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Time for the best book club picks for February 2021!
February is a good month to be a huge book lover. There are a lot of books publishing this month. In fact, if you’re tired of receiving/giving chocolates and flowers, any of these books will make for a great gift for yourself or someone you love. After all, the gift of books has a much longer shelf life!
I actually have many February titles in my mega must-read book club picks for 2021 article (including the latest from Kristin Hannah) so be sure to check that out!
These next five books all represent a variety of different subject matters and genres. Let’s get to it!
This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith sounds like an impactful read—have a feeling you’ll need tissues nearby for this one. Here’s the synopsis:
On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing at the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett.
Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. What she doesn’t realize is that Emmett isn’t the only one who needs healing—and they both are harboring secrets.
Alternating between Tallie and Emmett’s perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge’s edge—as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with since her marriage ended—This Close to Okay is an uplifting, cathartic story about chance encounters, hope found in unlikely moments, and the subtle magic of human connection.
You can order the book on Amazon here.
The Push by Ashley Audrain
The Push by Ashley Audrain is getting a ton of buzz and was even selected as a Good Morning America book club pick. It sounds super eerie! Here’s the synopsis:
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.
But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
You can order the book on Amazon here.
The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck
My friend Cindy Burnett (who hosts the Thoughts From a Page podcast) highly recommends The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck. Super excited about this one! WWII historical fiction is some of my favorite in the genre. Here’s the synopsis:
France, March 1944. Virginia Hall wasn’t like the other young society women back home in Baltimore—she never wanted the debutante ball or silk gloves. Instead, she traded a safe life for adventure in Europe, and when her beloved second home is thrust into the dark days of war, she leaps in headfirst.
Once she’s recruited as an Allied spy, subverting the Nazis becomes her calling. But even the most cunning agent can be bested, and in wartime trusting the wrong person can prove fatal. Virginia is haunted every day by the betrayal that ravaged her first operation, and will do everything in her power to avenge the brave people she lost.
While her future is anything but certain, this time more than ever Virginia knows that failure is not an option. Especially when she discovers what—and whom—she’s truly protecting.
You can order the book on Amazon here.
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida sounds interesting—a combination of an examination of female friendship and also a compelling mystery. Here’s the synopsis:
Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act—or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.
Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida’s masterful portrait of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre–tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one’s authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion.
You can order the book on Amazon here.
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Another book I’ve seen receive a lot of attention is The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. The synopsis is so short so this will be full of surprises for sure. Here it is:
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award- winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.
And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.
Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.
Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
You can order the book on Amazon here.
Happy reading!
