Welcome to Book Beat! Think of Book Beat as Hide Your Wallet, Part Two!
In Hide Your Wallet, we talk about books coming out in a particular month that we really want to read. But there’s more to good books than just new releases!
Book Beat aims to highlight other books that we may hear about through friends, social media, or other sources. We could see a gorgeous ad! Or find a new-to-us author on a list of underrated romances! Think of Book Beat as Teen Beat or Tiger Beat, but for books. And no staples to open to get the fold-out poster.
We hope you find something new to read through Book Beat, and please let us know what books you’ve discovered recently!
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Little White Lies
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Released: November 6, 2018 by Freeform
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Young Adult
Series: Debutantes #1“I’m not saying this is Sawyer’s fault,” the prim and proper one said delicately. “But.”
Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.
Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off.
Source: Twitter
This book sounds all sorts of fun and the tweet has this amazing selling point: girls who are underestimated and use that to destroy the people who underestimate them.
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Not Another Family Wedding
Author: Jackie Lau
Released: September 25, 2018 by Jackie Lau Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Chin-Williams #1Natalie Chin-Williams might be a cranky professor of climatology who thinks the world is doomed, but she believes in lasting love…just not for herself. She has a long history of failed relationships, plus the men she dates inevitably want children and she doesn’t.
Now thirty-six and single, Natalie expects endless comments about her love life when she attends her baby sister’s wedding. Worse, weddings are always drama-filled disasters in her family. She needs emotional support to get through the weekend, so she enlists the help of her friend Connor Douglas, the dependable family doctor.
The wedding reception goes south when a drunk aunt announces a family secret that sends Natalie reeling and shakes her faith in love. Luckily, she has her long-time friend to lean on—a man she somehow ends up kissing. But there’s no way this could turn into anything lasting, is there? That’s impossible for her, especially now…
Source: Twitter
I wanted to include this one because the author makes it very clear the heroine doesn’t want children, and doesn’t change her mind either.
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Seasons of Sorcery
Author: Jeffe Kennedy
Released: November 13, 2018 by Brightlynx Publishing
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyWINTER’S WEB BY JENNIFER ESTEP
An assassin at a renaissance faire. What could possibly go wrong? Everything, if you’re Gin Blanco. This Spider is trapped in someone else’s icy web—and it seems like they don’t want her to leave the faire alive . . .
A CURSE FOR SPRING BY AMANDA BOUCHET
A malevolent spell strangles the kingdom of Leathen in catastrophic drought. Prince Daric must break the curse before his people starve. A once-mighty goddess trapped in a human body might be the key—but saving his kingdom could mean losing all that he loves.
THE DRAGONS OF SUMMER BY JEFFE KENNEDY
As unofficial consort to the High Queen, former mercenary Harlan Konyngrr faces a challenge worse than looming war and fearsome dragons. His long-held secrets threaten what he loves most—and he must make a choice between vows to two women.
A WILDERNESS OF GLASS BY GRACE DRAVEN
The stretch of sea known as The Gray rules the lives of those in the village of Ancilar, including widow Brida Gazi. In the aftermath of an autumn storm, Brida discovers one of the sea’s secrets cast onto the shore—a discovery that will change her world, mend her soul, and put her in the greatest danger she’s ever faced.
Source: Facebook
Anthologies always help with my reading concentration issues, and I’m very excited for this anthology from some of my favorite fantasy romance authors.
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Taking the Heat
Author: Victoria Dahl
Released: July 28, 2015 by HQN Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Jackson: Girls' Night Out #3Passion this hot can’t be faked…
All revved up for bright lights and steamy nights, writer Veronica Chandler chased her dreams to New York City. When she hit a dead end, reality sent her back home to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Saving her pride and her new gig—writing a relationship advice column!—requires some faking. No one can know the truth about her big-city flop or her nonexistent sex life. But the town’s irresistibly rugged librarian is determined to figure her out… and give her hands-on lessons in every wicked thing she wants to know.
Gabe MacKenzie’s heart might be in Wyoming, but secretly his future’s tied up in his family’s Manhattan legacy. Getting down and dirty with Veronica is supposed to give him a few memorable nights—not complicate his plans. But the thing about heat this scorching is there’s just no going back… and it might be too hot for either of them to take.
Source: Twitter
Romance readers refer to the hero as “Cunnilingus Gabe,” if you’ve been sleeping on this one. Dahl also went rock climbing for research!
Note: The original tweet mentions the book being on sale, though the sale is now expired. Sorry!
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LIttle White Lies’ description had me at friendship. I expected wicked, shallow adversaries who wated attention and didn’t lke outsiders. Instead, the girls are going to be FRIENDS and HELP EACH OTHER and I am 100% there for that.
I’m excited for Seasons of Sorcery! I’ve read three of the four authors and really liked their work, so I’m happy to be getting some more from them. There’s also not nearly enough fantasy romance, so I’m always happy for the chance to read some more.
Love coming here and finding something I had no idea was out there. Seasons of Sorcery, you shall be mine. Also, thanks to that lttle blurb, I think there’s a Victoria Dahl book in my future as well.
That Seasons of Sorcery book looks exciting! I have also read and enjoyed three of those authors. I’m especially interested in Kennedy’s as Harlan is one of my favorite characters of hers. I wonder if that book will bring his story back in line with his sister’s.
You had me at “assassin at a Renaissaince faire”.
Damn TBR list just keeps growing…
I am really looking forward to the following November releases:
THE COWBOY by Molly O’Keefe—the fourth and final book in the King Family series.
SECRET SINS and SACRED SINS, a duet by CD Reiss (who, imho, never gets the credit she deserves for being the amazing writer she is).
MAKE ME BEG by Julie Kriss—another fourth and final book, this time in the Riggs Brothers series.
UNDONE by Caitlin Crews—the next in the Hotel Temptation series she’s writing for Harlequin’s Dare line.
ENDLESS by Willow Winters—the next in her very dark (but very good, although definitely not for all tastes) Merciless series.
FIREWORKS by Sarina Bowen—the sixth book in her on-going, very good True North series, although this one seems to be moving away from the family that was the central focus of most of the first books.
Also, although I haven’t seen any specific dates yet, the publication of Adriana Anders’s LOVING THE MOUNTAIN MAN, Kati Wilde’s LOSING IT ALL, or any new Ainsley Booth’s Forbidden Bodyguards books would be welcome Thanksgiving surprises!
I love that two of these are ‘soon to be released,’ it really helps with planning and budgeting to have a heads up a few weeks out.
Not Another Family Wedding sounds right up my alley…childfree heroine, interracial relationship, juicy family drama. Nice.
‘The Unlikeable Demon Hunter’ by Deborah Wilde
From the book description—‘Can a foul-mouthed, romance-impaired heroine with no edit button face her worst nightmare … a purpose?
When Nava half-drunkenly interrupts her twin’s induction ceremony into the Brotherhood of David, she expects to be chastised. What she doesn’t expect is to take her brother’s place among the previously all-male demon hunters.
How does a smart-ass, self-cultivated hot mess even fight demons? Especially demons who are doubly motivated; bonus points for killing the first female hunter.
Now she’s on a mission to test her mettle, but her Brotherhood-appointed babysitter is distractingly hot. When you combine charisma and hard abs, how’s a girl to focus and what will it cost her in the end?
Odds of survival: meh.
Odds of hooking up with a smoking hot rock star before she bites it: much better.‘
New to me author that middle-of-the-night-unable-to-sleep me found & left in an open tab for next-day-exhausted me to see. So far, I’m amused by it, which is exactly what I need.
‘Not Another Family Wedding’ looks very tempting!
Not Another Family Wedding literally jumped into my shopping cart. I love cute kids and pets in my romance, but it is SO rare to find a romance where the couple is happily childless and don’t “magically” discover reproductive impulses by the end of the book. At least I’m hoping that’s the case here.
Just ran across an addition to the stock of seasonal cozy witch tales that looks extremely intriguing: Half Spent Was the Night by Ami McKay. A group of witches in Gilded Age New York, ghost stories and divination in front of the fireplace … “even a pair of recipes from [the author’s] family tree” … and pretty book design.
I just read another book by Jackie Lai, and loved it. It’s titled “Mr Hotshot CEO”. As an Asian-American I thought her description of the Asian-Canadian family dynamic was awesome.
Also I just found out Jeanine Lin has a erotica book on sale, “Princess Shanyin”, for 99 cents. Today only!
Not Another Family Wedding looks great.
I think Jenny Holiday’s new bridesmaids book has a heroine who wants to be childless. I haven’t read it yet (it’s in the TBR pile) to see if she changes her mind or not.
Taking The Heat might be my favorite book in that trilogy but they’re all amazing.
Um. You had me at Cunnilingus Gabe.
Also, I reaaly liked The Unlikeable Demon Hunter too. IIRC, it’s pretty funny.
Unlikeable Demon Hunter audiobooks are the potato chips of Hoopla. I burned through them way too fast and now I’m totally out because book 5 does not have an audiobook.
JUST started Coast To Coast by Melanie Ting and it is SO snappy and fun! I LOVED Hockey Is My Boyfriend, Ting’s NA trilogy that ends in a movingly honest and satisfying choose-your-own-adventure so I know she’s great, but I’m surprised by HOW MUCH I’m loving this new one. Hope I didn’t just jinx it. Grumpy Swedish hero!
Also, Eve Dangerfield has a new book out on OCT 23 and she’s my #1 new discovery of 2018. Even when the premise or early chapters of one of her books seems like my anti-catnip she manages to stick the landing and make it my thing EVERY SINGLE TIME. CAN NOT WAIT!
I loved Taking the Heat! Gabe was a great hero, and not just because of his nickname.
Not Another Family Wedding was just ok for me. I really liked the heroine’s determination not to have kids and the depiction of her family’s response. Her motivation was really understandable and I empathized with her response to all the cr*p she had to take because of it. The hero’s motive seemed less compelling. I enjoyed the issues, the characters’ down-to-earth qualities, the Canadian settings and culture, and the unexpected twists that Lau injects into her stories. I also loved the grandmother. But there’s just not enough convincing chemistry or conflict for me. I had similar issues with Grumpy Fake Boyfriend, but Mr. Hotshot CEO totally worked. So I’m happy to spend my money on Lau’s books, but I don’t count on them for a second read.