Welcome to Book Beat!
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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Coming Back
Author: Jessi Zabarsky
Released: January 18, 2022 by Random House Graphic
Genre: Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultPreet is magic.
Valissa is not.
Everyone in their village has magic in their bones, and Preet is the strongest of them all. Without any power of her own, how can Valissa ever be worthy of Preet’s love? When their home is attacked, Valissa has a chance to prove herself, but that means leaving Preet behind. On her own for the first time Preet breaks the village’s most sacred laws, and is rejected from the only home she’s ever known and sent into a new world.
Divided by different paths, insecurities, and distance, will Valissa and Preet be able to find their way back to each other?
Source: Bookstore shelving
I saw this while shelving at the bookstore and it reminds me a lot of the graphic novel Mooncakes, which I love!
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The Devil Wears Tartan
Author: Katia Rose
Released: March 19, 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, New Adult, RomanceSome couples are a match made in heaven.
Moira and Kenzie are convinced the only place they’re a match is in hell.
Raised as the shining prodigies of warring highland dance schools, the two grew up with blaring bagpipes as the backing track for a feud that took them all the way to the world championships.
Moira could never keep Kenzie’s icy glares from getting under her skin, and Kenzie could never hold back an eye-roll as she watched the crowds fawn over her rival’s happy-go-lucky charm.
Starting college has forced both women to hang up their kilts, but when their local highland dance association announces a scholarship for a life-changing amount of money, they find themselves back onstage for one last season.
The stakes are higher than ever, but between shooting daggers at each other’s backs and insults at each other’s faces, their eyes start lingering, their hearts start pounding, and the sparks begin to build into a fire neither of them can control.
Hell could freeze before either woman would admit their attraction, but that won’t stop them from using it to play dirty—and getting caught in the crossfire of their feelings along the way.
After all, sometimes the devil wears tartan.
The Devil Wears Tartan is a New Adult WLW dramedy from Katia Rose featuring more bagpipes than anyone asked for and two fiercely competitive heroines caught in a sizzling shift from enemies to lovers.
Source: Amazon ad
A F/F new adult romance where the main characters are rival Highland dancers!
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Rivalry at Play
Author: Nadine Gonzalez
Released: July 26, 2022 by Harlequin Desire
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Texas Cattleman's Club: Ranchers and Rivals Book #4He was once the competition, but now that they’re all grown up, who will come out on top? Don’t miss this sizzling Texas Cattleman’s Club: Ranchers and Rivals novel by Nadine Gonzalez.
“It’s your move. Go ahead and finish me.”
Attorney Alexandra Lattimore doesn’t play games, but entrepreneur Jackson Strom brings out her competitive side. Her former high school rival is all grown up—oozing class, challenging her and tempting her in equal measure. But she’s back home to deal with family business, not to revisit the past or get tangled up in messy emotions. Is a casual fling the best strategy? Maybe… Succumbing to Jackson’s physical appeal is one thing; revealing her secrets is another. But she knows he won’t be satisfied until he’s made her his queen…
Source: @JeannieLin on Twitter
Not sure how much chess plays into the romance, but the cover is enough to get me to look twice.
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SuperMutant Magic Academy
Author: Jillian Tamaki
Released: April 28, 2015 by Drawn and Quarterly
Genre: Graphic Novel, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultUnrequited love, underage drinking, and teen angst rule at a high school for mutants and witches.
The New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Jillian Tamaki is best known for co-creating the award-winning young adult graphic novels Skim and This One Summer—moody and atmospheric bestsellers. SuperMutant Magic Academy, which she has been serializing online for the past four years, paints a teenaged world filled with just as much ennui and uncertainty, but also with a sharp dose of humor and irreverence. Tamaki deftly plays superhero and high-school Hollywood tropes against what adolescence is really like: The SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep school for mutants and witches, but their paranormal abilities take a backseat to everyday teen concerns.
Science experiments go awry, bake sales are upstaged, and the new kid at school is a cat who will determine the course of human destiny. In one strip, lizard-headed Trixie frets about her nonexistent modeling career; in another, the immortal Everlasting Boy tries to escape this mortal coil to no avail. Throughout it all, closeted Marsha obsesses about her unrequited crush, the cat-eared Wendy. Whether the magic is mundane or miraculous, Tamaki’s jokes are precise and devastating.
SuperMutant Magic Academy has won two Ignatz Awards. This volume combines the most popular content from the webcomic with a selection of all-new, never-before-seen strips that conclude Tamaki’s account of life at the academy.
Source: Coworker!
Overheard a coworker talking about this to a customer! I believe it was originally a webcomic.
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I think both of these came from a Tor email.
THE CITY INSIDE by Samit Basu
“They’d known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”
Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable culture power, but she’s too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.
Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death pulls him back into his family’s orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.
But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control—complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not—cannot—take the same shape for these two very different people.
DRUNK ON ALL YOURS STRANGE NEW WORDS by Eddie Robson
Lydia works as translator for the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. They work well together, even if the act of translating his thoughts into English makes her somewhat wobbly on her feet. She’s not the agency’s best translator, but what else is she going to do? She has no qualifications, and no discernible talent in any other field.
So when tragedy strikes, and Lydia finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident, her future employment prospects look dire—that is, if she can keep herself out of jail!
But Lydia soon discovers that help can appear from the most unexpected source…
“The never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism” and “She has no qualifications and no discernible talent in any other field” are aimed specifically at moi.
These all sound good. @Lena Brassard/Ren Benton: I thought the cover for THE CITY INSIDE was gorgeous, as intriguing as the premise.
These all sound great!