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The rest of my February books, and a few for March! Overall, a better batch than last time, but alas, a DNF!

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Future’s Edge by Gareth L. Powell
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid

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Clik here to view. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Published by Bramble on February 25, 2025
Pages: 448
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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DELUXE EDITION—a beautiful hardcover edition featuring turquoise sprayed edges, a foil stamp on the casing, and custom endpapers.

The delightful charm of The Princess Bride meets the delicious bodyguard romance of From Blood and Ash in this cozy fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher

Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.

While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it—and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.

Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.

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Swordheart stole my entire heart. I did not expect it to, but wow, it did. I mean of course I thought I’d enjoy it, it’s T. Kingfisher after all, but I did not expect to absolutely adore it as much as I did- so much so, in fact, that I had to pre-order it. It’s driving itself to my house as we speak type. This is basically the definition of romantasy, before romantasy even called itself that. (Shoutout to Bramble for re-releasing it, for 2018 Shannon would have never noticed it, while 2025 Shannon devoured it.)

What’s there to say? It’s definitely on the cozier end of the spectrum, and the romance is a big focus (though not the whole focus, which I appreciated). I adored Halla, and felt a real connection to her, and the side characters were the best. The snark and banter was 1000% on point, as always. Sarkis is a wonderful love interest too, and I enjoyed his backstory. And look, the book is perhaps a wee bit longer than it needed to be, but I was having so much fun that it hardly mattered. It is charming, and so downright funny, I could not put it down!

Bottom Line: Amazing characters, a great story, a ton of fun. What more can you ask for?

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Clik here to view. Future's Edge by Gareth L. Powell
Published by Titan Books on February 25, 2025
Pages: 352
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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A gripping and heartfelt horror-tinged space adventure from the BSFA award-winning author of Stars and Bones and Embers of War. Readers of James S.A. Corey and Becky Chambers will love this fast-paced story of space piracy, deadly alien artifacts and a race to save what is left of humanity.

When archaeologist Ursula Morrow accidentally infects herself with an alien parasite, she fears she may have jeopardised her career. However, her concerns become irrelevant when Earth is destroyed, billions die, and suddenly no one needs archaeologists anymore…

Two years later, she’s plucked from a refugee camp on a backwater world and tasked with retrieving the artifact that infected her, as it just might hold the key to humanity’s survival. With time running short, and the planet housing the weapon now situated in hostile territory, she realises she’s going to have to commit an act of desperate piracy if she’s going to achieve her objective before the enemy’s final onslaught.

A thrilling, page-turning journey into deep space where the fights are brutal, the relationships are complicated and the world ended years ago.

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I quite enjoyed this one, and I must say, it was far more heartfelt than I’d imagined going in! I think I presumed it would be pretty much all action all the time, but I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful character development and introspection. You cannot help but root for Ursula. She’s found herself on some backwater planet, all alone, having lost literally everything and everyone when Earth was destroyed. Also, she’s probably infected with some alien junk, and she just found out that her former love, the one who saved her from doom on Earth, is back. Only now he’s married to his space ship and Ursula can’t help but feel like it’s just one more thing (in a very long line of things) she’s lost.

“That’s the thing about trauma; it becomes part of you. If you’re not careful, it can become all of you.”

I loved that there is a ton of conversation surrounding trauma and grief, and that the characters have to actually face it, even while they’re trying to save the universe. The side characters were also great, and I loved that they brought some found family into Ursula’s life. The adventure to figure out what the alien stuff infecting Ursula is and how she can be of use to stop the mass destruction is of course incredibly high stakes, compelling, and ultimately quite thought provoking. The ending did confuse me a little, but overall I was quite satisfied with the story and absolutely loved the characters!

Bottom Line: So wonderfully emotive and thought provoking, all while still providing the promised high stakes space adventures! 

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Clik here to view. The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses
Published by Scribner on March 4. 2025
Pages: 192
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.

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This one started out a little slow for me, but wow, the second half slapped! Oh, and it is delightfully messed up, too, from start to finish, so that’s fun. Now, I will tell you my biggest qualm with The Unworthy, and that is that I do not know all the things about the world. And I wanted to, because that is who I am as a person. You may not be so concerned, because the story will suck you in. Be patient in getting there, and you will not regret it!

As the story starts, we’re thrown right into this… Idk what to call it. Convent-turned-Apocalypse Cult? That is basically what it is- an old monastery taken over by some creepy cult leaders who use the guise of religion to do terrible, unspeakable things and pretend they “have to” in order to survive. So, we see some of these things, but can’t quite wrap our heads around the why– and neither can our narrator, but she does what she must to survive, too.

The story starts to really pick up when we get a little more backstory about the narrator’s life, and can truly appreciate her as a character. I could not put the book down once it picked up, and I felt a bittersweet hopefulness at the end. My initial gripe about not knowing more about the world still stands, but the rest of the book had me captivated enough that I can’t be too mad.

Bottom Line:  Messed up and violent, but still very emotional and character driven, I want more worldbuilding but I can be at peace with it.

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Clik here to view. The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah
Published by Wednesday Books on February 25, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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In this sapphic Snow White retelling, if Snow is to save her kingdom from being ravaged by the Blight, she’ll have to kill the Evil Queen’s daughter…if she doesn’t fall in love with her first.

When her glass coffin unexpectedly shatters, Snow White awakens to anything but a dream. The land is rotting. The animals have mutated. In the twenty years that have passed since Snow bit into the poisoned apple, the kingdom of Roanfrost has transformed from a luscious wild land to a blight-ravaged nightmare. In search of answers and a way to restore her kingdom to its former glory, Snow sets out on a dangerous journey that will test the strength she never knew she had.

Friends will become foes.

New alliances will form.

The Queen with the blood red lips will stop at nothing to seize her power as well as her heart.

If Snow has any chance to survive and restore not only her kingdom, but all of Garedenne, her only option is to become the Seasonkeeper and access the life-giving magic that will heal the plague. But the path to becoming the Seasonkeeper is more treacherous than she could ever imagine—because the wild things have awakened and Snow’s darker impulses yearn to set them free.

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Oof, no one likes a DNF this early in the year, right? Well, I had one, friends. And extra sadly, it was from an author I usually really enjoy. But sometimes things don’t work out, and that is okay. I made it to 27% before I called it, and I did so because I was just bored. There was a lot of info-dumping, especially about past stuff that meant nothing to me because at that point, I only knew the one character (Snow) and frankly, I didn’t care much about her one way or the other. So, it had to be done. Retellings and I are always hit or miss anyway, so I think others may have a better time with this than I did.

Bottom Line: Got bored; stopped.

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Clik here to view. The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
Published by St. Martin's Press on February 25, 2025
Pages: 288
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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A new standalone sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (the inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17).

Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?

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The Fourth Consort is such a fun space romp, one in which humans are the aliens, and the culture shock is real. Dalton has found himself on a sort of Alien Welcome Wagon mission to reach out to new worlds, see what’s happening, etc. He knows very little about what he’s to be doing, but when he and his coworker find themselves on a planet that isn’t exactly keen to chat with humans or their allies, he finds himself doing whatever he can to keep himself alive long enough for a rescue.

As it turns out, this is a matriarchal society, and males (of any species) are felt to be fairly useless, more akin to pets than fellow sentients. Dalton winds up being the ultimate “pet”- the fourth consort to the leader, and if he can stay alive long enough, perhaps he can keep all parties involved from killing each other- and him. It is funny, from start to finish, even when the stakes are high and lives are in jeopardy. That levity makes the book very readable, and keeps Dalton’s journey extra entertaining. It says this is a standalone, but I rather hope it is not- there is a conclusion, but there is also lots of room for more, and I hope that the door is open for a sequel someday!

Bottom Line:  Even though the stakes are high, the lightheartedness and comedic elements make it both fun and exciting.

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Clik here to view. Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
Published by HarperCollins on March 4, 2025
Pages: 384
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
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The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.
For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

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Fable For the End of the World promised me The Last of Us and Hunger Games vibes which is a hell of a comp to live up to, isn’t it? Well folks, I am pleased to report that it absolutely did! Without giving too much away, I will try to set the scene: Basically, everyone in this world owes a debt to some corporation (think Amazon now owns you), and if you get too far behind, you can sell someone to this assassination game to pay your debts. Despite doing everything she could to help her family, Inesa finds herself thrown into this game because her mom is the literal worst.

So that is bad. But her twin brother is willing to help, and that is allowed, and so it doesn’t end after five minutes. It is an exciting adventure, as you can imagine, and I loved the bits and pieces of the world we learn along the way. Of course, since there are really just two main characters (Inesa and her assassin, Melinoë), we get a ton of character development too. There are a lot of good twists that I didn’t see coming, a lot of great social commentary, and a great romance to boot. I was high key angry to find that this was a standalone, because I would read all the books in this world. Especially because I did have a few questions left- nothing major in terms of plot, but more like… world questions. So more, could we maybe please and thank you?

Bottom Line:  Absolutely nailed the atmosphere, loved the characters, and the plot was exciting. Definite win here, friends.

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Have you read any of these books? Plan to? Let us chat about them!  

The post Reviews in a Minute: More February, a Little March appeared first on It Starts at Midnight.