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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 Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki

February 2020

I confess that I never thought I would love a book where the protagonist was the one-time lover of Napoleon, who went on to become the queen of Sweden. I never hearkened to this particular time period, perhaps due to too many quizzes and tests in high school and college that made history into a series of facts, and not a lot of fun. Well, those attitudes rapidly changed after reading THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE; I was equally impressed with Allison Pataki’s eye for detail as I was with her beautiful prose. She had me completely caught up in the story of Desiree Clary --- and the crazy world that surrounded Napoleon.

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The Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki

February 2020

I confess that I never thought I would love a book where the protagonist was the one-time lover of Napoleon, who went on to become the queen of Sweden. I never hearkened to this particular time period, perhaps due to too many quizzes and tests in high school and college that made history into a series of facts, and not a lot of fun. Well, those attitudes rapidly changed after reading THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE; I was equally impressed with Allison Pataki’s eye for detail as I was with her beautiful prose. She had me completely caught up in the story of Desiree Clary --- and the crazy world that surrounded Napoleon.

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American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

January 2020

I read an early advance copy of AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins back in June, after hearing buzz about it at Book Expo. In it, Lydia Quixano Perez is a bookseller living in Acapulco, Mexico, with her husband, who is a journalist, and her eight-year-old son, Luca, who is quite precocious and prescient. Drug cartels are overtaking the city that she knows and loves, and her husband is writing about them, anonymously, so as to keep his family from feeling repercussions. A customer at Lydia’s store shares her book taste, and they chat and banter. She is unaware that he is Javier, the jefe of a cartel that has been rising quickly.

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Long Bright River by Liz Moore

January 2020

Mickey is a police officer who patrols the streets of Philadelphia, always on the watch for her sister, Kacey, who has an opioid habit and has been missing for a while. She is used to using Narcan to bring someone on a drug trip that went wrong back to life; it is all too familiar on her beat. She has seen Kacey almost die more than once. And she also has seen her on the street waiting to turn tricks for johns who cruise the neighborhood. Mickey’s past haunts her, but her love for her son drives her to stay safe and sane no matter what surrounds her. But then she starts to realize that things she believes in may not be true, and this well-plotted tale whips readers back and forth in many directions.

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The Deserter by Nelson DeMille

November 2019

THE DESERTER is the first book from the father/son team of Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille, and what a superb collaboration this proved to be. It’s set in Venezuela, and since I know very little about that part of the world beyond the headlines in the news, I feel like I got a real education about a place where there has been so much strife in the last decade.

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Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

September 2019

ELEVATOR PITCH by Linwood Barclay lives up to its promo copy as “an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach --- a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.”

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The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan

September 2019

Gilly Macmillan’s latest book, THE NANNY, is set on an estate called Lake Hall. Jo, along with her young daughter, has reluctantly moved back there from California following the sudden death of her husband. Her mother, Virginia, is called Lady Holt, and she stands fast on principles. Their world is rocked as Jo's nanny, Hannah, who had disappeared from their home 30 years ago, resurfaces, as does a skull on a beach near the house. Why is the nanny back? Whose skull is it? From these questions, Gilly delivers answers in a really well-plotted, character-driven thriller told from multiple points of view.

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This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

September 2019

THIS TENDER LAND --- like ORDINARY GRACE, William Kent Krueger's bestselling 2013 novel --- is another brilliant stand-alone, a departure from his Cork O’Connor series. It is atmospheric like WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, and sparks thoughts of BEFORE WE WERE YOURS and ORPHAN TRAIN. While the bayou is the setting for CRAWDADS, here we have an orphan and his friends meandering down the mighty rivers of the Midwest to escape the Lincoln School in Minnesota where they were mistreated.

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The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

September 2019

I read THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO by Christy Lefteri back in May. I have not looked at bees or honey the same way since. I also have given a lot of thought to people who have no options, especially those trapped by circumstances not of their own doing.

The story revolves around Nuri, a beekeeper from Aleppo, Syria, and his wife, Afra, an artist. As the book opens, Nuri and his cousin, Mustafa, are cultivating a number of hives in the Syrian countryside. War quickly upends their safe world as their hives are burned, and they are forced to flee. Mustafa heads out one way, while Nuri heads first through Turkey and then into Greece, where they join fellow Syrians looking for a safe haven. The goal: to get to the UK, which is the dream of so many refugees. Mustafa already has made his way there; he has started a new apiary and awaits Nuri’s arrival. But there are so many challenges that lie between him and this destination.

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The Whisper Man by Alex North

September 2019

THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North is a completely addicting thriller with threads of Stephen King chills rippling throughout.

Following the death of his wife, Tom Kennedy is struggling with life with his young son. He decides to leave painful memories behind and move to a new house in a new town, called Featherbank. Two decades ago, a serial killer kidnapped and murdered five children in Featherbank. And now another child has gone missing. Pete Willis, the detective who first worked on the case, is called back up to re-interview the original killer, as the police grapple with tragedy revisiting their town. This book twists and turns, and you will want to be alert on every page, which is not hard to be. The prose is tight, and the action is brisk.

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