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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Apostle's Cove by William Kent Krueger

October 2025

William Kent Krueger always delivers with his Cork O’Connor series. While I am a huge fan of his stellar stand-alone novels, I am in awe of how he consistently cranks out interesting stories in his series books. He also is brilliant at weaving in enough backstory on characters and prior events to ensure that even a newcomer can stay on top of what’s going on. Things like references to Cork’s first wife are incorporated here (she was active on the case being discussed in this latest installment as she was the attorney on it), but readers also will learn about her death, which happened in an earlier book. The storytelling feels seamless for readers, but you know it takes a deft hand from an author to reveal what you need to know and when you need to know it.

In APOSTLE’S COVE, Cork receives word from his son, Stephen, who is a law student, that decades ago a man most likely was wrongly convicted of a crime. It was a case from early in Cork’s career, and the situation was not black and white to him from the start. Indeed, he had many questions. But when a confession was delivered in earnest by Axel Boshey, a Native American, there was no choice but to accept it. It was troubling, though. So fast forward to now, and Cork is taking a new view on what happened all those years ago.

Days You Were Mine by Clare Leslie Hall

October 2025

There is something lovely about enjoying an author’s latest book and then going back to read his or her previous work. Earlier this year, I read BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall. I, like many other readers, loved it. I enjoyed the plotting, the storytelling and the characters. There were reveals, questions about what was right --- and wrong --- and great pacing. It’s one of the most talked-about books of the year, and I venture that it will appear on many “Best of 2025” lists.

So it was lovely to see that Clare’s publisher repackaged and released for the first time in the US two of her backlist titles: DAYS YOU WERE MINE (published in late August) and PICTURES OF HIM (published in late September). These books originally released in the UK under the pseudonym Clare Empson, and one can see the emotional writing chops that are at the core of BROKEN COUNTRY. Here I am going to look at DAYS YOU WERE MINE.

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

September 2025

Many of you have been to author events and have loved the opportunity to meet with writers and hear them discuss their work --- and, yes, sign books. So what really happens on a book tour? Hank Phillippi Ryan uses this as the foundation for her latest thriller, ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS.

Tessa Calloway is a debut author whose novel, All This Could Be Yours, has garnered lots of attention. She already had a following on social media when she ditched her job a few years ago to take back her “one life.” People understood this, so when her book appeared, readers were ready to buy it and come out to meet her. In the novel, Annabelle Brown, like Tessa, does not take her boss’s offer to have it all. Instead, she grabs life with two hands.

But readers do not know that Annabelle is based on someone from Tessa’s past. As she is on the road, it feels like her past may be catching up with her. Is she just sleep-deprived from her rigorous tour, or is more going on here?

The Lost Baker of Vienna by Sharon Kurtzman

September 2025

I, like many of you, have read my fair share of fiction about World War II. What my historical education lacks is what happened after the war. I am not naïve. I did not think that people left the concentration camps, bought new clothes, and had a few good meals to celebrate their liberation. But I also was not sure how their stories would unfold. THE LOST BAKER OF VIENNA gave me the chance to see how one fictional family navigated the weeks and months after their release.

The book has its history rooted in stories that Sharon Kurtzman’s mother shared with her of how her family survived after the fighting ended. They lived in Vienna, a city that was controlled by four different countries (I did not know this) and where violence still sprang up, food was scarce, and the black market was in full operation.

She Didn't See It Coming by Shari Lapena

August 2025

Bookreporter readers are well aware of how much I love Shari Lapena’s books. She knows how to keep me turning the pages. In fact, I had just a few chapters of SHE DIDN’T SEE IT COMING left to read one morning, so I downloaded the audiobook and finished with a listen on the way to the health club. She is that good; I just did not want to wait to see how the book wrapped up.

Let’s look at the setup. Bryden is working at home in her luxury apartment. She fails to pick up her daughter at daycare, which is most unlike her. Her husband, Sam, arrives home to find her laptop on, her car keys still there, her vehicle still in the underground garage, and her cell phone still in the apartment. It’s as if she vanished.

This Happened to Me: A Reckoning by Kate Price

August 2025

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to spotlight some titles that I would call “issue books” --- nonfiction that looked at topics that I think are worth exploring. THIS HAPPENED TO ME by Kate Price is one of those books.

At a young age, Kate, who grew up in Appalachia, spent lots of time reading books and finding refuge in the children’s department of her local library. There she could “visit” various places and find adventure and warm family stories, which were very different from what she saw at home. Her father was violent, her mother lived in fear of him, and she frequently was pitted against her older sister in abusive ways.

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