What’s in the Box!- April 2020 BOTM Predictions

Hoorah, it is BOTM guessing time! As always, we have waded through a lot of guesses and these are the books that we think are the most likely selections for April. This month’s clues we think are related to the starting initials of the book titles which made it pretty easy. We are actually feeling very confident about our guesses, so confident in fact, that this month we aren’t even considering alternative guesses. However, we admit that we might make mistakes so remember that these are only thoughtful guesses and not the confirmed selections. We’re only human after all!

Riddle #1- “Bitters Rye”

Beach Read by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley on May 19, 2020
Pages: 384
Goodreads

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They're polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

Why It Fits: This seems like exactly the kind of romance BOTM has been incorporating into its boxes more and more often. It’s a lighter romance (though early reviews say it’s not quite as light as the cover suggests) featuring two authors. Add to that the fact that Emily Henry is a repeat BOTM author AND that this novel was blurbed by both Jasmine Guillory AND Josie Silver? This one is absolutely a shoo-in pick!

Riddle #2- “Tonic Gin Lime”

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
on March 19, 2020
Goodreads

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the author of The Hunting Party.
The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner ‧ The bridesmaid ‧ The body
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

Why It Fits: A perfect BOTM character-driven thriller, this novel sounds like Agatha Christie for our generation. A wedding between two rising stars, an actor and a magazine publisher, taking place on a remote island off Ireland. I mean, of COURSE somebody shows up dead, right? Early reviews call it fast-paced and a fun read - seems like an excellent BOTM pick!

Riddle #3- “Vermouth”

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
on March 31, 2020
Goodreads

Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.
Mercy is hard in a place like this . . .
It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.
In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, one of the town’s women decides to take matters into her own hands, setting the stage for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, darkly funny, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.

Why It Fits: This novel is already drawing comparisons to Barbara Kingsolver, so obviously it is a perfect BOTM pick! This novel, set in Tecas in 1976, explores issues of race and justice and class and how they all intertwine. Definitely tailor made for BOTM.

Riddle #4- “Tequila Lime Orange Lemon”

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on May 12, 2020
Pages: 400
Goodreads

From the author of Three Souls and Dragon Springs Road comes a captivating historical novel in which a convoy of student refugees travel across China, fleeing the hostilities of a brutal war with Japan

 “Myths are the darkest and brightest incarnations of who we are . . .”
China, 1937. When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, nineteen-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of students, faculty and staff must walk 1,000 miles to the safety of China’s western provinces, a journey marred by the constant threat of aerial attack. And it is not just the refugees who are at risk; Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure: a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.
The students’ common duty to safeguard the Library of Legends creates unexpected bonds. Lian becomes friends and forms a cautious romance with the handsome and wealthy Liu Shaoming. But after one classmate is arrested and another one is murdered, Lian realizes she must escape before a family secret puts her in danger too. Accompanied by Shao and his enigmatic maidservant, Sparrow, Lian makes her way to Shanghai in the hopes of reuniting with her mother.
During the journey, Lian learns of the connection between her two companions and a tale from the Library of Legends, The Willow Star and the Prince. This revelation comes with profound consequences, for as the ancient books travel across China, they awaken immortals and guardian spirits who embark on an exodus of their own, one that will change the country’s fate forever.

Why It Fits: Ok, I am telling you now that I will for SURE pick this book next month. It’s part historical-fiction, part romance, part fantasy and it sounds freaking amazing. BOTM loves a mixed-genre book, and books about authors and other stories, and this seems to check all of those boxes. I am really excited for this one!

Riddle #5- “Tonic Pimm’s Honey”

The Paris Hours: A Novel by Alex George
on May 5, 2020
Goodreads

One day in the City of Lights. One night in search of lost time.
Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost.
Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer’s notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is down on his luck and running from a debt he cannot repay—but when Gertrude Stein walks into his studio, he wonders if this is the day everything could change. And Jean-Paul is a journalist who tells other people’s stories, because his own is too painful to tell. When the quartet’s paths finally cross in an unforgettable climax, each discovers if they will find what they are looking for.
Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit.

Why It Fits: This one just sounds like a Book of the Month pick! It is a historical fiction set in late-1920s Paris that takes place over a single day, told from four different perspectives, featuring both actual historical figures and new characters. Early reviews are overall excellent, praising both the writing quality and the story. This one just might have to make its way into my box!

What Do You Think?

What do you think of our guesses? Are there titles you think fit the clues better? If these are the picks, which one will you be picking up? Let us know in the comments!