Reeling Them In

Tessa Bailey snags the #3 spot on our trade paperback list with Hook, Line, and Sinker, which our review said “sizzles with romance and wit.” It’s her second Bellinger Sisters novel; the first, It Happened One Summer, has sold 72K print copies since its 2021 release. It’s become a BookTok favorite, as has the author, whose videos have garnered 1.5 million likes.

In Clubland

One Italian Summer by In Five Years author Rebecca Serle, #2 on our hardcover fiction list, is the Barnes & Noble Book Club pick for March. The novel centers on Katy, who, while on holiday in Positano, meets her recently deceased mother at age 30. “Serle sets up another time-warp conceit with a touching story about a woman grieving her mother,” our review said. “Once again, Serle gets the job done just fine.”

The #5 hardcover fiction title, The Club by pseudonymous author duo Ellery Lloyd, is the month’s Reese’s Book Club pick. Our starred review called it a “masterly thriller” in which Lloyd “makes the reader care about even unappealing characters, and the payoff is completely satisfying.”

Good Morning America gave the nod to another thriller, The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. It “explores the complexity of secrets in marriages,” our starred review said, through an “initially slow-burning plot that builds to an emotionally raw yet satisfying conclusion.”

Initial Success

V.E. Schwab lands at #2 on our children’s fiction list with Gallant, a YA fantasy novel that “fuses Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror sensibilities with the warmth and dark whimsy of Neil Gaiman,” per our starred review, which also praised illustator Manuel Šumberac’s “eerie b&w artwork.” Schwab writes for adults, too, and had a recent blockbuster in 2020’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which has sold 610K print copies. Previously, Schwab wrote her children’s and YA novels as Victoria Schwab; starting with Gallant, she’ll use V.E. Schwab for all of her books, including future printings of her backlist children’s titles.

NEW AND NOTABLE

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
Bob Odenkirk
#6 Hardcover Nonfiction
The comedian and actor, who stars on the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, “spills on the good, the bad, and oftentimes
hilarious moments of his life in this gleeful and irreverent memoir,” per our starred review.

The Invisible Kingdom
Meghan O’Rourke
#18 Hardcover Nonfiction
“With a poet’s sensibility, journalist’s rigor, and patient’s personal investment, O’Rourke sheds light on the physical and mental toll of having a mysterious chronic illness,” our starred review said. “Readers will be left in awe.”