbor, whom she feels drawn to for unexplainable reasons. Little does she know that Nick is an author–her favorite fantasy author.
Nick, who has his reasons for using a pen name and for pushing people away, soon realizes that the beautiful, quiet woman from down the hall is the same Lily he fell in love with over e-mail months ago. Unwilling to complicate things even more between them, he agrees to set her up with someone else, though this simple favor between two neighbors is anything but–not when he can’t get her off his mind.
Elyse: This just sounds tropey and delightful: a bookworm heroine who doesn’t realize her neighbor is the author she’s corresponding with.
Aarya: I love Forest’s YA so I’m excited to try her adult romance debut.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
I’m looking forward to Lucy Score’s “Things We Hide From The Light”. Her books are hit-and-miss for me, but the first one in the series, “Things We Never Got Over,” was one of the hits. Not without issues, but a good read regardless.
The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly. New fantasy series by Hambly, who is one of my favorite authors.
Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelley Armstrong: Next in the Rockton series!
Sooo ready for the cartoony romance book cover trend to be over.
Fun and light, super angsty, sexy, tame, small town, paranormal, contemporary, historical…? DOESN’T MATTER, ‘EM ALL CARTOONS!
Intrigued by “Of Love and Forge”—at least partly because it doesn’t have the same cover style as 80% of other romances published recently (and let’s not forget another 10% are Regency romances trying to look like Bridgerton…).
I read an ARC of SCORCHED GRACE and loved it. Sister Holiday will stay with me for a long time.
Just pre-ordered Wolfish. Thank you for the heads up!
@Elizabeth: Lucky you and I am delighted you loved SCORCHED GRACE, one of my most anticipated reads (along with Kelley Armstrong’s next Rockton book). THE NEIGHBOR FAVOR SOUNDS like perfection, really looking forward to that.
There was a brief but very positive review of SCORCHED GRACE in the NY Times book review this past Sunday. Sister Holiday has been at the convent for a year and is not most people’s idea of a nun: “Not that I knew what to make of a nun like me – gold tooth from a bar fight, black scarf and gloves concealing my tattoos, my black roots pushing through badly bleached hair.” All it took was that description and I put the book on reserve at the library. Very much looking forward to reading it.
For Her Consideration was perfectly okay; the rest are on my TBR and I desperately need to read Best Served Hot.
I think I read somewhere by that cartoonish covers are cheaper to produce