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.
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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, June 30th or Wednesday, July 1st.
Literary Fiction
I wavered whether to include a few books but ultimately ruled them out (including The New People by Andrea Uptmor, Wasp’s Nest by Kat Stoddard, Ungodly Rich by Katherine McGee, Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens, and The Forest Becomes Her by Julie Carrick Dalton). If there is an early release, I think it may be Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty.
Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Ben Reeves
Synopsis: For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an unforgettable and exquisitely moving novel about finding beauty, hope, and meaning in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
Debut
Should the Waters Take Us
Stephanie Soileau
Synopsis: An epic debut novel that follows one family across four centuries, from France to Acadia to the bayous of Southern Louisiana—a poignant examination of belonging, place, and how individual acts of moral compromise contribute to cycles of injustice and destruction.
Debut
A Real Animal
Emeline Atwood
Synopsis: In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas.
Debut
Beginning Middle End
Emeline Atwood
Synopsis: From the beloved, award-winning author of the modern classics Lost Children Archive and Tell Me How It Ends comes her most powerful and page-turning novel yet: the tale of a mother and a daughter starting over, searching for a new story.
Early Release
When Mikan Road Was Ours
D.K. Furutani
Synopsis: A gripping, sincere debut novel set across four generations of a Japanese American family living in California’s vibrant agricultural heartlands, exploring the sharp edges of inheritance and what it means to truly belong.
Debut | Early Release
Man Overboard!
Kathleen Rooney
Synopsis: From the nationally bestselling author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, comes a funny and moving novel in which a former college swimmer falls off a cruise ship and must keep treading water as memories and regrets wash over him—perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette; Florence Adler Swims Forever; and The Wedding People.
Famous Men
Julie Buntin
Synopsis: From the acclaimed author of Marlena comes a vivid, uncompromising novel about a young woman looking for a father and finding herself.
Repeat Author
Destination Funeral
Paige Harbison
Synopsis: A fresh take on Groundhog Day with a dash of Practical Magic meets the magical escapism of One Italian Summer in this heartfelt and hilarious novel following a friend group so damaged that only a funeral could bring them back together.
Repeat Author
Historical Fiction
I also considered Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead, Single Girls by John Searles, Few and Far Between by Jan Carson, Song for Another Home by Bora Lee Reed, The Winds of Maracaibo by María Elena Morán, and The Half Life by Rachel Beanland.
The Great Werever
Shannon Sanders
Synopsis: An impulsive and heartbroken woman inherits her father’s share of a Tennessee farm that is rich in family secrets and occupied with busybody ghosts in this sweeping family portrait.
Debut
Nothing to My Name
Kangkang Li Kovacs
Synopsis: Inspired by the author’s own family history, and spanning the past hundred years of Chinese history, this multi-generational family saga explores how women survive the tsunamis of history.
Debut
Lady X
Molly Fadder
Synopsis: The search for a notorious vigilante exposes the secrets among three generations of women, from contemporary L.A. to gritty 1970s New York, in this propulsive novel hailed as “an unputdownable paean to female rage and retribution” by #1 bestselling author Jodi Picoult.
Debut | Early Release
The Intrigue
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con.
Repeat Author
Romance
I considered but then ruled out The Good Parts by Evann Normandin, Our Common Thread by Kahli Scott, Thighs Wide Shut by Hayley Fleming, Married with Benefits by Ellie Palmer, Return to Sender by Stephanie Parente, and Star-Crossed Summer by Devon Daniels.
The MASH Up
Laura Marie Meyers
Synopsis: Ruby Wynne is a staunch rule-follower who lives by the numbers. So when a surprising breakup – on her thirty-fifth birthday – ruins all her well-laid plans, Ruby makes an unexpected wish . . . Only to wake up inside a M.A.S.H. game from seventh grade.
Debut
The Good Parts
Evann Normandin
Synopsis: An epic, unforgettable love story about a woman who takes a memory-erasing pill and the man she once loved who returns as a stranger, hoping to make her fall for him all over again―for fans of One Day and In Five Years.
Debut | Early Release
The Winged Game
Sophie Kim
Synopsis: Fantasy meets sports romance in this sizzling slow-burn novel in which the disgraced star of a brutal magical sport must team up with the rival who destroyed her career, from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The God and the Gumiho.
In Stormy Weather Chase Me If You Can
Chelsea Curto
Synopsis: From bestselling indie author Chelsea Curto comes an academic rivals-to-lovers romance about storm-chasing meteorologists during hurricane season in Florida—perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood and B.K. Borison.
The Romance Revival
Christina Lauren
Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren returns with an unforgettable romance in which a fateful accident erases a troubled marriage from memory—and a scientific breakthrough gives love one extraordinary do-over.
Repeat Author
Thrillers, Mysteries, & Crime Fiction
I also waffled about a number of books, including Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, The Whisper by Chelsea Iversen, Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead, The Man by Laura Sims, and Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard. I do not think It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell will be a selection. Unreliable Narrator, The Season of Sinking by Daphne Woolsoncroft
The Death Row Club
V.A. Vazquez
Synopsis: A dark, dazzlingly original psychological thriller about a woman invited to an annual weekend getaway for the adult children of serial killers… but when one of the participants ends up dead, they begin to wonder if someone among them might be carrying on the family traditions.
Debut
The Devoted
Catherine Cho
Synopsis: In this emotionally transportive literary debut about family and fate, a young Korean woman becomes entrenched in an infamous crime organization—and the dangerous world she once sought to escape.
Debut
Pretty Dead Things
Kelsey Cox
Synopsis: Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.
Helpless
Jessica Knoll
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women comes a smoldering erotic thriller with a singular, mind-bending ending.
Repeat Author
Indie Darling
Lauren Nossett
Synopsis: A brilliant, breakout novel from ITW Thriller Award-winning author Lauren Nossett—a mystery set in Nashville, where a Dolly Parton–loving private detective is drawn into the disappearance of an enigmatic pop star.
Early Release
The Night Hunter
Natalie Moss
Synopsis: In a remote corner of the South African bush, two sisters reunite to bury a family secret once and for all, but when they’re stranded among the wild animals, they find a predator far more dangerous waiting for them in the shadows . . .
Debut | Early Release
Horror & Gothic Fiction
The Flayed Man
Chloe Lauter
Synopsis: A complex mother-daughter relationship is taken to a new level in this fresh and propulsive novel of family curses, blood-thirsty ghouls, and budding romance set against the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas.
Debut
Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism
I wavered whether to include A Tangled Magic by Andrea Eames and Not with a Bang by Temi Oh, but I do not think they will be picks.
The Lure of Wolves and Whispers
Amanda Connolly
Synopsis: One sister offers her life in exchange for the other’s in this dark, Irish lore–inspired romantasy and “sizzling, high-stakes debut launching a series that readers will greedily devour” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Debut
The Felicity Complex
August Clarke
Synopsis: Annie Bot meets Fallout in this dystopian satire: six women created in a lab, designed to serve the billionaires of the future in a luxury fallout shelter, rebel against their programming after the end times arrive.
Debut
Fishbone Cinderella
Elizabeth Lim
Synopsis: A mother and daughter must break their family’s curse through trials of war and immigration, love, loss, and redemption in this riveting multi-generational saga with a shimmer of magic, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate.
Early Release
Ruinous Ends
I. V. Marie
Synopsis: The future of Blackwood Academy—and the entire afterlife—is at stake in the must-read sequel to the viral dark fantasy sensation Immortal Consequences.
Repeat Author
Habits of the Sea
Shea Ernshaw
Synopsis: The second adult novel from New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, in which a woman rediscovers the mythical island she stumbled upon as a child—and the man she once met who apparently hasn’t aged—and must choose between the life she’s built and a love that defies the laws of time and nature.
Repeat Author
Dominion
Jean Kwok
Synopsis: Fourth Wing—by way of Chinese mythology—meets The Hunger Games in a perilous world where a young woman with no memory and little magic may hold the key to uniting the Dominions and saving the mortal realm, from the New York Times bestselling author of Read with Jenna pick Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation.
Repeat Author
Nonfiction
All That’s Unseen: An Appalachian Memoir
Emilee Hackney
Synopsis: In her luminous debut, Emilee Hackney offers both a love letter to and a reckoning of the place that made her—a story of losing her faith, finding her way back to her Appalachian home, and discovering what endures.
Debut
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