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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Cubs & Campfires
Author: Dylan Drakes
Released: August 25, 2024 by Unreliable Narrators Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Sweet & Stocky #1A cozy summer romance with low angst and high heat.
Luca Torres, struggling journalism graduate, never meant to take a vow of celibacy. It was just a dumb idea from a job interview gone wrong. He never thought they’d approve the article. Or make his future career conditional on delivering it.
Now, with no choice but to steer clear of temptation for the summer, he takes the most isolated job he can find: a fire lookout in the rural and picturesque mountains of Washington State.
However, his goal becomes much harder with the arrival of the husky and flirtatious Artair Osmond, a musician and wilderness enthusiast who takes up camp nearby. Now he must decide what he really desires: the career at the prestigious newspaper, or the big, bearded bear he can’t get out of his head.
Cubs & Campfires is a sweet and spicy romance about chunky men, cozy woods, and cuddles under starlight.
Well this looks cute and cozy. I also love seeing bigger bodies on romance covers!
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The Madness
Author: Dawn Kurtagich
Released: August 27, 2024 by Graydon House
Genre: Gothic, Horror, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/FantasyBeware what waits in the shadows…
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, along with her routine and the calm it brings, she returns to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious patient with amnesia hundreds of miles away.
With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.
As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
A Dracula retelling set in the Welsh countryside.
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Voyage of the Damned
Author: Frances White
Released: August 20, 2024 by MIRA
Genre: LGBTQIA, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/FantasyA mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it!
For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor’s ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing.
All except one: Ganymedes Piscero—class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment.
When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people and without a Blessing to protect him, Ganymedes’s odds of survival are slim.
But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret Blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia?
Or will the empire as he knows it fall?
A fantasy, locked room mystery set on a ship! Sounds fun!
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Wreck My Plans
Author: Jillian Meadows
Released: April 23, 2024 by Avon
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceA sweet and spicy holiday romance between a spirited artist who returns to her small town for Christmas and her older brother’s best friend, a serious architect who pushes all her buttons—but whom she can’t seem to stay away from. Now with exclusive bonus content!
Lena’s plans are simple. Surprise her family for Christmas, don’t tell them she lost her job, and most importantly, spend the week relaxing with the people she cares about.
But when she arrives in Juniper, she discovers she’s not the only unexpected guest this year. Her older brother’s best friend, Gavin, is back after disappearing three years ago without a word. He has the kind of charm Lena has always been drawn to. But she knows he’s also the kind of temptation she needs to stay far away from.
Gavin has built his architecture career out of planning strategies for dealing with the unexpected—but he didn’t have a strategy for the possibility of seeing Lena again. Though he’s been dreaming of her since the day he left, he can’t risk giving in to his feelings when they could upend the only family and home he has ever known.
New plan: try to be friends again. Just friends.
But as the pieces fall into place about why Gavin left, staying friends is the last thing on his mind…and on Lena’s. All the plans they’ve made might end up completely wrecked. And for once, maybe they want it that way.
This holiday romance came out way back in April, but if older brother’s BFF is your catnip, this might be for you.
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I didn’t enjoy VOTD, finding it too predictable but the writing quality is good and the use of humor is well done. A good book just Not For Me, alas.
I had high hopes for The Madness but alas, it was a lot less interesting than the original novel.
Cubs & Campfires sounds cute. (Also, I’m commenting to see if my new avatar is working)
@cleo: I had no idea that avatars existed here. Did it work?
@cleo, the cover for it definitely looks cute! And I’m with @Kareni–avatars?? LOL!
@kareni @flchen1 – I got my websites confused! No avatars here.
@kareni @flchen1 – I got my websites confused! No avatars here. (But it looks good on other sites – I finally replaced a picture of my late cat with a picture of my beloved Christmas cactus)