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Reese Witherspoon’s August 2025 book club pick is Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan, a twisty new romance book that will break your heart and patch it back up again.
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Witherspoon announced Once Upon a Time in Dollywood as her August 2025 pick on Tuesday, August 5, following up her July selection, Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein.
“I read this book in one sitting,” Witherspoon said in an Instagram reel announcing the pick. “You feel like you’re talking to one of your best friends.”
Reese Witherspoon Reveals Her August 2025 Book Club Pick
Reese Book Club August 2025: ‘Once Upon a Time in Dollywood’
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Ashley Jordan’s debut novel centers on Eve Ambroise, a playwright whose career is taking off right as her personal life is crumbling. Fresh off a breakup from her fiancé, Eve cuts off her parents and heads for the Tennessee Mountains to start over.
Her story is that she’s just there on a writing retreat, but that lie becomes too much in the face of the prying but well-intentioned townspeople, including one neighbor who has just as much baggage as she does.
That neighbor, Jamie Gallagher, is a single dad looking for a fresh start of his own after a bitter custody battle with his ex. As he tries to navigate life without his kids at home full-time, he is drawn to Eve, even though a new romance is the last thing he needs.
Both Eve and Jamie have loved and lost, and are terrified of being hurt again, but will the mountains bring them together or push them apart?
Jordan is an alum of the second round of Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellows, a fellowship for amateur women and non-binary writers of diverse backgrounds that seeks to offer a launchpad for unpublished writers with diverse voices.
Each round of Reese’s Book Club LitUp provides five emerging writers with an all-expenses-paid retreat along with a three-month mentorship with a published author and marketing support from Reese’s Book Club. “Congratulations, Ashley,” Witherspoon added in her post. “You guys, check out her book. It is so good.”
Once Upon a Time in Dollywood is available now.
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