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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A Death in Door County
Author: Annelise Ryan
Released: September 13, 2022 by Berkley
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Series: Monster Hunter Mystery #1A Wisconsin bookstore owner and cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan.
Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s hunting cryptids–creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up on.
So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the Death’s Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake–but if they’re not careful, they just might be its next victims.
Source: Researching new cozy mysteries!
A Midwest cozy mystery with a woman who runs a bookstore and loves cryptozoology!
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Bring It On
Author: Kase Wickman
Released: December 2, 2022 by Chicago Review Press
Genre: NonfictionFeaturing dozens of interviews with the cast and crew, fans of the franchise, film scholars, former and current cheerleaders, fellow filmmakers, and more.
Gabrielle Union, Kirsten Dunst, and Eliza Dushku have all risen to fame since their performances in the original cheer classic, but boldface names like Solange Knowles, Rihanna, Hayden Panetierre, Ashley Tisdale, and more also appeared in Bring It On films. The first-time director who helmed the movie, Peyton Reed, now has multiple Marvel smash hit films under his belt.
Not bad for a movie that almost didn’t get greenlit in the first place—but went on to win the box office its opening weekend, gross more than $90.45 million worldwide, and spawn a half-dozen sequels, a Tony-nominated musical, and a whole new genre of female-led films.
With the support of the filmmakers and producers, author and pop culture expert Kase Wickman accessed Universal’s archives and conducted new interviews with cast, crew, and more for a full reveal of all the stories fans will love in this complete history and examination of the legacy of the greatest cheerleading movie almost never made.
Beyond its 20th anniversary, the legacy of Bring It On endures. It’s time we all understood how it changed, like, everything.
Source: Publisher catalogs at work.
Bring It On had such a grip on high school Amanda and since this is an early December release, it seems like a good holiday gift option.
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Eternally Yours
Author: Patrice Caldwell
Released: September 20, 2022 by Viking Books for Young Readers
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultGive in to this irresistible paranormal romance anthology filled with tales of the mortal and the monstrous. In Eternally Yours, fifteen of today’s bestselling writers explore love in its many forms . . .
Contributors include Kalynn Bayron, Kendare Blake, Kat Cho, Melissa de la Cruz, Hafsah Faizal, Sarah Gailey, Chloe Gong, Alexis Henderson, Adib Khorram, Anna-Marie McLemore, Casey McQuiston, Sandhya Menon, Akshaya Raman, Marie Rutkoski, and Julian Winters.
Vampires and merpeople, angels and demons—the stories in this anthology imagine worlds where the only thing more powerful than the supernatural, is love.
A girl in a graveyard goes on an unexpected date, a shipwrecked sailor makes a connection on a forbidden island, a piano melody summons a soul mate. Creatures of folktales and legend, of land and sea, of centuries past and life after life, all wrapped into one spellbinding compendium. Once you sink into its pages, it’ll never let you go.
Source: Sarah on Slack!
Patrice Caldwell’s edited anthologies have been positively reviewed and mentioned on the site. This one is paranormal romance themed!
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On Good Authority
Author: Briana Una McGuckin
Released: October 11, 2022 by Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Gothic, Historical: European, Mystery/Thriller, RomanceRepressed desires, irresistible obsessions, and perception-twisting games.
When lady’s maid Marian Osley and footman Valentine Hobbs assume their positions at the cliff-top estate of Valor Rise, they already share a history. Raised together as paupers in a London workhouse, they escaped through games of imaginary crimes and sublime punishment. Now they’ve been unexpectedly reunited—in subservience to the brooding Wythe Bornholdt and his frail wife, Diana. A master and mistress with their own dark secrets.
In private, Marian and Valentine return to their playful and addictive games—now tinged with BDSM. But when lecherous Wythe sees something he desires in Marian, he turns the pair’s games violently against them.
The line between servitude and bondage is drawn, and the dynamics of dominance and submission will shift in this sensually charged novel of Gothic suspense.
Source: Agatha, host of the She Wore Black podcast
Sounds sexy and suspenseful!
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Monsters in Door County? If there is a more iconic Summer/vacation spot for Midwestern families, I can’t think of it. In the ’50s and ’60s, south side Chicagoans went to Michigan; north siders went to Wisconsin, and Door County was a real magnet. I have so many friends to tell about this book.
Ok, Rule 34 aficionados: have you ever thought to yourself, I wonder what HEATED RIVALRY would have been like if, instead of being professional hockey players, Shane & Ilya were pOrn stars? If so, I have the book for you: NOEL & BELLAMY FALL IN LOVE by HB Lin. This is an erotic m/m romance between stars at two rival gay pOrn studios, and it hews incredibly close to the HEATED RIVALRY/LONG GAME template (including similar scenes with the MCs exercising next to each other on treadmills, being hired for an ad campaign that highlights their rivalry, and being “outed” when they are indiscreet in public and are unknowingly recorded). Lin is no Rachel Reid when it comes to smooth prose style, and the hockey/pOrn analogies can only go so far, but if you’re looking for a quick read an unexpected level of emotional depth, NOEL & BELLAMY FALL IN LOVE isn’t a bad way to while away a few hours.
Oooh, I just saw that my girl, Kati Wilde, has a new Dead Lands novella scheduled for October 25. Here is the blurb for THE STONEHEART BRIDE:
“Rescued by the warrior who’d broken her heart…
Flora doesn’t know which is worse: being abducted by ogres who intend to eat her, or being saved by the barbarian warrior who’d coldly rejected her hand in marriage. Brom the Stonehearted had crushed Flora’s every hope of a future where she was valued for herself, and dreams of a life where she was more than her uncle’s political pawn.
But as they ride toward home, Flora discovers that a warrior raised in the barren wilds of the Dead Lands recognizes value far beyond power and gold—and that his particular kind of courtship could never be cold…
This short romance is part of the Dead Lands series but completely stands alone.”
Kati has had some personal challenges during the past year and has not published any new work in a while, so I’m thrilled she’s going to be releasing something new soon.