Archives de catégorie : Bologna 2024 Children’s & YA

DIVINE MORTALS d’Amanda M. Helander

Mona can name anyone’s soulmate—but she’ll never divine her own.

DIVINE MORTALS
by Amanda M. Helander
Disney Hyperion, November 2024
(via Kaplan DeFiore Rights)

Blessed by the crow god of love, eighteen-year-old Mona Arnett has the power to traverse the watery realm of the gods, speak with its seven deities, and divine soulmate matches with absolute certainty. Though Mona refuses to read her own match, she’s predicted pairings for wealthy nobles seeking amusement and lovesick couples desperate for affirmation. Still, it’s a shock when the king’s closest advisor demands her services.

The king is dying without an heir, explains Master Delmar Whitman—and if the royal line ends, the realm’s gods-given nexus will shatter and magic will vanish from the land. Only Mona can name the future queen and prevent the kingdom’s collapse.

But according to her reading, Mona is the king’s soulmate. Mona is destined to be queen—a role she doesn’t want and doesn’t believe she deserves. Worse: It’s not the king she thinks about when she’s alone at night.

Mona will lie, cheat, or contend with scheming gods if it keeps her off the throne. The only thing she can’t do is face her past. But when a mysterious blackmailer threatens murder, confronting her secrets may be the only way to survive.

Amanda M. Helander is a romantic fantasy author and paralegal from Seattle, Washington. She likes to write about mental health struggles and hot wizard boyfriends. When she’s not writing, Amanda can be found watching horror movies, learning to crochet, or eating entire blocks of parmesan in one sitting.

THE DARK BECOMES HER de Judy I. Lin

Perfect for fans of Ryan LaSala and Trang Thanh Tran: a sinister tale of the supernatural, sisterhood, and the shadows that rule our darkest desires, New York Times best-selling author Judy I. Lin takes her first foray into horror with Rick Riordan Presents.

THE DARK BECOMES HER
by Judy I. Lin
Disney Hyperion, October 2024
(via Kaplan Defiore Rights)

Ruby Chen has always played the part of the dutiful eldest daughter: excelling in school; excelling in piano lessons; excelling at keeping her younger sister, Tina, focused on extracurriculars meant to impress college admissions officers.

But when a ghost from the spirit world attacks Ruby in the middle of Vancouver’s Chinatown neighborhood, her life is plunged into a darkness that no amount of duty can free her from. Overnight, Ruby’s sister seems to change. There are strange noises coming from her bedroom at all hours; and the once sweet, funny Tina has been replaced by something dark and unnatural.

As Ruby races to save her sister from demonic possession, she is thrown into an ancient battle over the gateway to the underworld. On one side, an evil traveling temple known for making dark wishes come true has returned to Chinatown after many years—intent on breaking down the gateway and unleashing the evil within. On the other side, the guardians who must stop them.

And in order to survive, Ruby must not only face the horror taking over her community, but must also confront the horror within herself.

Chinese and Taiwanese mythology get the Junji Ito treatment in this bone-chilling, propulsive story that takes the horrors of the Asian diaspora experience to a whole new level.

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Book of Tea duology (A Magic Steeped in Poison and A Venom Dark and Sweet), was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada with her family at a young age. She grew up with her nose in a book and loved to escape to imaginary worlds. She now works as an occupational therapist and still spends her nights dreaming up imaginary worlds of her own. She lives on the Canadian prairies with her husband and daughters.

RISE de Freya Finch

The action and adventure of Percy Jackson meets the complex heroines of The Cruel Prince as a family of valkyries fight to stop Ragnarök.

RISE
by Freya Finch
Disney Hyperion, July 2024
(via Kaplan DeFiore Rights)

For seventeen-year-old Bryn, being the youngest, messiest, most rebellious sister in a family of valkyries isn’t easy. Especially considering home is a Renaissance faire in Chicago full of costumed workers who see her as nothing more than a nuisance. When her mother disappears on a mission for Odin, Bryn begins having strange visions about the impending Ragnarök. Bryn senses their mother is in great danger, but her annoyingly perfect older sisters refuse to take her seriously. Their mother is, after all, captain of the valkyries.

Things only take a turn for the worse when a half human, half giant named Juniper crashes the party with a violent zombie in tow, confirming Bryn’s worst fears—her visions of Ragnarök are real. If that wasn’t enough, the faire’s mysterious new addition, Wyatt the Black Knight, just so happens to have a ferocious secret that threatens everyone around him. Determined to survive Ragnarök, Bryn, Juniper, and Wyatt team up to combat the horde of monsters that keeps appearing throughout the faire. But after Bryn ignores the call to deliver Wyatt to Odin’s eternal warriors in Valhalla, choosing to save his life instead, she starts to wonder if she’ll ever get this valkyrie thing right.

Whispers of divine interference—including sightings of the mischievous Loki—reach Bryn’s ears. Soon everyone at the faire becomes a suspect, leaving Bryn, her sisters, and their newfound friends the only ones who can stop the war to end all realms. Whether she’s ready or not, Bryn is about to learn how the ties between fate and choice are as interwoven and unbreakable as the bonds between sisters.

Freya Finch writes about myths, magic, and mischief-makers. Born and raised in Michigan, she earned her MA in writing and publishing from DePaul University in Chicago. Now she lives in the mountains of Poland, where you can find her hiking with her German shepherd or lounging at home with her husband watching their favorite movies. RISE is her first novel.

THESE DEATHLESS SHORES de P.H. Low

P. H. Low’s debut fantasy is a richly reimagined tale of Captain Hook’s origin, a story of cruelty, magic, lost innocence, and the indelible power of stories.

THESE DEATHLESS SHORES
by P.H. Low
Orbit/ Hachette, July 2024
(via KT Literary)

Jordan was once a Lost Boy, convinced she would never grow up. Now, she’s twenty-two and exiled to the real world, still suffering withdrawal from the addictive magic Dust of her childhood. With nothing left to lose, Jordan returns to the Island and its stories—of pirates and war and the heartlessness of youth—intent on facing Peter one last time, on her own terms.

If that makes her the villain… so be it.

P. H. Low is a Locus- and Rhysling-nominated Malaysian American writer and poet. Their shorter work is published in Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Tor.com, and Diabolical Plots.

P. H. is an alum of Viable Paradise and Pitch Wars; a first reader for khōréō, a magazine of speculative fiction and migration; and a finalist for the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award for Disability in Speculative Fiction.

NO PLACE LEFT TO HIDE de Megan Lally

There’s nowhere Brooke can hide from her dark secrets in this twisty new thriller from USA Today bestselling author Megan Lally.

NO PLACE LEFT TO HIDE
by Megan Lally
Sourcebooks Fire, January 2025

Brooke works hard to maintain perfect grades, perfect looks, a perfect life–especially after “the incident” that threatened everything. Getting into her dream university puts her that much closer to a fresh start. How she can’t say no to her BFF’s coaxing to celebrate the good news…even if it means returning to the same beach that she’s avoided since the incident?

Except leaving the party at the end of the night is just the beginning. A truck tails them on the two-lane highway that winds through the woods. Then tailing becomes trying to push them off the road, becomes a terror-filled chase through the dark night and Brooke’s darkest fears…

Megan Lally is a professional book coach who loves writing all things creepy and twisted. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. That’s Not My Name was her debut.