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Bookreporter.com Bets On...

With thousands of books published each year and much attention paid to the works of bestselling and well-known authors, it is inevitable that some titles worthy of praise and discussion may not get the attention we think they deserve. Thus throughout the year, we will continue this feature that we started in 2009, to spotlight books that immediately struck a chord with us and made us say “just read this.” We will alert our readers about these titles as soon as they’re released so you can discover them for yourselves and recommend them to your family and friends.

Below are all of our selections thus far. For future "Bets On" titles that we will announce shortly after their release dates, please visit this page.

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

December 2025

British royalty follows strict rules, so when you are the third heir to the throne, your life allows you a lot more latitude than those in line as one or two. Princess Alexandrina, also known as the third heir to the Queen of England, has taken up life in Australia, where she is just Lexi Villiers, who is studying medicine and living a very ordinary life. That is, until a helicopter lands on the farm where she lives.

Her grandmother’s right-hand man rushes to share the devastating news that her father (the heir) has been killed in a skiing accident, and her brother (the spare) is clinging to life. Lexi is whisked away by the chopper to a plane that will take her to England. While in the air, she is given a royal makeover so she looks regal as she touches down on British soil. By the time they land, her brother has died, and she is now the heir.

That is just the opener to THE HEIR APPARENT by Rebecca Armitage.

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Boat Baby: A Memoir by Vicky Nguyen

December 2025

I have read many memoirs and books about the immigrant experience, but migration from Vietnam to the United States is a trail that I had not explored until BOAT BABY. Vicky Nguyen was just eight months old when her family left communist Vietnam by boat for a refugee camp in Malaysia. In the photo on the front of the book, she is about 18 months old. She learned to walk as her family was in the camp waiting for their next steps. They were sponsored by an organization in Eugene, Oregon, and moved there as their first stop in the U.S.

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Last Call at the Savoy by Brisa Carleton

November 2025

LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY by debut novelist Brisa Carleton is cocktail-inspiring historical fiction. I bet you never heard of that kind of fiction before! The book is set at The Savoy Hotel in London where Ada Coleman was the head bartender at the American Bar (one of only three women to have this role) from 1903 to 1925. She was the mixologist who created the famous Hanky Panky, which was first served at The Savoy.

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Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

November 2025

I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Ryan at a publisher lunch where he talked about his debut novel, BUCKEYE. I was intrigued by the storyline and his extensive research in writing the book, which moves from World War II right up until the Vietnam War. I listened to the audiobook; the narrator, Michael Crouch, did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life for me. The characters were so well drawn, and I felt invested in what was happening to each of them.

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Heart the Lover by Lily King

October 2025

HEART THE LOVER by Lily King is the kind of book that you can devour in a sitting. You almost have to do that as it is a truly compulsive read with a lot of heart and soul. It is written in the first person by a narrator who is not named until the very last page. Do not read that page now. Stay here with me.

The narrator starts her story in her senior year of college. Two brilliant students in her 17th-Century Lit class invite her into their world, where intellectual curiosity is keen, and they love banter and late-night card games. They nickname her Jordan, and that is how we think of her throughout the book. They are living in an off-campus house that their professor has vacated while he is on sabbatical. It’s a smart and elegant home, nothing like the single-bed cold dorm room in which Jordan is used to living. 

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Please Don't Lie by Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt

October 2025

I have known Christina Baker Kline's work for a while now. I am sure that many of you are familiar with her historical novel, ORPHAN TRAIN. So it was interesting to see that her latest book, PLEASE DON’T LIE, is a thriller that she wrote with Anne Burt. And what a thriller it is!

Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost her parents in a tragic fire. Then her sister, Jenna, overdosed and died, leaving her alone but very well-off financially. Her new husband, Brandon, sees what this is doing to her. So he recommends that they get away and begin a new life together.

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Pictures of Him by Clare Leslie Hall

October 2025

I loved Clare Leslie Hall’s BROKEN COUNTRY, so I was eager to read her two earlier books, both of which had not been published in the States until late August and late September. I wrote about DAYS YOU WERE MINE, her second book, earlier this month. Now I turn my attention to PICTURES OF HIM, her debut novel.

As it opens, Catherine is mute. Something happened that has rendered her speechless, and readers are set on a journey to her life 15 years ago, four months before, and now. It is told only in the voices of Catherine and Lucian.

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The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner

October 2025

Katherine Faulkner writes such twisty domestic thrillers. I loved GREENWICH PARK and THE OTHER MOTHERS, so I was eager to read THE BREAK-IN, which takes the genre to a whole new level.

On a July evening, Alice Rathbone is hosting her friends, Yas and Stella, at her house as she has accepted a new job as an art restorer. Each of them has a young daughter, and the girls are playing in a room with Becca, the nanny whom Alice employs. This quiet evening is interrupted when a young man who is not in possession of all of his faculties bursts through the basement door and asks, “Where is he?” He lashes out at Alice, calling her a liar, reaches for a kitchen knife, and heads to the room where the children are.

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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

October 2025

There are times when the buzz about a book seems to be everywhere. But in this case, it was from our readers, none of whom I knew personally. They were passionate about THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans, which came out in April. Their drumbeats about the book encouraged me to explore it. I confess that the two birds on the cover did nothing to draw me in, but reading these declarations of how good it was spurred me to read it in September.

I was going to be on the road a lot, so I decided to listen to the audiobook. I think it was a brilliant choice as it is a completely fabulous production and listening experience. Even if you have never listened to an audiobook before, this could be an easy gateway one. Each narrator reading the letters feels perfectly cast. And with the voice changes, you know exactly which character is speaking.

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Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely? by Sarah McCoy

October 2025

I spent 16 years in Catholic school, so a book about a Hollywood starlet who becomes a nun would grab my attention, the same way that trick-or-treating at the convent would as we hoped we would see what nuns wore when they didn’t have their habits on. We never found out anything about the latter. But with Sarah McCoy’s latest novel, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LORI LOVELY?, we get to learn what happened to Lucille Lorianne Hickey, who first became Lori Lovely when she hit the stage, and then was christened to be Sister Jude and later Mother Lori.

The story of Mother Lori is based partially on the life of Mother Dolores Hart, who acted alongside Elvis Presley before becoming a nun.

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