The reference box
What Book of the Month costs and includes
Book of the Month has been picking new fiction since 1926, and the current version works like this: at the start of each month it puts up five to seven new hardcovers, you log in and choose one (or an audiobook) by the 6th, and it ships free. Skip a month and you aren’t charged. Forget, and a credit rolls into the next month. The comparison below uses the standard one-credit monthly membership.
- Contents
- One credit a month, good for one hardcover from that month’s five to seven picks, or an audiobook. Add-on books from the current or past months cost extra, at a member price that drops once you’ve shipped three boxes.
- Price and billing
- $17.99 a month for one credit on the standard plan, the top of the $12.99 to $17.99 range BOTM publishes across its plans. A 2-credit plan runs $14.99 per credit. Gift memberships are $59.99 for 3 books, $99.99 for 6, and $199.99 for 12. Join on a first-book offer ($5 with a free gift is the current one) and you commit to one renewal at full price before you can skip, pause, or cancel.
- Delivery
- Monthly, with free shipping, to anywhere in the US, to APO and FPO addresses, and to Canada except Quebec.
- Choosing and skipping
- Pick or skip by the 6th. Skip and you aren’t charged. Forget and you’re renewed for a credit that rolls over. You can pause for up to three months, and on the standard plan there’s no minimum commitment, so you cancel online whenever you like.
- Format
- New-release hardcovers, including early-release titles and limited editions, or an audiobook on the same credit. Fiction leads, with some nonfiction in the mix.
- Guarantee
- Reader’s Guarantee: if you don’t love your pick, BOTM replaces it for free in your next box.
- On Cratejoy
- No. Book of the Month sells direct at bookofthemonth.com, and none of the boxes below are BOTM products.
The choosing is what sets Book of the Month apart. It’s also what sends people looking elsewhere: the 6th comes around, you haven’t logged in, and a credit lands in your account instead of a book. Every box below picks for you. BOTM’s help center has the current terms.
Compare the boxes
| Box | Best fit | Cost and commitment | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book of the Month, standard plan Reference box |
One new hardcover a month, your choice of five to seven | $18 a month for one credit, no minimum term. Skip by the 6th and you aren’t charged. | Monthly, free shipping, US and Canada except Quebec |
| SplureBox Thriller and Mystery Books Club | Closest match, one genre | $20.32 a month, or $17.11 a box on a 12-month plan. Free shipping to the US and Canada. | Ships within a business day, then around the 15th. |
| Introverts Retreat Monthly Book Box | Book plus a night in | $50.28 a month. Shipping included. | First box in about a week, then the first week of each month. |
| Used Books Monthly | Lowest price | $10.15 a month for two books or $20.32 for four. | First shipment within 5 business days, then after the 15th. US only. |
| Reveal Book Box | Signed copies | $14 a month. | Ships within 10 business days. US only. |
| Bookishly Tea & Book Club | Classics, ships worldwide | $18 a month. International shipping added at checkout. | First parcel within a business day, then around the 14th. From the UK to most countries except the EU and Northern Ireland. |
| Owl Post Books YA Imagination | Teens, 14 and up | $21.39 a month for one hardcover or $42.79 for three. Shipping included. | First box within 5 business days, then the 1st to the 4th. US, Canada, UK, Australia, Switzerland. |
All six Cratejoy boxes bill monthly.
The alternatives
Closest match
SplureBox Thriller and Mystery Books Club vs Book of the Month
Best for: The BOTM member who only ever picked the thriller anyway.
SplureBox picks one thriller or mystery a month from a mix of recent bestsellers and lesser-known titles, describes the books as hardcovers, and promises never to send the same title twice. The club has a 4.0 rating from 132 reviews on Cratejoy, carries the Free Shipping badge, and the seller has been on the marketplace since 2024. Thriller leads here because it’s the first genre in BOTM’s own browse menu, but SplureBox runs the same club for romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and horror.
What feels familiar
One new book a month, hardcover by the seller’s description, from a curator whose whole job is the pick. Shipping is free, as it is with BOTM.
What changes
You name the genre once and the seller does the choosing, so there’s no 6th-of-the-month deadline and no credit piling up. The trade is that you never see the shortlist. Cratejoy pools reviews across SplureBox’s clubs, and one reviewer of the sibling Sci-fi Books Club says their books arrived as paperbacks, so if the format is the whole point, message the seller before you order.
The book plus the evening
Introverts Retreat Monthly Book Box vs Book of the Month
Best for: The member whose BOTM box was really an excuse for a quiet night in, and who wants the night included.
Book of the Month sends a book. Introverts Retreat sends the night you were planning to read it. Each box carries what the seller calls a highly rated new-release novel in the genre you choose (general fiction, horror and thriller, science fiction and fantasy, romance, or mystery and suspense) plus a soy candle, a scented soap, a bath salt soak, a sweet treat, and your pick of hot cocoa, loose-leaf tea, or ground coffee. Skip the bath and the seller doubles the treat and the drink instead. The listing has a 4.5 rating from 300 reviews and ships free.
What feels familiar
A new release, chosen for you, on a monthly rhythm. The genre menu maps closely to the categories on BOTM’s own shortlist.
What changes
The book is one item of five or six. You’ll pay about two and a half BOTM credits for the box, and the candle, soak, and snack are where the difference goes. Genre, drink, and the bath-or-treat choice are set when you order, and boxes ship on a fixed schedule rather than a selection window.
Costs less
Used Books Monthly vs Book of the Month
Best for: A bookworm who cares more about the next book than the edition.
BOTM’s pitch is that its hardcovers run $11.99 to $17.99 against the $28 it says an average new hardcover costs. Used Books Monthly drops the price further by dropping the word new. Tick your genres at checkout and the seller pulls two or four gently used books from its inventory that meet its quality standards, a different assortment every time. It has been on Cratejoy since 2021, with a 3.9 rating from 428 reviews, the most-reviewed listing on this list.
What feels familiar
Books chosen for you by genre, every month, with the surprise intact.
What changes
Used copies, so expect some shelf wear, and no new releases or hardcover promise. Two books come in an envelope and four in a box. Renewals bill on the 15th and ship by the 5th of the following month. The listing doesn’t state a shipping charge, so check the cart.
Signed by the author
Reveal Book Box Signed Romance vs Book of the Month
Best for: The romance devotee who keeps the books, and wants a name on the title page.
Reveal Book Box sends one romance novel a month signed by its author, matched to the preferences you give the seller, from writers it describes as New York Times and USA Today bestsellers along with names you haven’t met yet. This is the seller’s no-frills tier: the book, and nothing packed around it. The listing has a 4.7 rating from 155 reviews, the highest on this list, and the seller has been on Cratejoy since 2022.
What feels familiar
One book, no swag, chosen by someone who reads the genre, on a monthly cadence, for less than a BOTM credit. If early-release and limited editions were the draw, a copy signed by the author is its own kind of limited edition.
What changes
Romance only, and no choosing at all beyond the preferences you share. It ships by USPS rather than on a fixed date, and only to US addresses. The listing doesn’t say hardcover or paperback, so don’t assume either, and it doesn’t state a shipping charge.
Classics, shipped worldwide
Bookishly Tea & Book Club vs Book of the Month
Best for: Anyone outside the US and Canada, or a TBR that’s missing the classics.
Bookishly, a UK seller on Cratejoy since 2020, works from the other end of the shelf. Each month brings a surprise classic paperback (a Wordsworth Classic wrapped in one of Bookishly’s own dust jackets) with four tea pyramids from Jenier World of Teas and a matching bookmark. There’s a coffee version at the same price. The Tea & Book Club has a 4.4 rating from 64 reviews, and because it posts from Britain by international airmail, it reaches places BOTM can’t.
What feels familiar
One book a month, chosen by someone else, in a jacket made to look good on a shelf. The paperback is the difference. The reason to keep it is the same.
What changes
The book is a classic rather than a new release, so part of the backlist may already be on your shelf. The tea is the extra. Parcels go by Royal Mail in the UK, with free shipping there, or by airmail elsewhere, which takes longer than BOTM’s domestic delivery.
For a teen
Owl Post Books YA Imagination Box vs Book of the Month
Best for: A 14-and-up bookworm with a parent who’d rather not manage a monthly pick.
Owl Post Books builds the box around the teen rather than the adult holding the credit card. Book of the Month lists a young adult genre, but its membership assumes a grown-up logging in by the 6th. Here a quiz sets the picks, an educator with 15-plus years of experience chooses them, and every book is the teen’s to keep. Choose the Mini for one hardcover YA book a month or the Box for three new YA hardcovers. The listing has a 4.6 rating from 151 reviews, the Free Shipping badge, and the seller has sold on Cratejoy since 2020.
What feels familiar
New hardcovers, picked by a person, monthly, with shipping included.
What changes
The picks come from a quiz rather than a shortlist, and the seller will swap a book the teen already owns. Boxes ship by Media Mail, which takes three to seven days.
The honest part
When Book of the Month is still the better fit
Keep Book of the Month if the choosing is the fun. No box on this list shows you five to seven covers and lets you pick, and BOTM’s early-release and exclusive editions are its own. Keep it if you want a new hardcover with a guarantee behind it: SplureBox costs a little less, but BOTM’s Reader’s Guarantee replaces a miss for free in the next box. And keep it if audiobooks matter, because the same credit buys one.
If you like the model and want a second shortlist, the like-for-like option is Aardvark Book Club, which isn’t on Cratejoy either. It drops five to seven new hardcovers on the 1st, gives you until the 15th to skip, lets you add up to two more books at $10.99 each, and ships free to the US and Canada. It costs the same $17.99 a month, so it’s a different set of picks rather than a saving.
How we chose these boxes
We started from what Book of the Month sends and the reasons a member might want something different, then went through every book listing on Cratejoy with a working buy button and kept the ones that answer one of those reasons better than the original does. That left six boxes from six sellers. Aardvark Book Club gets a mention because it’s the only close copy of BOTM’s choose-from-the-shortlist model. The photo at the top is Book of the Month’s own product image of its blue boxes.
Questions before switching
Which alternative is closest to Book of the Month?
SplureBox’s genre clubs. One new book a month, hardcover by the seller’s account, chosen by a curator, with free shipping. The difference is that you name the genre and the seller picks the title, so there’s no shortlist and no deadline.
Is there a box that picks new fiction across genres, the way BOTM does?
BookTIDE’s Just A Good Story sends one staff-recommended paperback a month from an independent bookstore on the Jersey Shore, with a note from the bookseller who chose it and that month’s IndieNext list, for $19. It ships on the 25th, and it’s paperback rather than hardcover.
What about nonfiction?
BOTM leans fiction. You Should Read sends one new hardcover nonfiction title a month, published within the last one to six months, with a bookmark and a handwritten note, for $30.99. It’s newer to Cratejoy than the boxes above, which is why it isn’t in the main list.
Can I send one of these as a gift?
The Cratejoy boxes can be given as a gift from the listing page, and gift orders don’t renew. Each seller ships on its own schedule, so check the listing’s ship window before you plan around a date. Book of the Month sells 3-, 6-, and 12-book gift memberships on its own site.
Do any of these ship outside the US and Canada?
Bookishly posts from the UK to most countries apart from the EU and Northern Ireland. Owl Post Books ships to Canada, the UK, Australia, and Switzerland as well as the US. SplureBox states free shipping to the US and Canada. Used Books Monthly and Reveal Book Box ship within the US only.
