If you're anything like me, half of the fun of BOTM is guessing what they're going to choose for the upcoming month. Some people have been pretty spot-on with their predictions. I, however, have absolutely no idea or secret insider clues. Not to mention that BOTM has really been surprising us these last few months. So these are not my predictions, or even "hopefuls" for July, but more of a list of books I wouldn't be surprised if BOTM chose...and would love.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Contemporary Fiction, pub date: 7/5/22)
Goodreads Blurb: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
My Thoughts: First of all, I just love the cover. And even though this isn't a debut author, it sounds like it would fit right in with BOTM's repertoire. I know I'm looking forward to reading this, and its rating on Goodreads is greater than 4.25 stars so I foresee this being a hit, maybe even a member fave.
The Light Always Breaks by Angela Jackson-Brown (Historical Fiction, pub date: 7/5/22)
Goodreads Blurb: Few women own upscale restaurants in civil rights era Washington, D.C. Fewer still are twenty-four, Black, and wildly successful. But Eva Cardon is unwilling to serve only the wealthiest movers and shakers, and she plans to open a diner that offers Southern comfort to the working class.
A war hero and one of Georgia’s native sons, Courtland Hardiman Kingsley IV is a junior senator with great ambitions for his time in D.C. But while his father is determined to see Courtland on a path to the White House, the young senator wants to use his office to make a difference in people’s lives, regardless of political consequences.
When equal-rights activism throws Eva and Courtland into each other’s paths, they can’t fight the attraction they feel, no matter how much it complicates their dreams. For Eva, falling in love with a white Southerner is all but unforgivable—and undesirable. Her mother and grandmother fell in love with white men, and their families paid the price. Courtland is already under pressure for his liberal ideals, and his family has a line of smiling debutantes waiting for him on every visit. If his father found out about Eva, he’s not sure he’d be welcome home again.
Surrounded by the disapproval of their families and the scorn of the public, Eva and Courtland must decide if the values they hold most dear—including love—are worth the loss of their dreams . . . and everything else.
The author of When Stars Rain Down returns with a historical love story about all that has—and has not—changed in the United States.
My Thoughts: Admittedly, this might be a stretch coming right on the heels of Take My Hand (May) but a girl can hope, right? Historical fiction can be tough, especially when based on actual people and/or events, BUT this one's got romance, family drama, and societal pressure all tangled together. I also think it's unique that the Eva is a restaurant-owner, and not initially an activist. The Goodreads rating isn't quite 3.5 stars, but it only has a few reviews so I feel like it's underrated. And that's exactly why I think BOTM would pick it.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch (Sci-Fi/Fantasy, pub date: 7/12/22)
Goodreads Blurb: “You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
My Thoughts: Sci-Fi isn't usually my jam, and I haven't read either of Crouch's other two BOTMs, but I could be persuaded to give this one a shot. Honestly, I'm banking on this one purely because it'd make Crouch a "3peat Author" on BOTM.
The It Girl by Ruth Ware (Thriller/Mystery, pub date: 7/12/22)
Goodreads Blurb: April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.
My Thoughts: Ruth Ware has a lot of books offered by BOTM already, so I wouldn't be too surprised if The It Girl wasn't chosen this month. (BOTM seems to be avoiding repeat authors and "highly anticipated" or popular releases.) At the same time, Ruth Ware has a lot of books offered by BOTM already, so I would be a little surprised if The It Girl wasn't chosen this month. It's got a solid 4 stars on Goodreads so I'm sure it would be well-received if BOTM chose it.
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Memoir, pub date: 7/12/22)
Goodreads Blurb: For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Raised amid the political violence of 1980s and '90s Colombia, in a house bustling with her mother's fortune-telling clients, she was a hard child to surprise. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, a community healer gifted with what the family called "the secrets" the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, treat the sick, and move the clouds. And as the first woman to inherit "the secrets," Rojas Contreras' mother was just as powerful. Mami delighted in her ability to appear in two places at once, and she could cast out even the most persistent spirits with nothing more than a glass of water.
This legacy had always felt like it belonged to her mother and grandfather, until, while living in the U.S. in her twenties, Rojas Contreras suffered a head injury that left her with amnesia. As she regained partial memory, her family was excited to tell her that this had happened before: Decades ago Mami had taken a fall that left her with amnesia, too. And when she recovered, she had gained access to "the secrets."
In 2012, spurred by a shared dream among Mami and her sisters, and her own powerful urge to relearn her family history in the aftermath of her memory loss, Rojas Contreras joins her mother on a journey to Colombia to disinter Nono's remains. With Mami as her unpredictable, stubborn, and often hilarious guide, Rojas Contreras traces her lineage back to her Indigenous and Spanish roots, uncovering the violent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her mestizo family into two camps: those who believe "the secrets" are a gift, and those who are convinced they are a curse.
Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.
My Thoughts: BOTM just offered a narrative non-fiction book in April and a memoir in December of 2021, so July might be a little soon for this book. But it sounds extremely intriguing and the Goodreads rating just shy of 4.5 stars is promising! I'm not familiar with Rojas Contreras's writing but from the summary I wouldn't expect this to be a typical memoir. Again, right up BOTM's alley.
Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola (Romance, pub date: July 5, 2022)
Goodreads Blurb: Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. An expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show, Brown Sugar, she’s made it her mission to make sure the women of the Afro-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of “situationships”, players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as “The Wastemen of Whitewell” in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show and her reputation on the brink.
They’re soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures. Kiki has never surrendered her heart before and a player like Malakai, no matter how charming he is or how incredible their connection is, won’t be the one to change that.
After surprisingly entertaining study sessions and intimate late-night talks at old-fashioned diners force Kiki to look beyond her own presumptions, is she ready to open herself up to something deeper?
A side-splittingly funny and sparkling debut novel, Honey and Spice is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.
My Thoughts: Babalola's short story collection was chosen as an add-on, so I am really hoping they choose her debut novel this month. Personally, I love the fake relationship trope, and this book sounds like it's funny. I wouldn't put it past BOTM to lighten things up a bit with this one.
BOTM recently started offering 6 or 7 books instead of the usual 5, so there might not be as much room for add-ons. However, here are a few that, if they aren't chosen as main picks, I'd love to see at least in the "spotlight" section.
A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia (Contemporary Fiction, pub date: 8/9/22)
Goodreads Blurb: Noora's life is a little off track. She's an aspiring writer and amateur blogger in New York—which is a nice way of saying that she tutors rich Upper East Side kids and is currently crashing on her sister's couch. But that's okay. Noora has Leila, who has always been her rock, and now she has another major influence to lean on: Vinyl magazine. The pages of Vinyl practically raised Noora, teaching her everything from how to properly insert a tampon to which political ideology she subscribes to.
So when she lands a highly coveted job as assistant to Loretta James, Vinyl's iconic editor-in-chief, Noora can't believe her luck. Her only dream is to write for Vinyl, and now with her foot firmly in the door and the Loretta James as her mentor, Noora is finally on the right path... or so she thinks.
Loretta is an unhinged nightmare, insecure and desperate to remain relevant in an evolving media landscape she doesn't understand. Noora's phone buzzes constantly with Loretta's bizarre demands, particularly with tasks Loretta hopes will undermine the success of Vinyl's wunderkind digital director Jade Aki. The reality of Noora's job is nothing like she expected, and a misguided crush on the hot IT guy only threatens to complicate things even more. But as Loretta and the old-school print team enter into a turf war with Jade and the woke-for-the-wrong-reasons digital team, Noora soon finds herself caught in the middle. And with her dream job on the line, she'll need to either choose a side or form her own.
Clever, incisive, and thoroughly fun, A Hundred Other Girls is an insider's take on the changing media industry, an ode to sisterhood, and a profound exploration of what it means to chase your dreams.
My Thoughts: This debut novel sounds like a fun, summer, New Adult-ish book and would be an early release for BOTM. I was drawn to this book by the comparison to both The Devil Wears Prada and The Bold Type so I would be excited to read it.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (Romance, pub date: 8/23/22)
Goodreads Blurb: Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project—a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia—Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.
Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school—archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.
Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
My Thoughts: I know I'm not the only one who likes their series to match, and after the smash hit that The Love Hypothesis was, if BOTM doesn't pick this up, there will be some very sad bookshelf perfectionists. But also, I am very much looking forward to another book from Ali Hazelwood. Two birds, one stone, amiright?
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Sci-Fi, pub date: 7/19/22)
Goodreads Blurb: Carlota Moreau: a young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of either a genius, or a madman.
Montgomery Laughton: a melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.
The hybrids: the fruits of the Doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.
All of them living in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.
For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.
THE DAUGHTER OF DOCTOR MOREAU is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey.
My Thoughts: Silvia Moreno-Garcia won my heart with Gods of Jade and Shadow and I now want to read pretty much everything she's ever written. She's already a "3peat Author" with BOTM so again, long shot if BOTM is getting away from previous authors, but I'm really hoping I'll be able to continue matching Moreno-Garcia's books. I'm not familiar with the book this is based on, and maybe I need to read that first, but I don't foresee that being an obstacle to enjoying this book.
Thanks for reading this far! That's it for this month!
If you have thoughts on these books or other books BOTM might offer I'd love to hear from you!
And if you've never tried BOTM and are interested, feel free to use this referral link to join and get your first month for just $5!
