📚 November First Reads: My Pick Is Between Breaths

Okay, y'all — it's the first of the month, which means one thing in my house: I go claim my free book before I forget.

Because let me tell you, there is nothing sadder than realizing on the 30th that you let a whole free book just walk away. Not on my watch. If I'm already paying for Prime, I'm collecting what I'm owed.

November's batch just dropped, and I went through the whole list like I always do — coffee in hand, judging books by their covers with zero shame about it. And one of them stopped me cold.

✨ My Pick: Between Breaths

My pick this month is Between Breaths by Abigail Rose-Marie, a historical fiction novel that doesn't come out until December 1, 2026 — which is the whole point of First Reads. You get it a month before everybody else.

Here's the story, and I mean it when I say this one grabbed me by the collar:

It's the 1930s, right in the middle of the Great Depression. Grace Aller has a biology degree that does her no favors — she's a schoolteacher who tends to her Idaho sheep farm, watching helplessly while whooping cough claims children's lives all across the country. Then she gets the chance to intern with a seasoned scientist in Michigan, and she doesn't hesitate for a second.

That scientist is Pearl Kendall, and Pearl does not have a fancy lab. She has a storeroom. No top-tier equipment, constant pushback in a male-dominated field, and devastating losses of her own haunting her every step. And instead of getting the experienced bacteriologist she expected, Pearl gets a northwest farm girl with a pioneering drive to make a difference.

Together, these two women develop the first whooping cough vaccine. Through prejudice, no funding, and medical distrust trying to derail them at every turn, they just keep going. And the kicker? It's inspired by a true story. These were real women, doing real science, saving real children's lives — and history mostly forgot them.

312 pages, Lake Union Publishing, and from the author of The Moonflowers and White Rabbit.

Now, honest moment: I haven't read it yet. Nobody has — it isn't out until December 1. That's not a review, that's a pick. I picked it because a story about women who get told no and do it anyway is exactly my kind of story. Women in a storeroom lab, dismissed and underfunded, refusing to quit until children stop dying? Yeah. That's the one I claimed.

🌻 A Few Things I'd Want You to Know

If you're new to First Reads, here's the deal, quick and plain:

Every month, Amazon's editors pick a batch of upcoming books — usually eight to ten of them — and Prime members get to choose ONE for free. Not borrow, not rent. Yours to keep forever in your Kindle library. This month, there's also a bonus short read on top of your pick, so you actually walk away with two things.

Not a Prime member? You can still grab one of the month's picks for $1.99 instead of waiting for the cover price. Not a bad deal for a brand-new book.

You don't need a Kindle device, either. The free Kindle app on your phone or tablet works just fine, and your progress syncs across devices.

One warning from somebody who has absolutely done this to herself: if you don't claim it, that month's pick is just gone. The batch refreshes on the first of the month, and nobody is going to chase you down about it. Set a first-of-the-month reminder if you have to. A claimed book is a kept book.

And since I know somebody will ask — no, this is NOT Kindle Unlimited. That's a separate paid subscription with millions of titles. First Reads is a Prime perk. No extra subscription, no extra fee beyond Prime itself.

📚 The Full November Batch

Here's the whole batch, so you can pick your own free one. My pick is starred.

• ⭐ Between Breaths by Abigail Rose-Marie — Historical Fiction — MY PICK
• Certainty by Laura Dave — Book Club Fiction — BONUS SHORT READ this month
• The Red Robin of Christmas by Santa Montefiore — Holiday Short Story
• The Lost Ones by Mia Sheridan — Psychological Thriller
• The Chaperones by Amy Meyerson — Mystery
• Paradise of Lies by Brittany Amara — Contemporary Fantasy
• The Firefly Hour by Annie Rains — Book Club Fiction
• Allison Must Die by A.M. Strong and Sonya Sargent — Thriller
• Not a Perfect Science by Hadley Leggett — Women's Fiction
• This Is (Not) Fun by Anna Kang, illustrated by Christopher Weyant — Children's Picture Book

Ten covers, all kinds of genres. If historical fiction isn't your thing, there's a thriller, a mystery, a Christmas short story, and even a children's picture book in there. Somebody in this batch is your book. Go find it.

🛒 Want to Take a Look?

👉 CHECK OUT NOVEMBER'S FIRST READS PICKS HERE

(paid link) — link above, opens in a new tab.

That's my affiliate link to the First Reads page, where you can browse the whole batch and claim your free pick. If you sign up for Prime through a link on this blog, I may earn a small bounty from Amazon — it doesn't cost you anything extra.

❤️ Cheryl's Treasure Chest Verdict

Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend I've read a book that isn't out yet. What I can tell you is why I picked it: two women, a storeroom lab, and a vaccine that saved children's lives, based on a true story that history nearly lost. That premise alone earned my claim.

If you pick a different one from the batch, I genuinely want to hear about it — that's half the fun of this. We all walk away with a free book, and then we compare notes like a book club that never has to leave the house.

And I'll keep posting the new batch here every month, so you never have to go digging for it yourself. That's the whole point of this series.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting.

~ Cheryl and Clucky Diva

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.