Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription box. Each month, their editorial team picks out their favorite new hardcover books, and you can choose which one you want to receive on the first of the month for $17.99/month. You can also add up to two additional books for only $9.99 each. (This box was named one of the best subscriptions for avid readers in the 2025 Subscription Box Awards.).
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My BOTM Pick for August: Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham; Retail $26.97
Back of Book Summary:
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist...until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard’s owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary’s contents…as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister’s disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
My Summary
Thirty-something Claire Campbell carries guilt around with her like an albatross. It's the guilt of an 11-year-old who had been listening to her big sister slip out her bedroom window night after night all summer — the summer that 18-year-old Natalie Campbell disappeared.
It's been 22 years since that summer, and Claire's hasty decision to quit her job as a journalist has left her scrambling to make rent on her New York City apartment. So when her dad calls to let her know her mother's broken her foot and needs some help, Claire sees a return to her small South Carolina town as a way out of trouble.
But arriving at the house where she grew up, the same house where she once spent summer nights sneaking into her sister's empty bedroom to play amongst her things, Claire realizes her way out of trouble is taking her right back to that summer and the guilt she's spent years trying to escape.
Cops arrested a man and put him in prison for Natalie's murder, but the neatly tied bow on the case doesn't sit right with her little sister. If Jeffrey Slater killed her sister, why won't he say where he hid her body?
With nothing but time on her hands, Claire decides it's time to get answers to 22 years of questions. What really happened to Natalie? And where was she going every night that summer?
Following Natalie's footsteps lands Claire at the secluded Galloway Farm where yet another hasty decision lands her a temporary job picking grapes and a place to stay in the vineyard guest house. But as she settles into the last place she remembers spending time with a happy Natalie, Claire finds a hidden diary that brings up more questions. Is Natalie the only victim whose mystery Claire needs to solve?
The Verdict
It's summer road trip season, and there's nothing quite like a psychological thriller chock full of twists and turns to while away the hours in the passenger seat. Enter this August BOTM Club pick.
Although it's a slow burn that takes a few chapters to pull you into its maze, Stacey Willingham's Forget Me Not has all the elements of the perfect thriller — from a crime that's been solved a little too neatly by police to a troubled grown-up going back to their small town roots.
Value — Was This Box Worth It?
The August 2025 BOTM Club subscription box was an early release, hitting my mailbox weeks before the August 26, 2025 release date. That in and of itself amped up the value, but then I did the math.
The hardcover currently retails for almost $27 on Amazon, but the BOTM Club starts at $17.99, depending on your chosen subscription (the first month of a subscription is currently $9.99). That's nearly a $9 savings (for the second month in a row, I might add).
The Cost: $9.99 (This price is only for your first month).
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