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.
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A River of Royal Blood
Author: Amanda Joy
Released: October 29, 2019 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: A River of Royal Blood #1An enthralling debut perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone set in a North African-inspired fantasy world where two sisters must fight to the death to win the crown.
Sixteen-year-old Eva is a princess, born with the magick of marrow and blood–a dark and terrible magick that hasn’t been seen for generations in the vibrant but fractured country of Myre. Its last known practitioner was Queen Raina, who toppled the native khimaer royalty and massacred thousands, including her own sister, eight generations ago, thus beginning the Rival Heir tradition. Living in Raina’s long and dark shadow, Eva must now face her older sister, Isa, in a battle to the death if she hopes to ascend to the Ivory Throne–because in the Queendom of Myre only the strongest, most ruthless rulers survive.
When Eva is attacked by an assassin just weeks before the battle with her sister, she discovers there is more to the attempt on her life than meets the eye–and it isn’t just her sister who wants to see her dead. As tensions escalate, Eva is forced to turn to a fey instructor of mythic proportions and a mysterious and handsome khimaer prince for help in growing her magick into something to fear. Because despite the love she still has for her sister, Eva will have to choose: Isa’s death or her own.
A River of Royal Blood is an enthralling debut set in a lush North African inspired fantasy world that subtly but powerfully challenges our notions of power, history, and identity.
Source: @AmandaJoyWrites on Twitter
We featured this one on the latest Hide Your Wallet, but if you need more of a reason to check this one out, the author lists:
✨ slow burn romance
✨ an ancient fey tutor
✨ one blood moon
✨ wild, vicious magick
✨ a HELLA messy royal familyAdd to Goodreads To-Read List →
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Bloodlust & Bonnets
Author: Emily McGovern
Released: September 17, 2019 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre: Historical: European, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction/FantasySet in early nineteenth-century Britain, Bloodlust & Bonnets follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue—qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult.
But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron (“from books!”) and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight, and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.
Both witty and slapstick, elegant and gory, Emily McGovern’s debut graphic novel pays tribute to and pokes fun at beloved romance tropes, delivering a joyous, action-packed world of friendship and adventure.
Source: Our Slack!
This was being discussed on our Slack with lots of “oohs” and “aahs.” The author is most known for the My Life as Background Slytherin webcomic.
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Author: Olga Tokarczuk
Released: August 13, 2019 by Riverhead Books
Genre: Mystery/ThrillerAn ingenious variation on murder noir, set in motion by a string of bizarre deaths in an isolated village, from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Man Booker International Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award.
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the long, dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and serving as caretaker for the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is only amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. She’s devastated when her two beloved dogs disappear. Then her neighbor, Bigfoot, turns up dead. As corpses pile up in increasingly strange circumstances, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .
A deeply satisfying and inventive thriller-cum-fairy tale from one of Europe’s “major humanist writers” (The Guardian), Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the tug between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?
Source: My shopping trip to Porter Square Books
The author recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018. It was a staff pick at a local bookstore with these comments:
John Wick by way of Murder She Wrote but with Eastern European melancholy and maybe John Wick is a witch.
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Het Vex: Witches in Training
Author: Sam Davies
Released: December 12, 2018 by BOOM! - KaBOOM!
Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Hex Vet #1In a world where magic is an ordinary part of daily life, two young apprentice veterinarians pursue their dreams of caring for supernatural creatures.
Have you ever wondered where witches’ cats go when they pull a claw? Or what you do with a pygmy phoenix with a case of bird flu? Nan and Clarion have you covered. They’re the best veterinarian witches of all time—at least they’re trying to be. But when an injured spectral wolf beast from another realm stumbles into their lives, Nan and Clarion have to put down their enchanted potions and face the biggest test of their magical, medical careers…outside of the clinic.
Hex Vet: Witches in Training is the debut original graphic novel from acclaimed cartoonist Sam Davies (Stutterhug) and explores a truly spellbinding story about sticking together and helping animals at all costs.
Source: LadiesofComicazi on Instagram
Ladies of Comicazi is my local comic and tabletop gaming group for women and I saw this adorable middle grade graphic novel come across their IG page.
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and maybe John Wick is a witch
That staffer is a great bookseller. *clickity*
I know I’m a broken record at the point, but if Kati Wilde ever does finally, finally publish LOSING IT ALL, I may actually do something I’ve never done and take a sick day from work to read it. It was originally scheduled for September 15, then September 30, and now…who knows? Also, I can’t wait to read the book so I can then read Kati’s explanations of the things she decided to change to make the book better. What an exercise in patience waiting for this book has been!
The other book I’m looking forward to is Skye Warren’s AUDITION, scheduled for October 29. A ballet dancer and a security specialist, both products were f childhood dysfunctionality and trauma. So looking forward to this book—no one writes “damaged people in love” like Skye Warren.
@Ren Benton, that is EXACTLY what I was going to say!
Eeeeeee Hex Vet looks adorable! “Perfect for fans of The Tea Dragon Society and Steven Universe” and my library has it on hoopla!
If Hex Vet tickles your fancy, I recommend hunting down the Crossroads trilogy by Nick O’Donohoe, published in the mid ’90s. Vet students who find themselves in a fantasy world treating unicorns, griffons, centaurs, and other creatures. Book one is The Magic and the Healing.
Now, I need to go order Hex Vet and Bloodlust & Bonnets…
The Crossroads Trilogy is great, though I think it might be out of print. I found it before I started vet school, and go back and read it every couple of years now.
I’m guessing Het Vet is a typo….
Given that John Wick’s nom de guerre was “Baba Yaga”, somebody seems to have thought he was a witch.