This month’s Book of the Month app hints have finally been posted. There are three collage images with the accompanying text, “August books, in pictures. Romance, alcohol, matrimony, sex, adventure, ancient Greece, more sex-for starters.”
Book #1
Wine, gelato, ocean/beach, a winery, the Colosseum, and a little yellow Fiat.
The Pairing
Casey McQuiston
In #1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston’s latest romantic comedy, two bisexual exes accidentally book the same European food and wine tour and challenge each other to a hookup competition to prove they’re over each other―except they’re definitely not.
Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other’s lives once and for all.
Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but―yeah. It’s in the past.
All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.
It’s not until they board the tour bus that they discover they’ve both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they’re trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It’s fine. There’s nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?
But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can’t have.
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Genre: Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Book #2
This collage is giving Greek mythology retelling. Statue, stone backgrounds, pedestal, and gold monstera leaf. Monstera leaves symbolize abundance, growth, and new beginnings.
There are at least three books based on Greek mythology being published on August 13th. They include Medusa by debut author Nataly Gruender, Hera by past BOTM author Jennifer Saint, and The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis. The Heir of Venus is also being published on August 6th. I think the Heir of Venus is unlikely based upon the publisher. I also think The Palace of Eros is more unlikely than either Hera or Medusa. I am not 100% sure which book it is, but I am leaning towards Hera.
Hera
Jennifer Saint
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of Ariadne, Elektra, and Atalanta, a propulsive, empowering retelling of Hera, reclaiming her as a feminist hero.
Even the gods must have their queen.
When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother Zeus overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
In this enthralling retelling, Greek mythology’s most famous and maligned goddess finally tells her own story, as power, passion, and divine strength collide in the heart of Olympus.
Publication Date: August 13, 2024
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Book #3
This book clearly gives wedding. The backgrounds look like fabrics, including white silk and tuxedo. There is a ring box, white flowers, a wedding cake, and a gold letter seal with a tree. I think this could be either The Wedding People or A Great Marriage, but I am leaning towards The Wedding People.
The Wedding People
Alison Espach
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan―which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
Publication Date: July 30, 2024
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
