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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The Boy with the Bookstore
Author: Sarah Echavarre Smith
Released: September 6, 2022 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceWhen a baker meets the bookshop owner of her dreams, and he turns into her nemesis, they’ll both have to read between the lines to avoid a career-ending recipe for disaster.
Max Boyson looks good…from a distance. But up close and personal, the tattooed hottie Joelle Prima has been crushing on for the past year and half has turned into the prime example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by his delectable cover.
When she first learned about the massive renovation to the building they share, Joelle imagined that temporarily combining her Filipino bakery with Max’s neighboring bookstore would be the perfect opening chapter to their happily ever after. In her fantasies they fed each other bibingka and pandesal while discussing Jane Austen and cooing over her pet hamster, Pumpkin. Reality, however…is quite different. Her gallant prince turned out to be a stubborn toad who snaps at her in front of customers, dries his sweaty gym clothes in her oven, and routinely helps himself to the yummy pastries in her display case without asking.
But beneath Max’s grumpy glares, Joelle senses a rising heat—and a softening heart. And when they discover the real reason for the renovation, they’ll have to put both their business senses and their feelings for each other to the test.
Bakers and tattooed bookstore owners seem like a catnippy pairing!
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Julie & Winifred’s Most Excellent Adventure
Author: Heather Massey
Released: October 28, 2022 by Crackerjack Creatives, LLC
Genre: LGBTQIA, Time Travel, RomanceA sapphic, time travel romance with Kate and Leopold vibes.
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Mystical Stitches
Author: Christi Johnson
Released: June 22, 2021 by Storey Publishing, LLC
Genre: CraftingHand embroidery can be a joyous respite from busy daily life. It is an exploration of material, an invitation to slow down, and it allows time for contemplation. Mystical Stitches combines this beloved and accessible craft with a spiritual element, introducing nearly 200 original designs for different symbols readers can use to create personal icons to wear or embellish items in the home. Christi Johnson offers patterns inspired by botanicals, animals, numbers, the cosmos, earth elements, and mythological icons for novice or well-practiced crafters to combine into talismans with personal meaning. Johnson’s folk art style is vibrant and unintimidating and provides a framework for bringing spiritual elements into physical form. In addition to basic techniques, an overview of material options, and an illustrated encyclopedia of stitches, the extensive treasury of symbols is lavishly photographed in hand-stitched, full-color spreads that will inspire readers to create personalized designs to stitch on clothes, hang on the wall, place on an altar, carry with them, or display in a place of prominence.
I know we have lots of crafters! This focuses on embroidery, especially in regards to intention and healing.
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Our Hideous Progeny
Author: C.E. McGill
Released: May 9, 2023 by Harper
Genre: Horror, Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/FantasyFor readers of Circe or Ariadne, a brilliant literary revisiting of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein with a fresh, queer, provocative twist.
It’s 1853 London. Ex-medical student Victor Frankenstein has been missing for years now. Frankenstein’s great niece Mary Sutherland and her husband, Henry, are trying to follow in his scientific footsteps and become renowned paleontologists. They have the brains and the ambition; the only thing they lack is the reputation. Mary is a woman with a sharp mind but a fierce tongue and Henry is an unemployed gambling addict: none of this earning appeal with their peers.
But after finding clues to her great uncle’s disappearance, Mary’s luck may just change. She constructs a plan that will force the scientific community to take her and her husband seriously; no one will be able to ignore them after they learn to create life. Once they have successfully constructed their Creature, Henry’s ambition soars, but Mary finds herself asking deeper, more important questions than she’s ever confronted before. As Henry’s desire for fame grows, Mary must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the Creature she has grown to love.
A retelling of Frankenstein that seems to amp up the spookiness.
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Julie & Winifred looks really cute!
I’m sorry, I’m not sure that there is any coming back from the guy using her bakery’s oven to dry his sweaty clothes. One, what???? And two, that’s disgusting and I imagine the health department might have some issues with that.
@DePizan, my thoughts exactly on the oven. Yuck!
Julie & Winifred’s Most Excellent Adventure sounds like a fun read.
Yeah, @DePizan… that is revolting, and I’m not sure there is a reasonable enough explanation to change my mind!
@DePizan perhaps inspired by the Seinfeld where Kramer dries his clothes in the pizza oven? (gag)