What books will YOU love this month?
February 2024
This is the perfect time of the year to curl up under a blanket and have a cozy reading escape. There’s lots to love about the new releases coming out in February….which ones do you think will make it into your favorite blue box?
For those of you who are new here, Book of the Month is a subscription box where you get to pick a new release hardback book to be sent to you every month. There are five choices (called picks), often representing different genres. You choose one out of the five picks, and Book of the Month will mail it to you. While only one book is included in your subscription plan, you can “add-on” an additional book for $10.99. Sometimes, Book of the Month will include addition books as add-ons, but you have to choose from the main picks before you can choose one of those add-ons. In addition to offering new releases, Book of the Month will often work with the publishing companies to offer early releases, so you can get the book a few weeks (or even a month or two) before the general public! Best of all, Book of the Month ships to APO/FPO addresses, which is a requirement for our familiy these days. If you’re interested in subscribing, follow my referral link here: https://www.mybotm.com/2j8z5ybfh29h33di?show_box=true
Here are my top 12 guesses about what could be coming to a blue box near you:
The Women by Kristin Hannah
CONFIRMED PICK/BOTM Repeat Author
| Genre: | Historical Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.68 |
| Pages: | 480 |
| Publication Date: | February 6, 2024 |
From the Publisher:
"From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.”
My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
DEBUT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Nonfiction/Memoir |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.39 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Publication Date: | February 13, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez reveals her experience as the U.S. born daughter of immigrants and what happened when, at fifteen, her parents were forced back to Mexico in this galvanizing yet tender memoir.
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth’s own country took away the most important right a child has: a right to have a family.
As her parents’ visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide.
Armed with only her passport and sheer teenage determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied, homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws. For fans of Educated by Tara Westover and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of his own dreams easier than it was for her.”
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
| Genre: | Romance |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.27 |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Publication Date: | February 6, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is an epic love story one hundred years in the making…
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.
Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.
When regal nonagenarian Ms. Della invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.
One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.
Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.”
Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks
DEBUT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Literary Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.20 |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Publication Date: | February 13, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"In this stirring, tender-hearted debut about ambition and inheritance, a family grapples with how much of their lineage they’re willing to unearth in order to participate in the nation’s first federal reparations program.
Every American waits with baited breath to see whether or not the country’s first female president will pass the Forgiveness Act. The bill would allow Black families to claim up to $175,000 if they can prove they are the descendants of slaves and for ambitious single mother Willie Revel the bill could be a long-awaited form of redemption. A decade ago, Willie gave up her burgeoning journalism career to help run her father’s struggling construction company in Philadelphia and she has reluctantly put family first without being able to forget who she might have become. Now, she’s back living with her parents and her young daughter while trying to keep her family from going into bankruptcy. Could the Forgiveness Act uncover her forgotten roots while also helping save their beloved home and her father’s life work?
In order to qualify, she must first prove that the Revels are descended from slaves, but the rest of the family isn’t as eager to dig up the past. Her mother is adopted; her father doesn’t trust the government and believes working with a morally corrupt employer is the better way to save their business; and her daughter is just trying to make it through the fifth grade at her elite private school without attracting unwanted attention. It’s up to Willie to verify their ancestry and save her family—but as she delves into their history, Willie begins to learn just how complicated family and forgiveness can be.
With powerful insight and moving prose, Acts of Forgiveness asks how history shapes who we become and to consider the weight of success when it is achieved despite incredible odds—and ultimately what leaving behind a legacy truly means.”
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by Gennarose Nethercott
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| Goodreads Rating: | 3.95 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Publication Date: | February 6, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a From the author of the breakout fantasy novel Thistlefoot : a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring all the ways love can save us—or go monstrously wrong.
The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, hungry the desire to be loved, and seen, and known. And the terror of those things to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be known and recognized as the monstrous thing you are.
Two young women working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets—and their own doomed summer love. A group of witchy teens concoct the perfect plan to induce the hated new girl into their ranks. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. And two outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world’s lack of understanding might bring about its own end.
In these lush, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores love in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.”
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander
DEBUT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Goodreads Rating: | 3.78 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Publication Date: | February 6, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"What if everything you know about the worst night of your life turns out not to be true?
Nine years ago, with the world’s eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a “witness” to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve—events known to the public as “Scarlet Christmas”—though Charlie knows she was much more than that.
Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She’s the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie’s former classmates threatens to shatter everything she’s worked for, Charlie realizes how much she’s changed in nine years. Now, she’s not going to let anything—not even the people she once loved most—get in her way.”
My Name Was Eden by Eleanor Barker-White
DEBUT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Goodreads Rating: | 3.96 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Publication Date: | February 27, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"In this edge-of-your-seat psychological debut, a mother’s experience with Vanishing Twin Syndrome triggers disturbing changes in her teenage daughter, perfect for fans of The Push and The Undoing .
When her daughter Eden came home from the hospital, Lucy was profoundly relieved. Eden had survived a drowning incident and had no apparent brain damage, no serious injuries, not even a scratch on her. Lucy fervently welcomed having a second chance at being the good mother she should have been before her teenager’s accident. Until Eden tells her that Eden isn’t her name. Until she starts calling herself Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin. Don’t worry , says the doctor. Eden is completely fine , says her husband. Of course I’m fine , Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here . But Lucy knows something’s very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore—this straight-backed, even tempered, steady-eyed child in her house is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared…”
The Fox Wife by Yangtze Choo
BOTM REPEAT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.30 |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Publication Date: | February 13, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi , or life force, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .
Manchuria, 1908.
A young woman is found frozen in the snow. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes involved, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and men. Bao, a detective with a reputation for sniffing out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now.
Meanwhile, a family that owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments, but not the curse that afflicts them―their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. Now the only grandson of the family is twenty-three. When a mysterious woman enters their household, their luck seems to change. Or does it? Is their new servant a simple young woman from the north or a fox spirit bent on her own revenge?
New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about a winter full of mysterious deaths, a mother seeking revenge, and old folktales that may very well be true.”
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
BOTM REPEAT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Historical Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.11 |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Publication Date: | February 27, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There There —winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the John Leonard Prize, the American Book Award, and one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2018— Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Red Feather’s shooting in There There.
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.
Oakland, 2018. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is barely holding her family together after the shooting that nearly took the life of her nephew Orvil. From the moment he awakens in his hospital bed, Orvil begins compulsively googling school shootings on YouTube. He also becomes emotionally reliant on the prescription medications meant to ease his physical trauma. His younger brother, Lony, suffering from PTSD, is struggling to make sense of the carnage he witnessed at the shooting by secretly cutting himself and enacting blood rituals that he hopes will connect him to his Cheyenne heritage. Opal is equally adrift, experimenting with Ceremony and peyote, searching for a way to heal her wounded family.
Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange once again delivers a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous, a book piercing in its poetry, sorrow, and rage—a masterful follow-up to his already-classic first novel, and a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.”
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
| Genre: | Historical Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.24 |
| Pages: | 384 |
| Publication Date: | February 13, 2024 |
From the publisher:
“From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.”
Where Butterflies Wander by Suzzanne Redfearn
| Genre: | Contemporary Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.37 |
| Pages: | 298 |
| Publication Date: | February 6, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"From the bestselling author of In an Instant comes the moving story of a family grappling with grief and a woman with the power to help them through it—or stand in their way.
After a tragic accident claims the life of one of her children, Marie Egide is desperate to carve out a fresh start for her family. With her husband and their three surviving children, Marie travels to New Hampshire, where she plans to sell a family estate and then, just maybe, they’ll be able to heal from their grief.
Marie’s plans are thwarted when she realizes a war veteran known by locals as “the river witch” is living in a cabin on the property, which she claims was a gift from Marie’s grandfather. If Davina refuses to move on, Marie won’t be able to either.
The two women clash, and battle lines are drawn within Marie’s family and the town as each side fights for what they believe is right, the tension rising until it reaches its breaking point. And the choice is no longer theirs when a force bigger than them all—fate—takes control.”
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
DEBUT AUTHOR
| Genre: | Science Fiction |
| Goodreads Rating: | 4.20 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Publication Date: | February 27, 2024 |
From the publisher:
"A literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future.
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town–except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.
When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.”
Want to try Book of the Month Club? Click on my referral link!
https://www.mybotm.com/2j8z5ybfh29h33di?show_box=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61767163-the-last-word?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4G1nzXbrUf&rank=1
Baking Through Book Club 