Boom! Welcome to a special edition of Books & Biceps & Bear Brawl!
Last week I was finally (FINALLY!) able to reveal the Bear Brawl cover and your reactions were everything I’d hoped for:
The leading comment out of the gate was several dozen versions of: “Hell yeahhh!” “Oh, hell yeahhh!!” or “Hell yes just bought it!”… We got a bunch of “This goes so hard!” and “Finkel, reminds me of Predator! [or Conan or Terminator or The Edge or pick your action film]…
One guy wrote in: “I love the cover so much I want to fight it, finkel!”
That’s a pretty strong comment and I can’t disagree.
Even my man, Nick Horvath, author and creator of the great Sledge series (we interviewed him here), weighed in:
All this makes me so pumped… But also, the bad assery is just one level to the book. We tackle some big topics, reference some major works of literature and have some deep themes running throughout.
My publisher put together this summary to reflect all that:
Part First Blood and part Jaws, Finkel takes readers on a blockbuster adventure with heart-pounding scenes, humor, heart, bear history, William Faulkner (you’ll see), and family. With readers dropped into the action from the first sentence, the pages fly by, covering tracking, training, fighting, philosophy, pain, grief, love and a cast of unforgettable characters you’ll root for like you’re watching your favorite action movie.
This is a true Books & Biceps novel. I’m even putting together an accompanying reading list and Gear Guide so you can go deeper on the life and world of Brick Bridger.
A goofy thing about publishing is that once your publisher submit your final book cover, it takes a while for it to populate across various book selling platforms. We’ve had a placeholder on Amazon for a while now and the new cover should show up shortly… BUT, we just got word that the cover and pre-order pages are up for Barnes & Noble and Bookshop, if you want to support an indy bookstore near you!
This is awesome! So I’m including links below to buy from wherever you’d like.
PRE-ORDERS are HUGE when it comes to launching a book. Yes, even this far out. It gives book buyers and the media a sense of the level of anticipation and excitement for a book… Especially a debut thriller…
Don’t wait! Hit one of these pre-order links below and secure your copy ASAP!
You’ll still get all the cool giveaways we come out with as we get closer (bookmarks, book plates, special prizes)… Just screenshot your order.
GRAB YOUR COPY OF BEAR BRAWL:
I appreciate you reading Books & Biceps every week. This book is going to be our moment. Our time to show the publishing world that we want these books. We want Bear Brawl.
And we’re going to make it the #1 Thriller of 2026!
Thank you for pre-ordering! You’re all hall of famers in my book! - Jon