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 Baby Dragon Cafe
Author: A.T, Qureshi
Released: January 16, 2025 by Avon
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Baby Dragon #1When Saphira opened up her café for baby dragons and their humans, she wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to keep the fires burning. It turns out, young dragons are not the best magical animals to keep in a café, and replacing all that burnt furniture is costing Saphira more than she can afford from selling dragon-roasted coffee.
Aiden is a local gardener, and local heart-throb, more interested in his plants than actually spending time with his disobedient baby dragon. When Aiden walks into Saphira’s café, he has a genius idea – he’ll ask Saphira to train his baby dragon, and he’ll pay her enough to keep the café afloat.
Saphira’s happy-go-lucky attitude doesn’t seem to do anything but irritate the grumpy-but-gorgeous Aiden, except that everywhere she goes, she finds him there. But can this dragon café owner turn her fortunes around, and maybe find love along the way?
Look, it’s a fantasy romance where the heroine takes care of baby dragons.
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The Games Gods Play
Author: Abigail Owen
Released: September 24, 2024 by Entangled: Red Tower Books
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Crucible #1THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“This story is my latest obsession.” —USA Today bestselling author, Devney Perry
The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.
Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.
The worst god. Hades.
For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.
So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?
I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?
Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.
This was described as Percy Jackson for adults. The plot reminds me a lot of An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard, which I loved.
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The River Has Roots
Author: Amal El-Mohtar
Released: March 4, 2025 by Tor.com
Genre: LGBTQIA, Novella, Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyFollow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.
“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.
There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.
But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
I’ve been hearing great things about this novella!
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My Sister’s Shadow
Author: January Gilchrist
Released: March 18, 2025 by Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Gothic, Historical: American, Historical: European, Mystery/ThrillerEnvy and desire infiltrate the lives of twin sisters in this dark, Gothic suspense set in England and New York City, perfect for fans of Laura Joh Rowland and Hester Fox.
A mirror will never show you the truth.
England, 1904. Mirror twins Adelaide and Victoria have spent their lives in orbit of each other– doomed to be in the other’s shadow, their lives are intertwined and inextricable as each other’s identical inverse. Adelaide is dutiful and reserved, happy to remain in her childhood home, Harewood Hall, forever. Victoria wishes for a thrilling life, exploring the world and finding a great romance–but the twins cannot live apart.
Visiting Lord Stanley bewitches Victoria with his talk of a life of luxury in New York, but it is obedient Adelaide whom he marries against her will and to Victoria’s fury. Together, they all move to New York and begin a new life.
Adelaide finds herself trapped in a gilded cage on Fifth Avenue with no one but her angry and tempestuous twin for company. Amid the glamor of the upper class, Adelaide is captivated by the independent and educated women of the elite social circle Mrs. Astor’s 400. As Adelaide’s star rises, tensions begin to surface between the sisters, and as Adelaide grows apart from her twin for the very first time, Victoria descends into a rage-fueled darkness that threatens everything and anyone standing in her way.
Darker and darker with every turn of the page, this Gothic suspense will enrapture readers of Daphne du Maurier and Laura Purcell.
A Gothic mystery where the main character suspects her twin might be trying to steal her identity. Sounds twisty!
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The Games Gods Play immediately put me off with that last line. So here’s everyone’s daily reminder that Hades is not the God of Death, Thanatos is. Makes me feel like Owen was just going off pop culture without doing any actual research.
nevermind my weird bugbear about people erasing Persephone as it were just so their mc can get with Hades insteadoooh, all of these sound good.
Kaelie: I also get upset with these authors who take thousands-years old stories and ignore them except as a marketing tool. Related to this, Artemis is a goddess (and an important one) and I cannot read any book where that is the name for a male character. Don’t these authors know how to research or is it that they can’t be bothered? And if they don’t/can’t, why should I waste my precious time reading them?
And poorly written and/or inaccurate blurbs also make the applicable book a hard “no.” (Obviously, we’ve gotten into my pet peeves territory here.)
The Baby Dragon Cafe is $.99 at kobo
In defense of the author, I don’t think she has much say about the book blurb or whatever the publisher wants to put on the cover.
I do dislike Hades with any other character but Persephone because he (and Hephaestus) seemed to be the only ones who did not fool around.