May 2026 Book of the Month Predictions

Book of the Month is a subscription box in which members choose up to 3 hardcover books to receive each month. Once you become a BOTM BFF, you can receive up to 5 books per month.
You can sign up here to get your first book for $5.

Every month, I make pretty accurate (80-100%) predictions about which books will be featured by Book of the Month (BOTM). I take a lot of time to research upcoming releases, analyze past selections, and choose books that are solid bets.

I think that May books will most likely drop on Tuesday, April 28th or Wednesday, April 29th.

Literary Fiction

I wavered whether to include a few books but ultimately ruled them out (including American Fantasy by Emma Straub, Where the Water Meets the Sky by Diane Les Becquets, The Players Club by Rachel Mills, The Maidenheads by Benny B. Peterson, New Skin by Sarah Wang, and The Library of Flowers by L.C. Chu).

Canon

Paige Lewis

Synopsis: Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-StarsNo One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!

Debut

Homebound

Portia Elan

Synopsis: Five lives are entangled across time by one story of survival and hope, uploaded to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries…

Debut

Good News

Alexa Yasemin Brahme

Synopsis: In this stylish and provocative novel, a young artist struggles to find her way in New York City while navigating strained relationships, the reappearance of an ex, and her burgeoning sense of self. A mess, of course, ensues.

Debut

June Baby

Shannon Garvey

Synopsis: In this moving debut novel, set over the course of one transformative summer in the lush, beachy enclave of Block Island, a young woman reckons with love, loss, and the choices she must make to move forward.

Debut

Waiting on a Friend

Natalie Adler

Synopsis: New York City, East Village, 1984. A young woman with the power to see the ghosts of her friends is haunted by the one who refuses to return—a dazzling, big-hearted debut of friendship and community during a time of devastation and defiance.

Debut

The Burning Side

Sarah Damoff

Synopsis: From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.

Repeat Author

Good Joy, Bad Joy

Mikki Brammer

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover comes a vibrant, heartfelt novel about friendship over the decades, self-discovery, and what it means to have a life well-lived.

Repeat Author

Enormous Wings

Laurie Frankel

Synopsis: At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas—that would be her three grown children—but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant.

Repeat Author


Historical Fiction

I also considered The Forgotten Midwife by Laura Anthony; Babylon, South Dakota by Tom Lin; Last Summer at Maine Chance by Jessica Everett; and A Perfect Hand by Ayelet Waldman.

The Calamity Club

Kathryn Stockett

Synopsis: The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything.

The Foursome

Christina Baker Kline

Synopsis: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

Returns and Exchanges

Kayla Rae Whitaker

Synopsis: A sweeping novel of one Kentucky family’s rise and fall throughout the 1980s—a tragicomic tour de force about love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business, from the acclaimed author of The Animators.

Repeat Author

A Fortune of Sand

Paula McLain

Synopsis: The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists’ retreat—where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await—in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea.

Repeat Author | Early Release


Romance

I considered but then ruled out Double Happiness by Heather Eng and Burnout Summer by Jenna Ramirez.

Our Perfect Storm

Carly Fortune

Synopsis: Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.

The Shippers

Katherine Center

Synopsis: After a lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton vows to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. Determined to woo her first crush and first kiss, she enlists her childhood best friend.

Repeat Author

The Last Page

Katie Holt

Synopsis: A bookseller with a dream of running her beloved bookstore vs. the owner’s out-of-touch grandson who inherits everything. Game on.

Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It

Brooke Averick

Synopsis: Meet Phoebe Berman: despite being a hopeless romantic, she’s about to be a thirty-year-old virgin. With one month before her milestone birthday, she’s determined to finally lose it . . . if her own anxiety doesn’t slow her down. The can’t-miss debut novel from podcaster and comedian Brooke Averick.

Debut | Early Release


Thrillers, Mysteries, & Crime Fiction

I also waffled about a number of books, including The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego, The Backstabbers by Eliza Jabore, and The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman.

A Little Bit Bad

Cassandra Neyenesch

Synopsis: A “compulsively readable” (Sophie Stava, author of Count My Lies) novel about a San Diego housewife whose love affair with her neighbor’s roofer is interrupted by a murder.

Debut

Honey

Imani Thompson

Synopsis: A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction.

Debut

Night Objects

Eli Raphael

Synopsis: This suspenseful novel transports readers to the windswept coast of Washington State and a boarding school steeped in privilege and deadly secrets—a remarkable story of grief, power, and the dangerous price of belonging.

Debut

Dissection of a Murder

Jo Murray

Synopsis: Nothing is as it seems—and no one is telling the truth—in this “addictive page-turner” about a young lawyer forced to defend a man on trial for murder against the mentor who taught her everything: her husband.

The One Day You Were My Husband

Rosie Walsh

Synopsis: From the New York Times–bestselling author of Ghosted and The Love of My Life comes an unmissable emotional thriller: an up-all-night, page-turning love story with a very dark secret at its heart.

Repeat Author

Caller Unknown

Gillian McAllister

Synopsis: How far would you go to rescue your child? A mother races against the clock—and finds herself on the wrong side of the law—in a desperate fight to save her teenage daughter in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time.

Repeat Author


Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism


I wavered whether to include The Midnight Train by Matt Haig, but I do not think it will be a pick.

The Lost Book of Lancelot

John Glynn

Synopsis: A “breathtaking” (Sarah Penner) reimagining of the legend of Sir Lancelot, following the famous knight as he grows up orphaned, falls in love, and attempts to fulfill his destiny at the Round Table—from the bestselling author of Out East.

Debut

Seek the Traitor’s Son

Veronica Roth

Synopsis: In a world of witches, a human woman must hunt or be hunted in this explosive debut novel filled with dangerous rivals, guarded secrets, and simmering chemistry.

The Last Contract of Isako

Fonda Lee

Synopsis: A battle-worn corporate samurai undertakes one last mission on a merciless planet where death is always a mere breath away, in this standalone dystopian epic from the author of the modern fantasy classic Jade City. 

Broken Dove

Dani Francis

Synopsis: In the heart-pounding sequel to the New York Times bestselling dystopian romance Silver Elite, lines will be crossed, loyalties will be tested, and the fight for the Continent is only just beginning as Wren Darlington finds herself caught in the middle of two wars: one for the fate of her home and another for the fate of her heart.

Repeat Author

The Tapestry of Fate

Shannon Chakraborty

Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty sets sail into the second adventure of pirate Amina al-Sirafi as her quest to track down magical artifacts brings her to the island lair of a sorceress whose woven enchantments are impossible to flee.

Repeat Author

We Burned So Bright

T.J. Klune

Synopsis: A heart-wrenching standalone novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, We Burned So Bright follows an elder gay couple on an end-of-the-world road-trip.

Repeat Author


Nonfiction

Mother Tongue

Sara Novic

Synopsis: The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

Repeat Author

This Is Me: A Reckoning

Hayden Panettiere

Synopsis: Heroes and Nashville star Hayden Panettiere reclaims her story in a remarkably candid memoir. 

Debut