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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Alice Payne Arrives
Author: Kate Heartfield
Released: November 6, 2018 by Tor.com
Genre: LGBTQIA, Novella, Time Travel, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Alice Payne #1A disillusioned major, a highwaywoman, and a war raging across time.
It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse.
It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal.
It’s 2016 and . . . well, the less said about 2016 the better!
But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new.
Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.
Source: Cover reveal at Tor.com
Queer woman somehow gets roped into stopping a time war. As one does.
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Followers
Author: Megan Angelo
Released: January 14, 2020 by Graydon House
Genre: Science Fiction/FantasyAn electrifying story of two ambitious friends, the dark choices they make and the profound moment that changes the meaning of privacy forever.
Orla Cadden dreams of literary success, but she’s stuck writing about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Orla has no idea how to change her life until her new roommate, Floss―a striving, wannabe A-lister―comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they so desperately crave. But it’s only when Orla and Floss abandon all pretense of ethics that social media responds with the most terrifying feedback of all: overwhelming success.
Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity―twelve million loyal followers―Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything, even horrible things, to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.
Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.
Source: Publishers Lunch
When the deal was announced, it was marketed as Black Mirror meets Station Eleven.
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The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
Author: Sabina Khan
Released: January 29, 2019 by Scholastic Inc.
Genre: LGBTQIA, Young AdultSeventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that impossible to do. She rolls her eyes when they blatantly favor her brother and saves her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech. But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart.
Her parents are devastated and decide to whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Through reading her grandmother’s old diary, Rukhsana gains some much-needed perspective and realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love without losing the connection to her family as a consequence.
Source: @Sabina_Writer
“Sassy, Muslim lesbians & Bollywood style drama.”
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Rogue Wolf
Author: Elliot Cooper
Released: November 20, 2017
Genre: LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyExiled from his home planet for loving an enemy, Vince turned to space piracy aboard the Cygnus. Disguised as a human thanks to his species’ shifting abilities, Vince feels secure. But he’s not safe from memories of his murdered lifemate—or from a growing attraction to Trent Rolston, the ship’s captain, he feels honor bound to ignore.
Trent, though, is determined to prove to Vince there’s nothing wrong with becoming more than friends. But Vince is surprised by his species’ mating call, despite being deep in space and far from home.
Just as their relationship begins to evolve, the Cygnus comes under attack from hunters determined to destroy Vince and his chosen family.
Source: @thebookvoyagers
We definitely had this on Cover Snark, but the always awesome Sil mentions this is a gay werewolf/space pirate romance!
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I read this post on my phone (small screen). When I scrolled down to ROGUE WOLF, I saw a giant p**is head with a tiny ball in front of it. I finally had to zoom in to see what it was supposed to be.
Now I’m on a bigger screen, and maybe it would have been different if I had started on this one, but now there’s no way I can unsee it. I would have loved to read this cover snark. Bet it’s a gold mine!
@Var – I had the exact same experience and reaction. I don’t remember the cover from …Snark, but it certainly deserves its place there. And fwiw, I have no doubt that the artwork is not just some crazy coincidence.
“The less said about 2016, the better”
Wait until they hear about 2020 . . .
@ Vår thanks for that. I snorted coffee out my nose.
I read Followers just before lockdown (I think it was a BitchReads book club selection, so I got it from the library and it’s still in my house) and it was a resounding meh. There’s some interesting science that doesn’t really go anywhere and the world building didn’t work for me. It might be because I don’t follow influencer social media or reality tv (no judgement, just not my thing).
I hate to say it, but I found The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali to be incredibly disappointing as a book. (Full disclosure: I’m not Bengali, nor a Muslim.) I found it had inconsistent characterization, weird pacing and a central love story that it took me three quarters of the book to realize was supposed to be a love story, because the girlfriend was such a total nondescript Baxter, that I kept waiting for the “real” love interest to show up.
I recognize that some of the character beats and pacing may have more to do with attempting to recreate the feel of a Bollywood-style drama (on which I am very much not an expert) but then I wonder if it would have worked with quite a bit less of the “Dear White People, here is Bengali culture explained in great detail” and more immersive writing.
Ultimately, it felt like an author taking too many notes from a well-meaning editor and agent about perceived audience instead of having a clear voice.
@omphale I just bought the audiobook. It is both funny and sad that it took so much of the book to realize that the real love interest was already there. Thank you for the alert about telling not showing of Bengali culture. I am forewarned.
Alice Payne Rides Again is one of several queer women time traveling novels that came out after the 2016 election. I enjoyed it but really didn’t like the sequel. And while it’s enjoyable it’s not nearly as nuanced or inventive as This is How You Lose the Time War, the other wlw time travel book I read.