Archives de catégorie : Fiction

A GOOD ANIMAL de Sara Maurer

An immersive, coming-of-age debut novel by a stunning new voice in fiction, for readers of Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett.

A GOOD ANIMAL
by Sara Maurer
St. Martin’s Press, February 2026

In the farm fields surrounding Sault Ste. Marie, a border town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, time seems to stand still. Summer, the sun scalds the local boys’ necks as they bale hay for cash. Winter, the girls bundle up against the cold and jostle through the high school halls like trailered sheep.

Most kids dream of leaving, but Everett Lindt plans to stay on his family’s sheep farm, develop his own herd, and eventually rebuild the crumbling homestead that looks over the land he loves. When he meets Mary, a Coast Guard brat determined to set out on her own, he soon feels he can’t live without her. After she discovers she’s pregnant, he’s convinced she’ll stay by his side forever. Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. With limited access to reproductive care, Everett and Mary discover a solution with potentially disastrous consequences.

Intimate and haunting, A GOOD ANIMAL is a breathtaking story of the complexities of love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.

Sara Maurer lives with her family in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Albion College and master’s from Eastern Michigan University. She honed her creative writing craft while completing Stanford’s Continuing Studies Novel Writing Certificate program. Her short fiction can be found in The Chicago Review of Books, The Twin Bill, Dunes Review, and The Hominium, where her short story was just nominated for the Pushcart Prize. A Good Animal is her first novel.



Early praise:

“An aching, exquisite story of young love, curtailed by a country where our freedoms have to be bought, A Good Animal is a stunning, unforgettable, and deeply American novel. It is about sex and strength and hard, satisfying work; about dreams and opportunities and what we lose, have lost, are still losing. It’s about where we come from, where we’re going, and who breaks our hearts along the way.” —Julia Phillips, author of Bear and National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth

“A Good Animal is a wonderful debut novel filled with tremendous heart and an authentic appreciation for place and the natural world…You won’t be able to stop reading this deeply affecting story of star-crossed love and hometown heartbreak.” —Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and A Forty Year Kiss

Série « New Haven » de J.L. Seegars

An interconnected series of stand-alone enemies-to-lovers romance novels about forbidden romance and love after loss.

The New Haven Series
by J.L. Seegars
Bloom Books/Sourcebooks, 2026-2027
(via Laura Dail Literary)

BOOK 1: RESTORE ME (first self-published 2021; re-release by Bloom Books in 2026)

Sloane

Dominic Alexander is my late husband’s best friend and the last man on Earth that I should want. He’s arrogant, dismissive, and up until recently has only ever used those dark eyes of his to look right through me. For the last twelve years, he’s taken a sick pleasure in making me feel paper thin, like my entire existence is of no consequence to him at all.

But now, things are different.

After one drunken night, and a surprisingly sexy act of heroism, he’s started to be…nice. Treating me like something other than the physical embodiment of his annoyance, which would be nice if it didn’t make me feel all the things I swore to never feel for another man after my husband died.

Dominic

Sloane Kent is going to be my undoing.

What’s worse: I think I’m going to enjoy being unravelled by the gold flecks in her hazel eyes and the adorable little way she scrunches her nose up when we’re arguing, which we’ve done a lot of over the past decade. She thinks it’s because I hate her, and I’ve always let her think that because the alternative is…untenable.

But something is changing between us, and I don’t know how to stop myself from breaking every promise I’ve ever made to myself regarding my best friend’s wife. Promises that include never telling her that there’s a long list of things I feel about her, but hate isn’t one of them.

J.L. Seegars is an indie romance author who takes pride in writing books that make you swoon, cry, and swoon some more. All of her works center around Black women and the lovingly possessive men who are obsessed with them. Their stories, like their love, is tinged with a little heartbreak, but it never stops her from delivering the coveted HEA.

NOBODY DESERVES THIS d’Andy Callahan

Written for fans of Liz Moore and Dennis Lehane, Andy Callahan’s debut has loads of insight about fathers and sons, and about the various privileges of the wealthy; but most of all, NOBODY DESERVES THIS is an expertly plotted thriller with twists that will leave you breathless.

NOBODY DESERVES THIS
by Andy Callahan
Celadon Books, Summer 2026 or Early 2027
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Set in Philadelphia’s elite Main Line suburbs, 21-year-old screw-up Sean Mulcahy is careening toward rock bottom ever since his sister has gone missing and the cops seem unable to crack the case. He’s been thrown out of Brown University, his father has disowned him, and a private equity magnate still blames him for his sister’s disappearance. When another young woman suddenly disappears, Sean decides to follow his nose and investigate on his own, but he will need to reconcile with his father first and enlist his help.

*Pre-empted in the US

Andy Callahan graduated from Yale in 1997 and the Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop in 2014. He has written for several network crime shows including Person of Interest, Lethal Weapon, Taken, and FBI. He has also written several produced features and his inspirational drama Searching For Obama is currently in production. Andy grew up in in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania and attended one of the elite high schools on the Main Line on a partial scholarship to play basketball for them, a memory he cherishes and which has inspired his book, both the good and the ugly.

HARD TIMES de Jeff Boyd

Set in Chicago the novel follows the ripple effects of a tragic shooting throughout the community, focusing especially the teachers, police officers and students. With a cinematic sense of place and scene along with a wide cast of richly-drawn characters, this novel provides equal parts heartbreak, suspense, and action.

HARD TIMES
by Jeff Boyd
Flatiron/SMPG, March 2026

Buddy Mack has been caught in the middle of two worlds at war. As an English teacher at a South Side Chicago high school lauded for their football team but at risk in every other way, he tries to instill a love of literature, and is especially concerned with a trio of boys who test him to no end but are full of promise and heart. There’s Zeke, the football star; Truth, the sweet-talking charmer; and Dontell, Buddy’s most promising student.

At home, his wife, Chrissy, a successful corporate lawyer, is ready to upgrade to a big house on the North Side and start a family. He’s torn over all the implications. And the closest person he has in his life to talk to about the pressure he’s feeling is Chrissy’s little brother, Curtis, a corrupt Chicago cop.

The push-and-pull of the two worlds collide in a shocking moment that requires Buddy to choose a side and fight for all that he holds dear. HARD TIMES takes stock of what it means to be there for your people whether you want to or not and unflinchingly confronts the American dream—a moving, engrossing, and necessary read.

Like S.A. Cosby, Jeff Boyd has written a crime novel that sits on a shelf with literary fiction and digs deep into the social aspect of crime. This book explores rich and complicated family dynamics, the vulnerability of the students, and the tension between a community and law enforcement. And it all comes together in a really extraordinary, page-turning read.

Jeff Boyd is the author of The Weight (Simon & Schuster, 2023). A former public school teacher from Chicago, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is currently a Visiting Instructor of Creative Writing at Pratt Institute and lives in Brooklyn with his partner and child.

THE HEART OF VENGEANCE de Mei Goodwin

A gender-flipped loose retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, containing a sapphic romance, a love triangle, and inspired by Chinese mythology – with winged horses! Rollicking, original, and hugely page-turning: perfect for fans of She Who Became the Sun and Sue Lynn Tan, and the thrilling romance of a Callie Hart novel.

THE HEART OF VENGEANCE
by Mei Goodwin
Michael Joseph UK/Del Rey US, Spring 2027
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Aviva has trained all her life to become an Ailier, a military officer chosen to ride one of the great winged horses known as the Thousand. The only thing more important to her is being worthy of the love of the court’s Princess, heir to the Vridan nation – one of the richest families in the world, thanks to their seemingly unlimited stores of lustre, the natural substance that helps the family perform feats of magic to keep them in power. When Aviva connects with one of the Thousand on her first try, she and Leyla officially become betrothed. All her wildest dreams are made real.

Her happiness is ripped away when she is arrested for a crime she didn’t commit – being a ‘Usurper’ who uses soul-possession magic – and hauled to a remote prison to have her spirit broken. Trapped on the island, guarded by brutal guards, Aviva knows that she is innocent. They know she is innocent – but they torture her anyway, breaking her spirit. Meanwhile, Leyla is reeling from the news that her beloved committed such a heinous crime. But as she begins to investigate she realises that there is more to the story than she first thought, casting doubt on everything she believed.

As the two are set on a collision path – can love prevail in the face of revenge?

Mei Goodwin is a Chinese-White author, based in London. She started her career as an editor of SFF at one of the largest genre imprints in the UK. Under her real name, she has published novels in every genre from non-fiction, to thriller, to middle-grade. This is her fantasy debut, and the book she believes she was meant to write.