This Week: February 8th

News and Updates

We have arrived at one of my favorite weeks of the year in our reading plan – sports romances! I’m reading hockey romances this week, but there’s so many other great sports-themed romance novels out there – baseball, football, golf – really everything. It’s also Valentine’s week, which I know is a mixed bag for some of you. We won’t be focused on the day itself too much around here, but it is the driving force behind our theme for the month. If you are looking to avoid the Valentine’s propaganda, just steer clear of our socials on Saturday morning.

This Week

Tessa Bailey is the queen of the sports-themed romances for me! If you haven’t read her books yet,

Monthly Reading Challenge: Romance

Weekly Reading Challenge: Sports Romance

I’ve wanted to read this book since I read the first book in Bailey’s Big Shots series – Fan Girl Down. Now there’s a total of 5 books in the series, so I’m way behind.

In this book, the best friends of the main characters from book 1 find themselves in a unique situation – he’s an NHL star and single dad to a moody teen, and she’s the grad student he’s hired to be his live-in au pair. The duo had an instant connection when they met last year – now they are navigating the roommate situation, the employer-employee dynamic, and his incessant need to protect her. Will she hold steady on her demand to keep things professional, or will she give in to her heart and let him in?

If you’re looking for other great books for this prompt, try one of these reads recommended by our StoryGraph community:

• Caught Up, Liz Tomforde
• Crash Test, Amy James
• The Keeper, Bella Matthews
• Pucking Around, Emily Rath

New This week

Another of our most anticipated books of 2026 hits stores this Tuesday! Brad Thor and Ward Larsen are powerhouse writers in their own rights and have teamed up to deliver Cold Zero – a spy and military thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats!

With the state of current events, this book feels like it could have been ripped straight from a headline in the not-so-distant future. The US is helping a brilliant tech engineer defect when their plane goes down over the Arctic Circle. A race ensues to reach the crash site first and no one knows who will get there first – the US, Russia, China, the polar bears, or the frigid cold. You can read our full review of this book here.

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In Case You Missed It

Last Week’s Prompt

Some summers are all sunshine and sand. This one is about what happens when everything changes.

Laurel and Susannah have spent years bringing their families together for the kind of beach vacation most kids only dream about. When Laurel’s daughter brings a friend, the boys who’ve always centered their world on her suddenly have someone new to notice—and that shift quietly fractures the group. At the same time, Susannah’s cancer returns, and her boys are left trying to process what might be their last summer together.

I gave The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han 4.1/5 stars. Parts of the story felt disjointed, the pacing swung from very slow to suddenly fast, and some character choices contradicted earlier moments. But I loved how it wrestles with the quiet ways parental decisions affect teens, especially in seasons of illness or divorce. If you’re parenting teens—or loved My Life With the Walter Boys or We Were Liars—this might be a meaningful read.

Last Week’s Articles

We are moving away from science fiction and into the romance genre for the month of February. This genre gets a bad reputation for being all smut and raunchy books, but there are some fantastic subgenres I think you’ll love with this one.

We also released our Spotify reading playlist for the month. It’s influenced heavily by the Motown and oldies love songs I grew up on, but there’s plenty of newer music included, too. It’s just over an hour, so it’s perfect for a long reading session. You can grab the link in the article here.

Last Week’s Preview

Grief, a missing pension, and Chicago baseball aren’t exactly what Angie expected to be juggling at her husband’s funeral.

In Last Bite by Amy S. Peele, Angie is suddenly a widow who can’t get straight answers: her husband’s pension vanishes, his work partner is acting off, and the people she thought she could trust keep raising red flags. Between ballgames, building authority drama, and a cozy small-town-feel romance, this one reads like a light whodunit love letter to Chicago.

If you love mysteries with heart, baseball references, and strong city vibes, add this to your late-February TBR — it releases February 24, 2026. You can read my full review here.

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Reading Challenge Prompts

I have always enjoyed light-hearted romance novels and I’m having fun with some of these subgenres. Which of our weekly prompts is your favorite type of romance literature?

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: How to be Okay When Nothing is Okay, Jenny Lawson
• Current audio book: Atalanta, Jennifer Saint
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Revenge Prey, John Sandford