The Echo of Empires by Shameen Abubakar (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Soha Khosrani knows how to make a deal.
Born and bred in Joot — a crowded port city teeming with gang lords, bureaucrats, and heiresses — Soha is an upstart tailor with an unhealthy appetite for risk who falls somewhere in between all of the above. On the cusp of the biggest deal in this back alley orphan’s career, a fiery beast of legend named Rostam destroys Soha’s precious tailor shop. Awoken from a thousand year banishment, Rostam has returned, furious at his siblings for trapping him, and now bound to Soha through a ring from her childhood.
Soha’s past then storms onto her doorstep when her assassin half-sister and childhood-nemesis-turned-pirate return to Joot, bound to Rostam’s brother and sister. In order to break the dangerous link, the three former street rats and their monstrous counterparts must crash the Royal Wedding and steal the only object that could free them from one another. On their way, they confront the past that ties them all together, whilst also uncovering a history that could unravel an empire built on carefully gilded secrets.
All Soha knows is that being tied to a monster is not good for business, so Joot’s Merchant of Death will do whatever it takes to return to her life of sin and sequins. Even if that means making a deal with the devil.
February 2nd
The Enchanting Girl by Elizabeth Johnson (Knopf) - moved from 2025 and then from July 2026, description not yet updated on Goodreads.
Cozy up to this enchanting debut fantasy about a young woman who is determined to break all the rules and learn to perform magic. She’ll just need to hide her activities from her nosy mother, a string of unwelcome suitors, and the young enchanter she manages to butt heads with whenever they see each other. And oh yes, she also needs to master the 438 spells required to pass the enchanter’s exam.
The island country of Lavinium guards a secret: its men have been able to perform magic for centuries–thanks to the fairies that inhabited the land before humans. Women were never allowed to learn the art, however. But it’s the modern age of 1935, and when Zelda Van Doren discovers that she has a gift for magic, she decides to defy convention and teach herself how to use it. Doing so means secretly learning the same spells as male students, all while eluding her marriage-minded mother and a string of suitors that includes one John Pendleton, in particular. Although her friends say Pendleton’s a catch, the young enchanter is clearly more interested in talking to Zelda’s grandfather than to her, which suits her just fine. Meanwhile, Zelda’s self-taught attempts at spellcasting are proving a miserable failure, until a fairy mysteriously emerges from the north, introducing Zelda to the one woman who might be able to help her.
But even as Zelda struggles to control her gift, a long-simmering distrust between fairies and humans has bubbled to the surface, and it will be up to the young woman who has no business being an enchanter to work a little magic before it’s too late.
February 16th
How to Be A Heartbreaker by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímíde and Adiba Jaigirdar (Feiwel and Friends) - previously titled Suite Scent of Sabotage, moved from May 2025, August 2026 and January 2027.
In this contemporary romance by bestselling authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar, a hotel heiress and the son of a caterer develop feelings for each other as his family works to cater a big celebrity wedding and she secretly works to put a stop to the wedding.
For Karim Zaman, life is like the Bollywood movies he loves watching with his nanu. Sure, his family runs a catering/divorce/funeral business, but he still gets caught up in the movies’ big dance numbers and sweeping declarations of love. He can’t believe it when his family is hired to cater the wedding of a famous Bollywood actress to and Afrobeats superstar. And with Karim’s family struggling to make ends meet ever since his father’s death, this wedding would be life-changing for them. Things cannot go wrong.
Nairobi Yusef may be the heir to a large hotel fortune, but her life is nothing like a movie. She spends most of her time in the London branch of her dad’s hotel chain alone and unsure what to do with herself. And with the way she’s seen relationships crash and burn, she’s not exactly looking forward to her cousin Musa’s—or Oga Suya as his fans know him—wedding. When she overhears something that makes it clear his fiancé has ulterior motives, Nairobi realizes this wedding cannot happen.
With multiple pre-wedding events leading up to the big day, the two teens’ paths keep crossing while Nairobi works to keep her cousin from saying I do (unbeknownst to anyone) and Karim works to make sure things go perfectly. They may be focused on the wedding, but they can’t help notice their growing feelings for one another. Will Nairobi’s meddling with the impending wedding tear them apart? Or will they get their sweet Bollywood movie ending?
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