Okay, we know: mid-February is devoted to celebrations of love, and few of them involve sitting down together reading books. But life goes on after Valentine’s Day, and some people either don’t see the use of or have no reason to indulge in chocolates and roses and fancy dinners out. For them and for the rest of us, here are three books we loved in February—two romances and a fantasy set in the City of Light, because where in the world is more romantic than Paris?
And don’t miss our own Courtney J. Hall’s A Valentine’s Date: Scavenger Hunt, which will certainly put you in the mood for love and is short enough to skim on your phone as you’re awaiting that special someone.
Ryan Graudin, The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois (Redhook, 2024)
It is plain from the very beginning of The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois that author Ryan Graudin is a woman who loves Paris and the Belle Époque. A paean to fresh flaky croissants, pink butterflies, gargoyle statues, and the conviviality of salons, this historical fantasy novel imbues everything with magic.
Graudin’s magical system is based on the inventiveness and creativity that Paris was known for, and actual figures from artistic circles, such as Jean Cocteau and Guillaume Apollinaire, make frequent appearances. At enchanted salons, visionary ideas burst forth from heads in the form of an illuminated hair; the concept can then be manifested or harvested by a magician to be stored as an energy source for spells. An interesting concept in itself, but there’s so much more in this ambitious novel.
For starters, there are the three female protagonists, who, during much of the novel, live in a hidden corner of Père Le Chaise cemetery, while scheming to separate rich and foolish men from their money. While the two adults, Céleste and Honoré, fall in love, one with a devious thief and the other with a beautiful fairy, the cheeky eleven-year-old Sylvie makes friends with a talking tomcat and the doomed Romanov princess of Russia. The evolution from thieves to heroes is beset with pitfalls, as the struggle for self-preservation becomes more pressing when an evil sorcerer ensnares Céleste in his schemes. But as Graudin writes, “Everyone is afraid, even the brave. Especially them.”
A redemptive story about found family and the power of art, The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois is perfect for those who like rich, flowery prose and a European setting.—GM
Heather McBreen, Wedding Dashers (Berkley, 2025)
Ada’s sister is getting married, but nothing about the journey to the wedding is easy—especially considering Ada and her sister haven’t spoken in a year. Broke and barely making it onto a budget flight to Ireland, Ada thinks things can’t get worse—until her connection gets canceled, leaving her stranded in London.
Enter Jack, a charming stranger at the airport bar who seems like the perfect person to vent to … until Ada realizes he’s not just any fellow traveler—he’s the best man, and the very last person she wants to be stuck with. But the wedding can't go on without them. Forced to road-trip their way to Belfast together, Jack and Ada must contend with travel mishaps, the development of some unexpected chemistry, and the possibility that their detour might just lead to something real.
Heather McBreen’s debut novel takes the enemies-to-lovers and forced-proximity tropes and shapes them into something clever, witty, and ultimately satisfying.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing this book for review.—CJH
Andrea Pickens, The Banished Bride (Oliver-Heber Books, 2025)
I interview many writers who got their start writing romances. One such novelist is Andrea Pickens, who as Andrea Penrose now publishes two ongoing historical mystery series. The Banished Bride and The Storybook Hero—the first two books in Pickens’s Intrepid Heroines series, which first appeared some years ago—have just been reissued. All three series are set during the United Kingdom’s Regency period, with its backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.
As I’ve noted elsewhere, the fun of a romance novel lies less in the destination, which is usually clear from the onset, than in the setup and the journey. In The Banished Bride, a pair of dissipated, drunken fathers end a card game by marrying off the fourteen-year-old daughter of one lord to the youngest son of the other. The two part ways right after the wedding, the befuddled groom heading off to war and the bride dispatched to a genteel exile in the countryside.
Years later, Alex, the former bridegroom, inherits his father’s title. Forced to cash out after a successful army career, Alex eagerly accepts one last intelligence mission in Scotland. Things soon go awry when he decides that a lady he encounters on the road, traveling alone (a big no-no in Regency England), must be the French spy he seeks. She fights him off, literally, and to make amends, he insists on escorting her to the Scottish border. She gives her name as Aurora Sprague, which under other circumstances might cause him to wonder but doesn’t, given how much time has passed since the wedding. (He gives her a false name as well.) Aurora, under pressure, admits that she runs investigations aimed at helping other women defend themselves from abusive and manipulative men. One such emergency mission led to her traveling alone.
Impressed if a bit confused—Regency noblewomen weren’t supposed to have careers, either, even informal ones—Alex wants to know more, and the story is off and running. The wry humor, the sharp-eyed characterization, and the respect for Regency conventions even as the author is undermining them make this a book I love.
I had even more fun with The Storybook Hero, which follows an English governess and a seriously troubled young nobleman to Russia right as Napoleon reaches Moscow. You can find out more about the inspiration behind both novels from my blog interview with the author later this month.—CPL
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