Archives de catégorie : Fiction

THE LAST DRAGON OF THE EAST de Katrina Kwan

Inspired by Chinese myths of ancient dragon gods and threads of fate, Katrina Kwan’s dazzling fantasy debut is a propulsive adventure perfect for fans of Sue Lynn Tan and Hannah Whitten.

THE LAST DRAGON OF THE EAST
by Katrina Kwan
Saga, October 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

At the spry young age of twenty-five, Sai has led a quiet life, keeping the family teahouse up and running —even if that means ignoring the past-due notices—and taking care of his ailing mother. But he has a not-so-secret gift that he’s parlayed into a side career: he was born with the ability see the red threads of fate between soulmates, which lends itself nicely to matchmaking. Sai has thus far been content not to follow his own thread, the only one he’s ever seen that’s gray and fraying.

But Sai’s ordinary existence is about to be turned upside-down by a pair of shining dragon scales. When his mother’s doctor sells them to him, claiming them as a miracle cure, Sai is pretty sure he’s being scammed. When the medicine actually works—and the terrifying, ruthless emperor catches wind—Sai is thrust into the search for a dragon long thought extinct that will lead him into the throes of a brewing war and deep into foreign lands, facing down challenges both magical and mortal on an unexpected adventure. And for the very first time, as his own thread of fate begins to move, he may be able to solve the mystery of his Fated One at the other end of the line.

“Katrina Kwan bursts onto the fantasy scene with this stirring tale of fate and loss and hope. Epic in its scope, poignant in its prose, and profound in its themes, THE LAST DRAGON OF THE EAST is an exciting adventure and a wrenching love story rolled into one.” —Thea Guanzon, USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars

Katrina Kwan is a contemporary romance and fantasy writer. After graduating from Acadia University in 2017 with a BA in political science with honors, Kwan spent the next six years honing her creative skills as a freelance ghostwriter. With several ghostwritten romance novels under her belt, she’s ecstatic to finally be writing books under her own name. She lives in Vancouver with her husband and two cats, and when she isn’t writing, she is desperately trying to keep her collection of houseplants alive.

MAY THE WOLF DIE d’Elizabeth Heider

MAY THE WOLF DIE by Elizabeth Heider is a riveting debut infused with an unforgettable sense of place, in the tradition of suspense masters like Jane Harper and Tana French.

MAY THE WOLF DIE
by Elizabeth Heider
Viking, Summer/Fall 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Nikki Serafino is enjoying the sunset from her boat in her beloved port city of Naples, Italy when she discovers the body of a strangled man in the warm waters of the bay. As an investigator with a security unit, Nikki is certainly no stranger to violence, but this case grows complicated when the autopsy reveals that the victim has been boiled. And the next day, Nikki comes across another dead body in an abandoned car – surely two bodies in as many days is no coincidence. While local police suspect a lowlevel crime syndicate is responsible, Nikki isn’t so sure. But when she delves into the case, her search for answers brings her face to face with the possibility that those closest to her are living darker lives than she wants to admit. To catch a killer, Nikki must untangle the cords of past and present that keep her and her family vulnerable to Naples’ dangerous sides.

A richly textured and mercilessly gripping debut, MAY THE WOLF DIE by Elizabeth Heider brings the character-driven procedural crime fiction of Dervla McTiernan and Anne Cleeves to the streets of present-day Naples, exploring the dynamics of people trapped in the currents of crime and in the pain of their own family legacies.

Elizabeth Heider is a PhD physicist who works for Microsoft’s AI4Science Research Program. Her short fiction has earned recognition from the Santa Fe Writer Awards and the New Century Writer Awards, as well as writing and research for government agencies and for the European Space Agency’s Human Spaceflight program where she worked as a scientist. Raised in Utah, she lived and worked in Naples for several years, deploying as a civilian analyst aboard U.S. and European Naval ships. She is based in The Hague.

THE GLITTER YEARS d’Annette Christie

Daisy Jones meets the Beatles documentary Get Back, THE GLITTER YEARS is a multi-POV women’s fiction novel interspersed with band interviews and epistolary elements. It takes place on beautiful Vancouver Island, and is about sisterhood, rewriting history to dig out the truth, and forgiveness.

THE GLITTER YEARS 
by Annette Christie
TBD
(via The Whalen Agency)

The Angies were a musical force in the eighties; a band, comprised fully of women, that were as respected amongst music journalists as they were adored by their far-reaching fans. With a steady stream of hits that married pop, folk, punk, and new wave, The Angies appeared to be unstoppable.

There were plenty of rumors about why the band broke up, about why the four members who were as close as sisters, refused to talk to each other. Now, years later, the truth is poised to come out.

It’s the year 2000. The Angies have been broken up for eight years and their long-time manager, Mack Slate, has just passed away. All four Angies are separately convinced by the manager’s son, James, to do one last concert for his memorial, which will also be presented as part of MTV’s Unplugged series. The concert is to take place in Victoria, Canada on Vancouver Island, the deceased manager’s hometown.

Each of the Angies has her own reasons for agreeing to this concert, and each one has her reasons for abandoning it. As the band reunites and begins rehearsing, fights break out, pain of the past resurfaces. The four women can barely stand to be in the same room together, and the risk of humiliating themselves on the most public of stages is a very real scenario.

But love comes from unexpected places: Ruby and Joanne’s cold relationship warms and turns romantic, Lou begins the difficult road to repairing her relationship with Saskia, and Saskia finds herself falling for James, their late manager’s son, despite it all.

The biggest shock of all is that, reunited, these women have the power to heal each other and themselves.

Annette Christie is the author of For Twice in My Life and The Rehearsals (Little, Brown), and the author/narrator of Love Lessons (Audible Originals). She has a BFA in Theatre and a history of very odd jobs. The back of her head is featured prominently in the film Mean Girls. She currently resides with her husband and two children in Alberta, Canada, where she is probably crying over a sitcom right now.

RACHEL WEISS’S GROUP CHAT de Lauren Appelbaum

Lauren Appelbaum’s debut novel, RACHEL WEISS’S GROUP CHAT, a Jewish, millennial version of Pride and Prejudice with Broad City vibes.

RACHEL WEISS’S GROUP CHAT
by Lauren Appelbaum
Grand Central, September 2024
(via The Whalen Agency)

Rachel Weiss turns 30 this year, and she has it all: a fabulous social life, three best friends, and a job that pays the bills. Unfortunately, she also has a slightly unhinged Jewish mother who’s desperate for her to be married. When a millionaire tech bro named Christopher buys the house next door, Rachel’s mom fixates on him as a match for her daughter. But Rachel has worked in the tech industry for years and she knows guys like Christopher: arrogant, algorithmobsessed capitalist overlords. Besides, she hits it off with a mysterious hottie whose party boy persona appeals to her more than Christopher’s buttoned-up politeness. She doesn’t need her mom’s help. Especially because she has the world’s most amazing group chat with her best friends that gets her through everything.

But when not one, but two, of her friends start ghosting the group chat, she learns those friendships might be shakier than she thought. To make matters worse, she can’t stop bumping into Christopher, who has some history with Rachel’s new boyfriend that one of them seems to be lying about. But spending time with Christopher, who has it all figured out, makes Rachel question what she’s doing with her life. As she watches her friends move on toward the lives they’re building, and her own bad choices catch up with her, Rachel must decide how to build the life she really wants.

Lauren Appelbaum lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter and their two tuxedo cats. She loves iced oat milk lattes, drizzly autumn days, and ending each night snuggled up with a good book. If she can make just one reader laugh, she’ll consider that a win.

IN THE DARK I SEE YOU de Mallika Narayanan

IN THE DARK I SEE YOU is an exciting debut novel of psychological suspense from successful short story writer Mallika Narayanan.

IN THE DARK I SEE YOU
by Mallika Narayanan
Union Square & Co., October 2023
(via The Weis Agency)

When a young woman, Sarah Connelly, is found murdered in her home in New York’s elite Sleepy Point suburb, it triggers questions about the neighbor who discovered the body, Audrey Hughes. This kind of attention is the last thing Audrey wants. Moving to Sleepy Point was supposed to provide her with a new, quiet start after a trauma left her with incurable blindness. But the other reason she settled next door to Sarah was to spy on her. Police scrutiny moves Audrey like a pawn on a chessboard from witness to suspect, after it’s revealed that she had a volatile argument with Sarah hours before her death. The deeper the police delve into the case, the murkier the truth becomes. As the book twists and turns through alternating points of view and timelines, a compelling and complex scheme emerges that threatens all involved . . . and the ticking clock of investigation collides with the explosive secrets Audrey and Sarah have been keeping.

Mallika Narayanan is a Pittsburgh-based writer of psychological suspense, mysteries, and historical fiction. Her short stories are featured in Ellipsis Zine, Bath Flash Fiction, and elsewhere. She was a runner-up in the Retreat West 2022 Flash Fiction Prize and has been longlisted and shortlisted for various other prizes, including the Bath Flash Fiction Prize 2022 and the Fractured Lit Micro Fiction Prize 2021.