Gateway Reviews

THE DANGER OF SMALL THINGS The unthinkable has happened: the bees are gone. The pollinators have vanished, and the balance of the planet has shifted. Famine and fighting break out. Resources are scarce. What we have, we have to hoard for our survival. Jess doesn't remember a time when there were bees. She doesn't remember the world before scarcity. She hardly remembers life before she was taken from her home, conscripted by the government like every other young girl to pollinate crops by hand. It's hard work, in the beating sun, and she doesn't even get to see the (literal) fruit of her labor. Anything good is reserved for trade and bargaining, not for girls like her. But despite everything, Jess is her mother's daughter. The years her mother hid her instilled in her hope, a sense of rebellion, and even the harshest punishments of this government camp can't quell that. Plus, she has something the others don't have...

THIS WRETCHED BEAUTY: A DORIAN GRAY REMIX It's 1867, and Lord Dorian Gray is everything his grandfather taught him to be: an honorable, straightlaced, and charming member of the nobility. Estranged from his less-than-noble father and given a place in his grandfather's home after his mother passed, Dorian is a shining example of what a young lord should be. But when the eyes aren't looking, things are... different. When he can sneak away under the cover of darkness, Dorian Gray is somebody entirely different. Drawn into a world of artists and free expression and molly houses in the seedier parts of London, Dorian falls in with a young artist named Basil and his friends. Acting as Basil's model and his newest muse, Dorian agrees to have a portrait done, a portrait that shows... everything. Everything that Dorian wants to be and his grandfather could allow. Enamored with this spritely vision of himself, Dorian makes a bargain, the kin...

TO THE DEATH Tamsin Blackwood's a household name. She's only just entered the professional magic duel circuit, but she's already known. Because she's a nepo baby, the product of her master magician father Mateus Blackwood. He's the one who trained her to uphold his legacy. His is the name she's carrying. And she's tired of it. Tired of him . So when she receives a challenge from prodigy Lysander Rook with prize money greater than she could have dreamed, she jumps at the offer. That kind of money could change her life, could free her from her father. But Lysander's left other champions not just defeated but destroyed. And this challenge hasn't come to Tamsin by chance. It's been perfectly calculated by Lysander's second, a certain Samantha Chan. A Samantha Chan whose brother died in an illegal magic duel years ago. Whose brother's death was caused by a certain Mateus Blackwood. ...

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DATING A DEMON Naomi doesn't want anything to do with the boys at her Lyceum. She's too busy deciphering ancient manuscripts and keeping her grades up to secure her scholarship for another year or two. And they're only asking her out to get introduced to her influential aunt anyway. So she invents a betrothed. One nobody will dare question. She's betrothed to a demon , and that's enough to make these unwanted suitors back off. Little did she know, speaking his name would summon him to her side. Finding Daziel lounging in her student flat: surprising. Very surprising, since she made him up. But here he is. And he won't leave. She's his betrothed, after all. She said so herself. Annoying as Daziel turns out to be, Naomi's got bigger things to worry about than a demon betrothed following her to her classes. With the city's magic becoming unstable, everyone's on edge, including Daziel....

PARADISE COAST Noa and her friends are barely keeping it together. With the wealthy Collective bearing down on her small seaside community, every day another local business is edged out, their properties scooped up by rich developers. But Noa's always lived here, and she's not giving up her family's surf shack without a fight. When a hurricane unearths the ruins of an old luxury hotel in the Everglades, Noa knows this is her chance to get even with the Collective. This old hotel has been abandoned for years, and for good reason. A young socialite died there. A local was blamed for her death, and that set off the age-old animosity between the Collective and the locals like Noa. And Noa's pretty sure that the young man they blamed was framed. She just doesn't have the proof. Until now. But trudging through the Everglades is dangerous. Especially when there are interested parties who don't want old secrets unburied. Wit...

New month, new books for our TBRs! It's freezing cold where I am, which is the perfect weather for staying inside, lighting the fire, and hunkering down with a good book! There are a lot of amazing titles coming out this month, definitely worth venturing into the cold to grab from the nearest bookstore or library. Here are some of the titles I'm excited to see hit shelves in February 2026! Beyond Seven Forests Amanda McCrina From the Publisher: By the winter of 1916, World War I has ravaged the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Eighteen-year-old Renata Zamoyska, Polish countess and doctor-in-training, has lost everything to the Russian occupation: her family, her home, her fiancé. But with the Russians in retreat and the Germans now in charge, life isn’t much easier. Wounded soldiers keep arriving from the front, Renia’s house remains in ruins, and the scars of the occupation linger. When two Polis...