THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA

The Lager Queen of Minnesota serves up a new cast of lovable, quintessentially Midwestern characters eager to make their mark in a world that's often stacked against them. In this deeply affecting, humorous, emotional family saga, resolution can take generations, but when it finally comes, we're surprised, moved, and delighted.

Diana's grandmother Edith's rhubarb pies are named the third-best in Minnesota by the Twin City Talker. Unsure how to handle her sudden fame, she lays awake wondering how her life might have been if her father hadn't left their family farm to her sister Helen, a decision that split their family in two.

Helen used the farm sale proceeds to build her husband Orval's soda business into the top selling brewery in Minnesota. Her own brew leads the light beer revolution and makes their corporate motto ubiquitous: "Drink lots, it's Blotz." Helen dismisses IPAs as a fad, and the Blotz fortune begins its precipitous "death by a thousand hops." Advised to acquire a craft brewery in order to save her own, Helen finds a potential savior that's surprisingly close to home.

Diana Winter earns a shot at learning the beer business from the ground up as the IPA revolution begins reshaping how America drinks. And after putting hundreds of hours into crafting her own beer, she claims renown as a 19-year-old brewmaster. And the stakes couldn't be higher: just as she's launching a new brewpub, she's due to deliver a baby girl. When the unthinkable happens, it's up to Grandma Edith--and a delightfully surprising cadre of grandmother friends--to secure the next generation's chances for a better future. Can Grandma Edith's Rhubarb Pie In A Bottle Ale, change their hearts and fortunes?

ANOTHER GREAT MIDWESTERN FAMILY STORY: Once again, Stradal delivers. Here, he gives us the reading pleasure of immersing ourselves in the lives of these ordinary but quirky Americans with his signature warmth, humor and voice.

BREAKOUT AUTHOR: With all your support and enthusiasm, we made J. Ryan Stradal's Kitchens of the Great Midwest a bestselling debut to remember. Kitchens has enjoyed placement on numerous Best-Of lists, including the ABA's, and it was the Indies Choice Book of the Year Award - Adult Debut Winner, and also hit the NYT Extended List.

BASED ON THE AUTHOR'S OWN HISTORY: This novel is loosely based on events that took place on Stradal's grandparents' farm in the Midwest. As he says, "Things often go north or south for families because of the kind of money a Wall Street executive might consider a weekend's entertainment budget--$3,700, for example."

J. Ryan Stradal is a contributing editor at TASTE Magazine. His bestselling debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the 2016 American Booksellers Association Indie's Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year and also the 2016 Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for debut fiction.