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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In a League of Her Own
Author: Kaia Alderson
Released: August 6, 2024 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Historical: AmericanFrom the author of Sisters in Arms comes the incredible, untold story of Effa Manley, a black businesswoman in the male dominated baseball industry, and, currently, the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1930s, New York City
An ambitious Harlem woman’s husband upends her social climbing when he buys a Negro Leagues baseball team and appoints her as the team’s business manager. Overnight, Effa Manley goes from 125th Street’s civil rights champion to an interloper in the boys’ club that is professional baseball.
Navigating her way through gentlemen’s agreement contracts, the very public flirtatious antics of superstar Satchel Paige, and a sports world that would much rather see this woman back in her “place” at home, Effa ultimately whips her team, the Newark Eagles, into the Negro Leagues Champions of 1946. But how long will she get to enjoy the fruits of her success before Major League Baseball tears it all apart?
Based on the incredible life of Effa Manley, an unforgettable and inspiring story about a woman with a dream who wound up with a baseball team.
Historical fiction about Effa Manley, who went on to co-own the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues in the 1930s.
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Mafia Mistress
Author: Mila Finelli
Released: August 30, 2021 by Dolcezza Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotica/Erotic Romance, Romance
Series: The Kings of Italy #1FAUSTO
I am the darkness, the man whose illicit empire stretches around the globe. Not many have the courage for what needs to be done to maintain power . . .but I do.
And I always get what I want—including my son’s fiancée.
She’s mine now, and I’ll use Francesca any way I see fit. She’s the perfect match to my twisted desires, and I’ll keep her close, ready and waiting at my disposal.
Even if she fights me at every turn.
FRANCESCA
I was stolen away and held prisoner in Italy, a bride for a mafia king’s only heir.
Except I’m no innocent, and it’s the king himself—the man called il Diavolo—who appeals to me in sinful ways I never dreamed. Fausto’s wickedness draws me in, his power like a drug.
And when the devil decides he wants me, I’m helpless to resist him—even if it means giving myself to him, body and soul.
He may think he can control me, but this king is about to find out who’s really the boss.
MAFIA MISTRESS is a full-length mafia romance written by a USA Today Bestselling author. It’s the first book in the Italian Kings duet, **not** a standalone.
Did y’all know that Joanna Shupe writes mafia romances under a different pen name? Well now you do!
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Night Owls
Author: A.R. Vishny
Released: September 17, 2024 by HarperCollins
Genre: Horror, LGBTQIA, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Young AdultIn this thrilling paranormal YA romance debut steeped in folklore, two estries—owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition—face New York’s monstrous underworld to save the girl one of them loves with help from the boy one of them fears before they are, all of them, lost forever.
Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive—or, rather, undead—for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night. Feed on men in secret. And never fall in love.
Molly is in love. And she’s tired of keeping her girlfriend, Anat, a secret. If Clara won’t agree to bend their rules a little, then she will bend them herself.
Boaz is cursed. He can’t walk two city blocks without being cornered by something undead. At least at work at the theater, he gets to flirt with Clara, wishing she would like him back.
When Anat vanishes and New York’s monstrous underworld emerges from the shadows, Clara suspects Boaz, their annoyingly cute box office attendant, might be behind it all.
But if they are to find Anat, they will need to work together to face demons and the hungers they would sooner bury. Clara will have to break all her rules—of love, of life, and of death itself—before her rules break everyone she loves.
In this stand-alone debut, A. R. Vishny interweaves mystery, romance, and lore to create an unputdownable story about those who have kept to the shadows for far too long.
Elyse dropped this one in the SBTB Slack – Jewish teen vampires who can also turn into owls with hints of mystery, horror, and romance.
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This Will Be Fun
Author: E.B. Asher
Released: October 29, 2024 by Avon
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Mystery/Thriller, RomanceThe Princess Bride meets People We Meet on Vacation in this cozy romantasy about a group of friends who once saved their magical land together but haven’t spoken in ten years, reuniting to attend a royal wedding then ending up on a new quest to defend the realm, for readers of Legends and Lattes and lovers of Shrek.
Ten years ago, they saved the realm. It ruined their lives.
In the magical realm of Mythria, everyone remembers how best friends Beatrice and Elowen, ex-bandit Clare, and their heroic leader Galwell the Great defended the queendom from darkness. Ten years later, the former heroes have never recovered from what their famous quest cost them—including the life of Galwell. None ever planned on speaking to the others again. Until, that is, they receive an invitation they cannot ignore—the wedding of the Queen of Mythria, whose life they saved when she was princess.
Reunited on the road, retracing their original heroic quest, is no fun whatsoever for Beatrice and Clare—Clare not over the one-night-stand in their past, Beatrice unable to forget the man who once had her heart—nor for Elowen, unprepared for the return of her former flame, the charming and cunning Vandra. While reuniting with ex-friends and ex-lovers is challenging enough, their new journey grows perilous when the kidnapping of the groom reveals the resurgence of the dark forces from the heroes’ past, plotting domination only Mythria’s onetime defenders could maybe—just maybe—defeat.
Dusting off old weapons and old instincts, they face undead nemeses, unquenchable passions, crystal caves, coffee shops, enchanted swords, games of magical Truth or Dare—and hardest of all, their past, rife with wounds never healed and romances never forgotten.
With companions like theirs, every love story is a quest for happily ever after.
This one isn’t out until the end of October, but the marketing copy makes this sound like an interesting mashup!
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Re MAFIA MISTRESS: OK, this is where Mafia books lose me. When Fausto says “Not many have the courage for what needs to be done to maintain power . . .but I do”, what he means is not many are willing to kill judges and honest prosecutors, not many are willing to murder their rivals’ whole families (children included), not many are willing to kill the patients at a drug clinic as a warning to addicts not to try to kick the habit. I know these books are fantasies about having these extremely focused, very rich, powerful men brought to their knees by love (and, TBH, sex), but I just can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to ignore RL here. I don’t condemn others who love these books, and I know there must be many or these books wouldn’t be published, I just can’t do it myself.
Thanks for the heads up on Joanna Shupe! She’s one of my favorite historical authors and I had no idea!
Penny Marshall wanted to make a movie out of Effa’s life story but sadly passed before she could do it – too bad, it would’ve been fantastic!