CJ Perry’s first novel has a release date. Bulletproof Angel, co-written with author Blake Northcott, comes out Tuesday, November 10 from BenBella Books, distributed by Simon & Schuster.
The trade paperback runs 352 pages and lists at $19.95, with an ebook edition also available. Preorders are open through Simon & Schuster, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop, Target and Walmart. The cover bills Perry as “WWE Legend Lana.”
Reagan Ashe, a young CIA operative on her first undercover assignment in Russia, poses as the girlfriend of a mafia boss to stop an arms deal that would put next-generation military technology in the hands of a terror group. When a firefight blows her cover, the code to unlock a superweapon called the Skeleton Key is destroyed, but not before she memorizes it. Disavowed and hunted through Moscow, she is pulled out by a retired spy who turns out to be her estranged mother, Bex, and the two have to work together on the run.
Perry announced the project in July 2025. It was the launch title for a book-to-film initiative at Paradigm, the agency’s program pairing athletes with authors. Paradigm’s Ian Kleinert brokered the deal, and Richie Kern and Nick LoPiccolo handle film and television rights. Deadline first reported the project. “I’ve always been drawn to stories of espionage, betrayal, and resilience, and building a world around two powerful female operatives was a dream,” Perry said at the time. “Blake is an incredible partner, and Bulletproof Angel is just the beginning.”
“CJ has a sharp creative instinct and a cinematic sense of story. She’s a true storyteller,” Northcott said.
Northcott is a Canadian author whose 2013 debut Arena Mode was nominated for a British Science Fiction Association award and was the most successful crowdfunded novel of that year. Its sequels, Assault or Attrition and Final Empire, followed, and the series was optioned by Heavy Metal Studios in 2021. Her 2018 novel The North Valley Grimoire was the most-funded Kickstarter novel in Canadian history. She has also written Catwoman for DC, Barbarella for Dynamite, and Echoes from the Void with Evanescence singer Amy Lee, and teaches at the Kubert School. She is also editor-in-chief at Massive Publishing and has more than 50 published works.
Perry debuted in WWE as Lana in October 2013 as Rusev’s manager and stayed with the company until her release in June 2021. She wrestled her first match on the WrestleMania 32 pre-show, was the sole survivor for Team Raw at Survivor Series 2020 and appeared in AEW from September to December 2023 managing Miro and then Andrade. She signed a WWE Legends deal in April 2025. In January, she said on TMZ Inside The Ring that she plans to return to independent wrestling as a manager. “I will be returning back to professional wrestling and I’m going to be hitting the indie scene,” she said. She has also been doing stand-up comedy, with her first show in Los Angeles in March.
She is married to Rusev, who wrestles on Raw and opened Catch Academy, a wrestling school in Nashville, in March. The two married in July 2016, separated in 2023 and reconciled last year.
Perry first shared the news on X in July 2025, writing that she was “so excited to announce my novel book with @BlakeNorthcott.” No signing or tour dates have been announced. The paperback ISBN is 9781637749449 and the ebook ISBN is 9781637749456.
Her film credits include Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2, and she appeared on Total Divas for three seasons and The Surreal Life in 2022.
Bulletproof Angel is available for preorder now.
