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August BOTM Wishlist

As we approach another month, anticipation is building and I can't wait to see what BOTM will be offering in just two short weeks. I was glad to see a couple of my July hopefuls actually made it, so fingers crossed for August!

Before I get to my "official" list, let it be known that I'm still hoping for Love on the Brain, as mentioned in my previous hopefuls post. I knew I was pushing it for July, but with an August 23 release date, it has a good chance of being chosen this time. BOTM, don't let me down!

MAIN PICKS

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Contemporary Fiction, pub date: 8/30/22)

Goodreads Blurb: Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe” anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all, Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells her most vulnerable, emotional story yet.

My Thoughts: First of all, we stan TJR. And even though Malibu Rising was hit-or-miss with a lot of TJR fans, Carrie Soto is sure to be a hit (see what I did there?) -- the book already has a 4.5 star rating on Goodreads. Personally, I love both tennis and a comeback story so I will be supremely disappointed if this is not chosen.

The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead (Mystery/Thriller, pub date: 8/16/22)

Goodreads Blurb: While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death—delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader—she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it—both inside the cult and outside of it—is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?

My Thoughts: I'm slowly getting more into thrillers, and even though this one sounds a little vague and open, it makes me interested to see what might unfold in this story. The reviews are off the charts and it sounds really intense and un-put-down-able so hopefully BOTM is getting in on this!

Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri (Literary Fiction, pub date: 8/9/22)

Goodreads Blurb: When Anna's sister calls with an urgent message, Anna doesn't return the call. She knows it's about their mother.

Growing up in working class Boston in an Italian American family, Anna's childhood was sparse but comfortable--filled with homemade pasta sauce and a close-knit neighborhood. Anna and her sisters are devoted to their mother, orbiting her like the sun, trying to keep up with her loving but mercurial nature as she bounces between tenderness and bitterness.

When their father gets a new job outside the city, the family is tossed unceremoniously into a middle-class suburban existence. Anna's mother is suddenly adrift, and the darkness lurking inside her expands until it threatens to explode. Her daughters, trapped with her in the new house, isolated, must do everything they can to keep her from unraveling.

Alternating between childhood and a single weekend in Anna's twenties, in which she receives a shattering call about her mother and threatens to blow up her own precariously constructed new life in New York, Mother in the Dark asks whether we can ever really go back home when the idea of home was so unstable. Whether we can escape that instability or accept that our personalities are built around the defenses we put up. Maiuri is a master at revealing the fragile horrors of domestic family life and how the traumas of the past shape the present and generations of women.

A story about sisterhood, the complications of class, and the chains of inheritance between mothers and daughters, Mother in the Dark delivers an unvarnished portrayal of a young woman consumed by her past and a family teetering on the edge of a knife.

My Thoughts: I'm always fascinated by stories that revolve around family drama and secrets. And I love that this story alternates between Anna's childhood and adult life. Though it sounds like it might be a slow burner, the few ratings and reviews so far seem promising enough that this could be a hidden treasure for BOTM.

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (Mystery/Thriller, pub date: 8/9/22)

Goodreads Blurb: Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock—news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never imagined.

In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth.

My Thoughts: Having not read The Family Upstairs, I'm glad to know that this can be read as a standalone. However, I'm sure fans of The Family Upstairs would love the "sequel" to match their BOTM copy. However, Lisa Jewell already has 5 BOTM books so it might be a stretch for them to pick this one.

ADD-ON/SPOTLIGHT

Again, add-ons are a little unpredictable, especially with the possibility of more than 5 main picks. But here are some that I would love to see.

The Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe (Romance, pub date: 8/2/22)

Goodreads Blurb: In this funny and sharp romantic comedy, a woman with a knack for turning her boyfriends’ lives around starts a professional service to help wrangle men, only to be unexpectedly matched with an old flame.

Ever since she can remember, Aly has been fixing everything around her: her parents’ marriage, her colleagues’ work problems, and her friends’ love lives. After a chance meeting with an ex who has gone from a living in his parents’ basement to a married project manager in three years, she realizes she’s been fixing her boyfriends, too…

So, Aly decides to put her talents to good use and, alongside two work friends, sets up The Fixer Upper, an exclusive, underground service for women who are tired of unpaid emotional labor. Using little tricks and tips, Aly and her friends get the men to do the work themselves – to get out of the job they hate, sign up for that growth seminar, to do more parenting. Before long, a high-profile Instagram star hires them to fix-up her app developer boyfriend. There’s just one catch – he’s also Aly’s childhood best friend and first love. As Aly tackles her biggest “fixer upper” yet, she’ll have to come to terms with their complicated history and figure out how much to change someone she’d always thought was perfect as he is…

My Thoughts: Okay, I'm a sucker for romance, and I love the premise of this book. (I'm also really interested in how Aly gets these men to improve themselves!) But any book that reunites first loves is already a winner in my book. Though this one has just under 4 stars on Goodreads, I am attributing that to this book not really being on people's radar. Fingers crossed that BOTM picks this one up!

How You Grow Wings by Rimma Onoseta (YA, pub date: 8/9/22)

Goodreads Blurb: Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn’t be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother’s anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible. In a turn of good fortune, Zam is invited to live with her aunt’s family in the lap of luxury. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but finds a harder existence that will drive her to terrible decisions. When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone will recognize just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta’s fate will rest in Zam’s hands. Debut author Rimma Onoseta deftly explores classism, colorism, cycles of abuse, how loyalty doesn’t always come attached to love, and the messy truths that sometimes family is not a source of comfort and that morality is all shades of gray.

My Thoughts: Every once in a while, a YA novel really piques my interest. I love that this is another family drama kind of story, and in particular, that these sisters are described as polar opposites and one will come to depend on the other. I am super excited to read this, and the few ratings and reviews make this sound like another hidden gem.

Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean (Contemporary Fiction, pub date: 8/9/22)

Goodreads Blurb: One phone call changes everything.

At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki’s life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She’s a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she’s been fired from her latest dead-end job.

Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny—the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. What starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully-fledged fake life, one where Mika is mature, put-together, successful in love and her career.

The details of Mika’s life might be an illusion, but everything she shares with curious, headstrong Penny is real: her hopes, dreams, flaws, and Japanese heritage. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny’s adoptive widower father. What starts as a rocky, contentious relationship slowly blossoms into a friendship and, over time, something more. But can Mika really have it all—love, her daughter, the life she’s always wanted? Or will Mika’s deceptions ultimately catch up to her? In the end, Mika must face the truth—about herself, her family, and her past—and answer the question, just who is Mika in real life?

In this brilliant new novel by from Emiko Jean, the author of the New York Times bestselling young adult novel Tokyo Ever After, comes a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly heartwarming novel about motherhood, daughterhood, and love—how we find it, keep it, and how it always returns.

My Thoughts: I love when authors are versatile and write in multiple genres, so though I haven't read the Tokyo series (yet?) I am excited to read this adult novel from Emiko Jean. Not only am I interested to see how Mika builds a relationship with Penny, but I see that there might be a budding romance in the works for Mika as well. This book sounds like a light but heartwarming read and I really hope BOTM chooses it!

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!

❤️

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