Can I select a 3rd-party app (not Books) to open ePub files by default on Monterey?

It seems like the "Choose Application/Always Open With" method does not work. No matter what I do, if I click on an ePub file, it opens in Books. I definitely do not want this as there is a 3rd-Party ePub reader (BookReader.app) I like much better.

I would be happy to read books purchased from Apple on my iMac's Books reader (and Kindle books on the Kindle app, etc.) but I do a lot of work in ePub format, and I really can't have Books opening all my ePubs. It's a pain to have to right-click and choose another app each and every time I need to open a file.

Choosing the default app to choose a filetype used to be a simple matter and still is for almost every filetype - just not ePubs, on my machine. It's honestly tempting me to disable SIP and just remove Books from my iMac (M1 running Monterey).

I've recently wiped the hard drive clean and reinstalled the OS from scratch, so this is almost like a new box.