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.
-
A Perfect Story
Author: Elísabet Benavent
Released: July 23, 2024 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance*Now an original series from Netflix*
*International bestseller*
Two heartbroken people from totally different worlds go on a fake-dating vacation of a lifetime. What could possibly go wrong?
Margot Ortega always struggled to be the princess in her own fairytale: a successful career, a huge salary, a gorgeous apartment, and a perfect fiancé. But on her wedding day, she suffers a major panic attack and has to call it off.
Devastated and ashamed, Margot decides to drown her sufferings in a mad night of alcohol and dancing. The next day, she goes back to the sleazy club to retrieve her sister’s cell phone, and has a crazy encounter with David Sánchez, the handsome, fun-loving bartender who persuades her to pretend to be his new girlfriend in order to make his ex jealous. David recognizes the sadness in her eyes, and together they conspire to help each other get their exes back. Little do they know how much fun they’ll have and how much they’ll complicate their lives.
A trip to Greece together that Margot sees as a much-needed getaway creates an unexpected connection and depth of intimacy between two people who belong to two totally different worlds. What starts as a simple escape for fun and adventure becomes complicated and devastating when the depth of their feelings pulls the two lovers in different directions and forces them to make a life-altering decision.
Full of joy, angst, and heartfelt humor, A Perfect Story is perfect for fans of:
- Opposites attract romance
- Fake dating (but it feels so real)
- Sizzling heat and fiery passion
- Books that make you cry and laugh
- A fun, sexy vacation to the Mediterranean
- Emotional romances by Lucy Score and Abby Jimenez
A romance in translation! I always love seeing these. It’s also been made into a Netflix series. Has anyone watched it?
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
A Wolf in the Garden
Author: Allegra Hall
Released: November 30, 2023
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Series: Lost Moon: Unravelling Monsters Universe #1Ellie never expected to see him again.
Two years after the Unravelling revealed monsters and their hidden realm to the world, garden designer Ellie Harding seems to have her life together, living out her cottagecore dreams on the picturesque island of Motuwai, New Zealand.
What she never expected was for Van Livingston, the wealthy American she grew up with every summer, to walk back into her life nine years after a tragic event destroyed their romantic relationship. What’s more, it turns out Van is a wolf — a hybrid werewolf/wolf-shifter, to be exact — with two wolves and two wolf forms. He’s just as handsome as ever, and without the glamour, his gold eyes and towering height have her feeling hot and bothered all over again.
Van was her first love, and she could never blame him for how things ended… but that doesn’t mean Ellie’s ready to take him back. She has her own problems to sort out, including a secret that’s been eating away at her.
Van’s wolves know that she’s his mate.
He wasn’t supposed to find Ellie yet. After breaking away from his father’s pack, Van’s plan involved settling into his newly-purchased vineyard on the island of Motuwai. Only then did he plan on tracking Ellie down — to apologise, to grovel, and to beg for her forgiveness.
But the moment he scents her in the unlikeliest of places, he’s done for. His wolves won’t let it go — Ellie is his fated mate — and this time around, he’s not going to ruin things.
However, Ellie isn’t quite the same woman he used to know, and something sinister has been lurking in the shadows. Van’s alpha instincts drive him to protect her, but will it be enough to keep the danger at bay?
A Wolf in the Garden is a first-person, dual POV novel, and the first in the Unravelling Monsters universe. It is a monster romance that features a female lead of mixed New Zealand European and Māori descent who is not afraid to love her man in both his human and his werewolf form. There is a HEA. CWs coming soon.
Sarah mentioned this one in our Slack, saying, “Maori author writing Maori shifters in Aotearoa.” It received lots of heart eyes reactions from the group!
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Full Speed to a Crash Landing
Author: Beth Revis
Released: August 6, 2024 by DAW
Genre: Novella, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Chaotic Orbits #1Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.
But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late…
A phenomenally fun novella that kicks off a trilogy of sexy space heists and romantic tension, Full Speed to a Crash Landing is packed with great characters and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.
A sci-fi romance novella with a government employee and a heroine on the wrong side of the law. Very curious about the novella-length decision for these books, as book two has been announced and it’s also under 200 pages.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Sounds Like a Plan
Author: Pamela Samuels Young
Released: July 9, 2024 by Atria Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Mystery/Thriller, RomanceOne Missing Person. Two Rival Detectives. Infinite Chemistry. This rollicking thrill ride told in alternating “he said/she said” perspectives is an irresistible blend of mystery, sexual tension, and humor.
Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham have a lot in common. They are both hard-working private investigators with their own firms in Los Angeles, each happily single, and very good at their jobs. But when they’re together, they are like oil and water.
After they find themselves working the same missing persons case, the idea of collaborating seems about as likely as a blizzard in Beverly Hills. But once it’s clear that they have been set up to take the fall for a murder, they have no choice but to join forces and make a plan that will expose the truth.
Bickering their way from Century City to Malibu and beyond, they find it increasingly hard to deny the sparks flying between them. But with a small army of mercenaries in hot pursuit and a killer intent on covering his tracks, there’s not a lot of time to sort through their complicated feelings. Told in alternating perspectives, this rollicking, romantic thrill ride makes for a swoon-worthy mystery.
A rivals to lovers romance with a bit of mystery thrown in. Young is an attorney, while Smith is a screenwriter. Both have experience writing thrillers!
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
I signed up for a month of KU, mostly from FOMO I think, so I can read A Wolf in the Garden before the subscription runs out. And my library has A Perfect Story, so that’s two books for my weekend reading!
Yup, I’ve watched A Perfect Story and it’s a fun, lovely watch. Another of Benavent’s adaptations is also on Netflix, Valeria, which I would highly recommend (the male lead Max Iglesiasis is worth watching alone). There are three seasons, first two are great, last… I watched because I’d seen the first two seasons.
Sounds Like a Plan sounds like a fun ride, ha. Added to my TBR!
Wolf in the Garden and Sounds Like a Pan are both on my TBR
The Revis was reviewed on Dear Author the other day. Same comment I made there… $13.99 is way over the top for something billed as a novella.
Dear Allegra Halll, if you’re reading this, please put your books on Kobo. I would love to read them!
WOLF IN THE GARDEN sounds interesting, but I’m a bit confused about the two wolves thing. He can shape shift into a wolf and is also a werewolf – how do these things differ? Does the two wolves engage in internal dialogue? Does Van control which one appears when (does the werewolf only appear during a full moon and the rest of the time he just shifts)? Enquiring minds want to know.
Seconding LizzieG. I really enjoyed A Perfect Story on Netflix. It was sweet and fun, and it sucked me in enough that I stayed up past my bedtime to watch it (tbf my bedtime is 10 pm).