Mercury

Amy Jo Burns

Last year, I was doubting that BOTM was still working with Celadon, but BOTM ended up featuring a few Celadon books towards the year’s end. And this books screams BOTM to me. I will be surprised if it is not a selection.

Synopsis: A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town. It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. 

Holiday Country

Inci Atrek

Synopsis: A seductive and lyrical debut following a young woman’s dangerous summer romance during an idyllic vacation on the Aegean coast. Lush and evocative, İnci Atrek’s Holiday Country is a rapturous meditation about what it means to experience being of two worlds, the limitations and freedom of a life in translation, and the intricacies of a love triangle that stretches across generations and continents.

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River East, River West

Aube Rey Lescure

This book is compared to three previous BOTM selections, which makes me hopeful it will be a selection. I also have been on a mission to learn more about the East, but still have not explored much about modern China.

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world—perfect for readers of Behold the Dreamers, White Ivy, and The Leavers.

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Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame

Olivia Ford

I waffled whether or not to include this book. (The fact that it is a debut pushed me over the edge.) BOTM typically includes titles from this imprint. While this sounds like a heartwarming story, BOTM does not often include novels with older protagonists.

Synopsis: Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. But her new-found independence and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?

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Family Family

Laurie Frankel

Synopsis: India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do ― she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Interesting Facts about Space

Emily Austin

I read Emily Austin’s debut novel, and because of that, I have a hard time seeing her as a BOTM author. But one book does not define an author. This book’s publication date is January 30th, so it may be either a January or February pick.

Synopsis: Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her.

Diva

Daisy Goodwin

Although opera is probably not super popular with BOTM subscribers, I think this story is essentially about a woman persevering, which is a popular BOTM theme.

Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Daisy Goodwin returns with a story of the scandalous love affair between the most celebrated opera singer of all time and one of the richest men in the world. In this remarkable novel, Daisy Goodwin brings to life a woman whose extraordinary talent, unremitting drive and natural chic made her a legend. But it was only in confronting the heartbreak of losing the man she loved that Maria Callas found her true voice and went on to triumph.

The Curse of Pietro Houdini

Derek B. Miller

This book is compared to a very popular past BOTM pick. And among slim historical fiction options, it looks like a winner.

Synopsis: From the Dagger Award–winning author of Norwegian by Night comes a vivid, thrilling, and moving World War II art-heist-adventure tale where enemies become heroes, allies become villains, and a child learns what it means to become an adult. The Curse of Pietro Houdini is a work of storytelling bravado: a thrilling action-packed adventure heist, an imaginative chronicle of forgotten history, and a philosophical coming-of-age epic where a child navigates one of the most enigmatic and morally complex fronts of World War II and lives to tell the tale.

Unsinkable

Jenni L. Walsh

I could not decide whether to include this book as a prediction or not, partially due to the author and partially due to the imprint. However, if this book includes the sinking of the Titanic along with all the things it promises, it sounds like a good choice for a BOTM selection.

Synopsis: After her mother becomes too ill to work, the responsibility to provide for the family falls to Violet as the oldest of nine. When the world enters the Great War, she serves as a nurse, helping men who could very well be her brothers. Working as a stewardess and wartime nurse, Violet not only survives a shipwreck but also two sinkings, one on the infamous Titanic. No one can understand why she would return to sea, but something keeps drawing Violet back to the tumultuous waters, where she struggles to put the tragedies of her past behind her and pursue a life and love all her own. Inspired by true stories of Violet Jessop and the thirty-nine women of the Special Operations Executive. Two unsinkable women. Two stories of survival, family, and finding one’s own happiness. One connection that reshapes both their lives forever.

The Wharton Plot

Mariah Fredericks

Mariah Frederick’s last book, The Lindbergh Nanny, was a BOTM selection. However, she was not a BOTM author prior, so I think it is a complete toss up whether her newest book will be among the picks.

Synopsis: In 1911 New York City, Edith Wharton, almost equally famed for her novels and her sharp tongue, is bone-tired of Manhattan. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, she makes the decision to leave America, her publisher, and her loveless marriage. And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips―a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women’s place in it―is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Mariah Fredericks’ mesmerizing novel, The Wharton Plot, follows renowned novelist Edith Wharton in the twilight years of the Gilded Age in New York as she tracks a killer.

Repeat Author

Queen of Clubs

Beezy Marsh

Queen of Clubs is the second in Beezy Marsh’s thrilling UK historical series about a ring of all-female gangsters in 1950s London. BOTM selected the first book in this series last January, but there is no guarantee that they will keep up with the series.

Synopsis: After rising up against gangland’s queen, Alice Diamond, formerly downtrodden Nell is living the perfect life of crime. Far from the East End slums where she was raised, she’s now an accomplished professional thief by day—lifting luxury goods from high-end department stores—and a glamorous nightclub owner after dark. Dressed in stolen silks and furs, Nell cuts a dazzling figure in the dimly lit clubs where she calls the shots. But a betrayal and botched robbery suddenly reverse Nell’s fortunes… and her old rival Alice is hell-bent on taking her down.

Repeat Author

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend

Emma R. Alban

I hesitated to put a lesbian romance in my BOTM predictions. For some reason, I feel like it is less palatable for BOTM than a gay male romance. But only time will tell!

Synopsis: A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!

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Red String Theory

Lauren Kung Jessen

I am not entirely positive how popular Kung Jessen’s debut, Lunar Love, was among BOTM subscribers. Regardless, she is back with her sophomore novel.

Synopsis: When it comes to love and art, Rooney Gao believes in signs. Most of all, she believes in the Chinese legend that everyone is tied to their one true love by the red string of fate. And that belief has inspired her career as an artist, as well as the large art installations she makes with red string. That is until artist’s block strikes & Rooney begins to question everything. But then fate leads her to the perfect guy…

Repeat Author

Valley Verified

Kyla Zhao

I am not completely convinced that Valley Verified could be a BOTM pick. But next to Red String Theory and Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, it seems the next most likely as the romance pickings are slim this January.

Synopsis: When a fashion writer dives headfirst into the cutthroat Silicon Valley tech world, her future threatens to unravel in this addictive novel. On paper, Zoe Zeng has made it in New York’s fashion world. After a string of unpaid internships, she’s now a fashion columnist at Chic, lives in a quaint apartment in Manhattan, and gets invited to exclusive industry events. But life in New York City isn’t as chic as Zoe imagined. Then one day, Zoe receives a job offer at FitPick, an app startup based in Silicon Valley. With her current career at a dead end, Zoe accepts the offer and swaps high fashion for high tech, haute couture for HTML. But she soon realizes that in an industry claiming to change the world for the better, not everyone’s intentions are pure. With an eight-figure investment on the line, Zoe must find a way to revamp FitPick’s image despite Silicon Valley’s elitism and her icy colleagues.

Anna O

Matthew Blake

Personally, I think this is going to be one of the biggest books of January. I would be surprised if BOTM does not select it, especially after it is compared to the three authors below.

Synopsis: Joining the ranks of Gillian Flynn, A. J. Finn, and Alex Michaelides, Matthew Blake delivers the thriller of the year: a dark, twisty, and shocking mystery about a young woman who commits a double murder while sleepwalking, and then never opens her eyes again.

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First Lie Wins

Ashley Elston

This novel is Ashley Elston’s adult debut and has great early reviews. It has also been blurbed by several past BOTM authors.

Synopsis: Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The Search Party

Hannah Richell

This book is compared to two popular repeat BOTM authors: Ruth Ware & Lucy Foley. I think it has a solid chance of being a selection.

Synopsis: A spellbinding locked-room mystery about a glamping trip gone horribly wrong when a powerful storm leaves the participants stranded and forced to confront long-held secrets and a shocking disappearance. Moving between the police investigation, a hospital room, and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive and twisty destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.

The Clinic

Cate Quinn

This book is also compared to past BOTM authors: Stacy Willingham and Tarryn Fisher. If The Search Party is selected, I do not think The Clinic will also be selected and vice versa.

Synopsis: From the critically acclaimed author of Black Widows comes a thriller set in a remote rehab clinic on the Pacific Northwest coast, in which the death of a woman inside prompts her sister to enter the clinic as a patient in order to find the truth.

The Silence in Her Eyes

Armando Lucas Correa

This is yet another thriller with a January release date compared to two past repeat BOTM authors: Ruth Ware & Paula Hawkins. However, this novel does not have stellar earlier reviews, and thus, I think it has less of chance than some of the other books of this genre.

Synopsis: Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last 20 years, she hasn’t been able to see movement. As she walks around her upper Manhattan neighborhood with her white stick tapping in front, most people assume she’s blind. But the truth is Leah sees a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice. Then one night, Leah wakes up to someone in her apartment. She blacks out and in the morning is left wondering if she dreamt the episode. And yet the scent of the intruder follows her everywhere. And when she hears her neighbor through the wall pleading for her help, Leah makes a decision that will test her courage, her strength, and ultimately her sanity.

The Fury

Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides’s two past novels have been BOTM selections, even the last one despite how awful it was. I would be surprised NOT to see this among January’s books. And the app hint seems to indicate it will be among the picks.

Synopsis: A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder — from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.

Repeat Author

Midnight

Amy McCulloch

Personally, I was not a huge fan of Amy McCulloch’s debut, but I learned a lot about mountaineering reading it. I am never sure which authors BOTM will continue to feature. I do not think McCulloch will be a repeat author, but in the slight chance she is, I thought I better include Midnight.

Synopsis: In this pulse-pounding thriller, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica—to camp beneath the legendary midnight sun—becomes a desperate battle for survival against a killer determined to follow their prey to the ends of the earth.

Repeat Author

The Heiress

Rachel Hawkins

BOTM has been having a very public love affair with Rachel Hawkins/Erin Sterling. I am not sure when it will end or if January will be its downfall. (Also, the wallpaper on this cover is gorgeous.)

Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind.

Repeat Author

The Bullet Swallower

Elizabeth Gonzalez James

A magical realism western? Thanks to Outlawed, I do not think that is outside the realm of BOTM. The Bullet Swallower is blurbed by two previous BOTM authors and seems to be the answer of one of the app hints.

Synopsis: A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Shubnum Khan

This much anticipated gothic novel is blurbed by a few BOTM authors. I think it will be a big January title, and BOTM will not want to miss out on that.

Synopsis: A dark and heady dream of a book about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous.

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The Longest Autumn

Amy Avery

When I saw this cover and read the synopsis months ago, I automatically added it to my list of BOTM possibilities. It just screams like a BOTM selection for some reason. It helps that it is also suggested for fans of a past pick.

Synopsis: For fans of Ariadne, a spellbinding debut fantasy about a human who gets trapped with the god of Autumn, who brings with him life-threatening danger and a forbidden romance.

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Here in Avalon

Tara Isabella Burton

I am including Here in Avalon although it may just be a bit of wishful thinking on my part. I think is has some themes BOTM likes, but I am not great at judging what is in the fantasy realm of possibilities when it comes to their picks (since I do not usually read them).

Synopsis: An enchanting New York City fairy tale about two sisters that fall under the spell of an underworld cabaret troupe that might be a dangerous cult—but one that makes the materialist world left in its wake feel like a sinister cult itself.

More: A Memoir of Open Marriage

Molly Roden Winter

Because this book focuses on open marriage, I waffled about including it. Usually, BOTM sticks largely to the mainstream. So it will be interesting to see if it shows up among the picks.

Synopsis: An unputdownable memoir of love, desire, and personal growth that follows a happily married mother’s exploration of sex and relationships—outside of her marriage.

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One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, & Fitting In

Kate Kennedy

I think that One in a Millennial is a big toss-up. I can see it being a selection, but I also understand why it may not be.

Synopsis: One In a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned generation. Kate is a pop culture commentator and host of the popular millennial-focused podcast Be There in Five. Part-funny, part-serious, Kate navigates the complicated nature of celebrating and criticizing the culture that shaped her as a woman, while arguing that great depths can come from surface-level interests.

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