TOP PICKS – February 2026
It’s time for this month’s Top Picks!
After January taking forever to end, February went by in a blink and now it’s time to share our Top Picks of the month!
Every month, we like to share with you our favourite reads of the month. We’ve rounded up our contributors and asked them each to recommend just one favourite read of the month.
A big thank you to Nils for coming up with this feature, and our contributors for taking part!
Let’s find out what the team has read this month…
Nils: The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar
I’ve had a great reading month with four excellent reads and my current read Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker is shaping up to be a superb fantasy murder mystery too.
I started the month with The Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson which weaved together fantasy and sci-fi in such an exciting way! Fans of the Cosmere definitely need to read this. Then I buddy read The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao with Beth and oh my, that was such a beautiful story about two lost souls finding each other on a magical, dreamlike train. I then read The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains by Reena McCarty which was a fun mix of human bureaucracy, fae politics and a deliciously cryptic ex boyfriend. There was some really excellent character growth here that I loved.
My top pick goes to The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar because it satisfied my craving for a classic fantasy with plenty of humour. This was a little Princess Bride, a little fairytale-esque and full of charming characters either trying to prove their worth or trying to hold on to true love.
Kat: Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher
Most of this month’s reading has been absolutely dominated by T Kingfisher thanks to a vlog project I’ve got on the go so my top pick has to be Paladin’s Strength. It’s brilliant to read a book with a protagonist who looks like you and is completely badass and takes no prisoners.
We follow Clara as she tries to find and rescue her fellow nuns who have been kidnapped. She runs into Istvahn, a paladin of a dead god, and together they get to the bottom of more than a couple of mysteries while kicking ass and trying not to break furniture. It’s a hugely entertaining romp with a whole lot of yearning that didn’t make me want to hurl so big bonus points there.
Cat: The Convenient Curse by Jendra Berri
I’ve had a month of ups and downs, with the ups fortunately being stellar – making this a difficult choice once again! But looking back, despite all the action, horror and scifi that took me through a very wet February, I have to pick the indie diamond that is The Convenient Curse by Jendra Berri.
Our household lost its kitty this month and to find a book with a swashbuckling and oh-so-very on point Cat Pirate Captain helping a lost (and reluctant) Princess was perfect timing to soothe my heart. Magic, adventure and brilliant humour with a core theme of finding the good in oneself, this is a clever and grown-up Labyrinth-like wonder that I encourage you all to seek out forthwith!
Theo: The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Philip A. Suggars
I’ve had a slow reading month but I did get a couple of fantasy reads in. There was Half City by Kate Golden which was a fast paced tale of vampire and demon slayer Viv who goes to the Harker Academy to get even better at killing vampires and demons. There is an interesting mix of a family of found friends, a seductive demonic teacher and world ending peril at the bottom of the Chasm in the city of Astera – a kind of New York surrogate.
I also got an ARC of Philip A. Suggars’ novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World which proved an engaging and creative debut novel. It mixed a gritty but sharply observed underbelly of contemporary South London with an imaginative and somewhat surreal parallel world where magical creatures, living buildings and vehicles, mingle with more human eccentricities and venalities. It also helped that – in my own reading – I did find elements of climate fiction, in the sense of ancient god-like forces performing rituals to decide which imperative (technology or nature) will drive humanity’s next epoch. Oyster makes a very human fallible protagonist swept up not so much by the tide of times as the whirlpool of times, while accepting the chain smoking Marya and the incandescent Nonesuch as unlikely accomplices. So given the dizzyingly uncategorisable nature of this book – The Lighthouse at the End of the World is my top pick of the month.
Pre-order here (7th April)
Vinay: The Price of Fear by Miles Lyon
A steady January exploded into a sensational February and almost every read that I picked this month would have potentially been a Top Pick in any other month. Sister Svangers and the Not Quite Dead by KJ Parker is a typical KJ Parker book – searing, sharp, sarcastic and surgically precise with a side-dose of Conclaive, Angels and Demons, Assassin Monks and the Undead.
Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman (Reviewed here) is kind of an anti-Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and is a giddy, thrilling rush unafraid to go dark or complex. Baptiste Pinson Wu’s Voice of the Kami, steeped in Japanese lore and mythology, is a brilliant second book and has one heck of a swing at the end that makes you want to grab the next book immediately. Sentient by Michael Nayak is a ticking, time bomb of an Antarctica-based contagion thriller that explodes spectacularly in the second half. Prey of Angels by JCM Berne was a book that I beta read and this is a book that has an explosive start and an emotional climax.
My Top Pick goes to The Price of Fear by Miles Lyon. I am a sucker for melodramatic, over the top leads who recount their lifestory just before their execution. The Price of Fear has one such lead in Azreal the Wretched who can match words, melodrama and wits with Gabriel De Leon from Empire of the Vampire series. This is a fabulously written and exquisitely narrated book with a good eye for pace and an intriguing magic system. I tore through this book and I feel this one may make it all the way to my year-end list as well.
Jonathan: Beloved by Toni Morrison
This month I’ve read Jasmin Kirkbride’s wonderful debut The Forest On The Edge Of Time, which I fully expect to see on awards shortlists next year. I’ve also read Rose Biggin’s brilliant short story collection Make-Believe And Arrifice, which is a wonderful reminder of what a striking writer she is.
But top prize this month goes to Toni Morrison’s astounding literary horror masterpiece Beloved, which I’m teaching this semester. It’s just as powerful and devastating on the reread, a true classic of American literature.
Lucy: It’s Hard to Tell you This by James Kinsley
After barely reading anything for a year (new baby) I have dived into my tbr’s and review copies and getting back into books! This month I read five books, including the off brand I’m glad my mom died by Jeanette McCurdy, which, whilst it isn’t horror, it covers the extremely disturbing and haunting reality of McCurdy’s life and being a Nickolodeon kid – so if you are into that sort of thing, recommend!
I have also read some crime novels (generic, but you know, gotta love some Judi Daykin). Fave pick of the month has got to be It’s Hard to Tell you This by James Kinsley. Relatable, creepy and messes with the readers expectations/emotions, review scheduled in March. Photo featuring my chaos Gremlin trying to steal the book from me!
Emma: Claimed by the Mothman by K.A Bower
I’ve read a lot of great monster romances this month, mainly in thanks to a fabulous “fill your kindle” event. I’m absolutely planning on longer reviews for these so no spoilers but the stand out has to be Claimed by the Mothman by K.A Bower. Did not expect the depth of storytelling in what I assumed what I thought would be a fun little smutty story. Never fear though, the spice is spicy and I think about that proboscis at least once a day. Don’t you just love a story that sticks with you?
Beth: Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker
Phew! Seems that everyone had a pretty busy month of reading! Mine was a great month with no DNFs. I started the month, as Nils has said, with our buddy read of the beautiful and moving Elsewhere Express. I read it alongside this month’s book club read, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, and the both together made for an excellent comparison of representations of grief! Both books handled the subject in vastly different ways…
I then dived back into Stephanie Burgis’ Queens of the Villainy trilogy with the second book Enchanting the Fae Queen. It was such a fun sparkling read, so utterly different to my previous two reads so it completely whisked me away.
As much as I enjoyed the fun spirit of Enchanting, and the meaningful wonder of Express, my top pick goes to a book which actually made me forget what else I’d read this month (thank the gods for Fable) – Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker. As I type this, I haven’t technically finished it yet – I have seventy pages to go – but I’m confident I’ll have it finished tomorrow and it’s still hands down the best book of the month, if not the year. I’m buddy reading it with Nils and we’re thoroughly enjoying the mystery and the characters and the absolute joy that is Barkers writing. It has a gritty, almost Dickensian city in which a found family trio must solve a murder-come-framing. There are lots of secrets and twists, and so many crows. It’s glorious.
Pre-order here (21st May)
What was your favourite read of the month? Share with us in the comments!
