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 September: To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage; Retail $27.90
Back of Book Summary:
Steph Harper is on the run. She has been all her life, ever since her mother drove five-year-old Steph and her younger sister through the night to Cherokee Nation, a place they had never been, but where she hoped they might finally belong. In response to the turmoil, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.
Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: her sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret.
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.
My Summary
Steph Harper has always known where she is headed. At 5, she watched the moon through the window of the car as her mom, Hannah, drove Steph and Steph's little sister, Kayla, away from a violent home in Texas to live among other members of the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
One day, Steph knows she will get to the moon, and nothing — not her mom hiding her acceptance letter to the fancy private school she's sure is a ticket to NASA, not her sister leading a protest against NASA encroaching on Native Hawaiians' land, not any of a string of relationships that Steph abandons when they begin to get serious — will keep her from her dream of being America's first Cherokee astronaut.
What Steph doesn't know is where she fits on Earth — as a member of the LGBTQ community, as a member of the Cherokee Nation, as a sister, an aunt, a daughter, and a woman.
Written from the alternating viewpoints of Steph and some of the other important women in her life, we see each making sense of their own place in the world.
We see single mom Hannah determined that her daughters embrace their ancestors' proud Cherokee heritage, even as she keeps a series of family secrets from Steph and Kayla.
We see Kayla, a proud indigenous woman, young mom, and successful influencer, whose Instagram-perfect life masks her own secrets.
We see Della, Steph's college girlfriend whose adoption by white parents against the wishes of her Cherokee father made national news and opened the door to her own struggles with identity.
Consider my favorite line of the book: "To be an astronaut — to be myself — without the weight of everything that came before."
The first novel from Cherokee author Eliana Ramage, To the Moon and Back is both an exploration of how we grapple with our own intersectionality and the way society treats women who dare to match dreams with single-minded ambition.
The Verdict
This September BOTM Club pick was the definition of what makes me love this subscription. It introduced me to a debut author and to my favorite kind of book — the kind with a character who feels so very real that at times you want to shake some sense into her and other times you want to give her a giant hug.
To the Moon and Back manages to juggle themes of ambition, identity, trauma, relationships (family and romantic), all without losing its eye on the story. Author Eliana Ramage even manages to throw some science in there!
Value — Was This Box Worth It?
My September 2025 BOTM Club subscription box pick was a win in more ways than one.
The hardcover currently retails for almost $28 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 $10 in savings. Add in the fact that my picks for August and July each saved me nearly $9 apiece, and you're looking at early $30 in savings in three months!
The Cost: $9.99 (This price is only for your first month).
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To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this book if you sign up today? Yes! But you will need to order it as an add-on.
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