Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2021 Adult Fiction

DRAGON RIDER de Taran Matharu

In this debut adult/YA crossover fantasy trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of the SUMMONER series, comes an immersive new fantasy world where humans can bond with dragons… Jai, hostage in the court of an Emperor who killed his father, finds himself caught up in a rebellion and stumbles across a dragon’s egg which could be the key to change his fate forever.

DRAGON RIDER
by Taran Matharu
HarperVoyager, July 2023
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Jai is a Captive in the Sabine Court – ever since his father Rohan, leader of the Plainsfolk, led an uprising and was put to death by the Emperor who Jai must now serve. The Sabine Empire has a powerful tool, the Gryphon Guard: elite warriors who ride gryphons. Only one thing is more powerful than them: dragons, exclusive to a rival kingdom. When the emperor’s son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom she brings with her a powerful dowry: dragons. These powerful beasts come in several forms, but secrecy surrounds them and only the Dansk Royalty can soul-bond with these magical beasts to draw on their power and strength.
There is uproar when the Emperor is found dead, and the Dansk King is accused of his murder. In the ensuing chaos, Jai has one choice: run or be killed. And when he finds a stunted dragon’s egg in the belly of Ragni’s dead dragon, he takes it with him. Soon, united with Princess Erica, also on the run from Titus, he must make a decision. Does he flee to an anonymous life or – aided by his new dragon chick – does he stand up and fight against a cruel Empire that destroyed his people?

Taran Matharu is the New York Times bestselling author of the Summoner series, which has been translated into 15 languages and has sold over two million copies in the English language. He was born in London in 1990. Taran began to write the Summoner series in November 2013 at the age of 22, taking part in ‘Nanowrimo 2013’ and sharing his work on Wattpad.com. The shared sample of the story went viral, reaching over 3 million reads in less than six months. His Contender trilogy was published in 2019. He has won the Journal de Mickey award in France and the Sakura medal in Japan, and was Book Trust’s writer in residence.

THE HIDDEN HEART de Theresa Howes

A sweeping love story set in occupied France in 1944 where an art-forger is blackmailed by the British government into looking into the loyalties of a French priest, rumoured to be a collaborator. For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Kate Morton and Letters to the Lost.

THE HIDDEN HEART
by Theresa Howes
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

1944. Marguerite Segal, an artist living under a false identity on the Cote d’Azur to escape her criminal past, is blackmailed by British Intelligence into befriending Father Etienne Valade, a local priest suspected of being an Nazi collaborator. Her mission is to persuade him to pass on information from the high ranking German officers who attend his church. Connected by a passion for art, they soon fall in love. As she tries to convince him to pass on information learned in the confessional box, her association with him increasingly puts her in danger of violent reprisals from the local people. At the same time, her covert work, creating false identity cards to camouflage those hiding from the Third Reich, brings her under the scrutiny of the occupying enemy.
As the Allied invasion draws closer, Marguerite has to work out who she can trust in a world where everything is at stake. Should she put her faith in the man she loves, without knowing the motivation behind his actions? Or by trusting a man so full of contradictions, will she be aligning her fate with that of a man whose heart she cannot know?

Theresa Howes lives in London, and has a background as an actor. Her work has been long-listed for the Mslexia Novel Award, the Bath Novel Award, The Caledonia Novel Award, The Lucy Cavendish College Prize, and the BBC National Short Story Award. Theresa is already working on her second novel: at the end of WWII, a female war reporter who was used as a honey trap by British Intelligence during the war is trying to rebuild her marriage until the high ranking British officer she exposed as traitor reappears in her life, determined to get his revenge.

ROOTLESS de Krystle Zara Appiah

The debut reading group novel by London Library Emerging Writer Krystle Zara Appiah. ROOTLESS opens with Sam discovering that his wife, Efe, has left him and their daughter and returned to Ghana. Sam is shocked – their marriage was perfect. Or was it? ROOTLESS is a portrait of a British-Ghanaian marriage in crisis, as well as posing the question: can you ever really go home?

ROOTLESS
by Krystle Zara Appiah
The Borough Press UK/Ballantine US, Spring 2023
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Best friends Efe and Sam meet as teenagers in 90s London. Efe is a new arrival in the UK from Ghana, sinking under the weight of her parents’ expectations. Sam is focused and idealistic, taking his first steps towards a career in corporate law. Over the years that follow the best friends become lovers, then marry. But an unplanned pregnancy forces them to confront just how radically different they want their lives to be. Soon Efe is swallowed up by the demands of motherhood, the dreams for her life dangling from a thread. And when she leaves, disappearing one morning and leaving both Sam and their daughter behind, Sam’s illusion of their perfect marriage crumbles. He’s about to discover exactly who he’s married to and the lengths he’ll go to win her back.
This is beautifully written and provocative reading group fiction, with much to discuss around love, marriage, motherhood, and if you can ever really ‘go home’. For fans of Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. Krystle’s second novel, HINTERLANDS, will explore the complex and competitive relationships that can exist between sisters, plus the secrets lurking in a close-knit community.

Krystle Zara Appiah is a Ghanaian writer and screenwriter, born and raised in London. She has a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of Kent. In 2020, she was one of forty writers selected for the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme. She also works as a children’s books editor. ROOTLESS is her debut novel. Her second novel will explore the complex and competitive relationships that can exist between sisters, plus the secrets lurking in a close-knit community.

OTHER HOUSES de Paddy O’Reilly

A masterful and tender story about people who live at the fringes of society, from payday to payday. Acutely observed and lyrical, Paddy O Reilly’s novel paints a haunting picture of class, aspiration and the boundaries we will cross for love.

OTHER HOUSES
by Paddy O’Reilly
Affirm Press Australia, March 2022
(via Kaplan/Defiore Rights)

All those memories. A man on his knees. The dark burn of Coke washing down a yellow wall. The night someone strung dead bats along the school fence, their black leather wings shredded into streamers. I never want to revisit that life.
Lily works as a cleaner. Each day she moves through the houses of wealthy Melbournians, unseen, scrubbing away the detritus of other people’s privilege. Her partner Janks, a reformed drug addict, churns vats of cheesy dip in a factory. With every measly pay check they inch further and further away from their former lives of poverty and addiction. Both Janks and Lily are determined that their daughter Jewelee won’t end up like them. She’ll have a career, not a deadend job. She’ll have savings, not debt. She’ll be able to afford a cleaner, not be the cleaner. Her future will be bright. But, like Sisyphus, one wrong move in their upward battle will see them back at square one, fighting to just get by.

Paddy O’Reilly is an Australian author. She wrote the novels The Factory, The Fine Colour of Rust and The Wonders, two collections of award-winning short stories, and a novella. Her novels have been shortlisted for major awards, and her stories have been widely published, anthologised and broadcast in Australia and overseas.

THE WILDERWOMEN de Ruth Emmie Lang

Two sisters embark on an extraordinary journey to discover the truth behind their mother’s mysterious disappearance. Ohioana Book Award finalist Ruth Emmie Lang returns with a new cast of ordinary characters with extraordinary abilities

THE WILDERWOMEN
by Ruth Emmie Lang
St. Martin’s Press, November 2022
(via Harvey Klinger)

Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared. The oldest of her two daughters, Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent their mother from vanishing one morning, never to return.
Zadie’s estranged younger sister, Finn, can’t see into the future, but she has an uncannily good memory, so good that she remembers not only her own memories, but the echoes of memories other people have left behind. On the afternoon of her graduation party, Finn is seized by an “echo” more powerful than anything she’s experienced before: a woman singing a song she recognizes, a song about a bird…
When Finn wakes up alone in the woods with no idea of how she got there, she realizes who the memory belongs to. Nora. Now, it’s up to Finn to convince her sister not only that their mom is still out there, but that she wants to be found. Against Zadie’s better judgement, her and Finn hit the highway, using Finn’s echoes to retrace Nora’s footsteps and uncover the answer to the question that has been haunting them for years: Why did she leave?
But it isn’t long before Zadie realizes there is a dark side to her sister’s gift. The more time Finn spends in their mother’s past, the harder it is for her to return to the present, to return to herself. As Zadie feels her sister start to slip away, she will have to decide what lengths she is willing to go to to find their mother, knowing that if she chooses wrong, she could lose them both for good.

« Exquisitely drawn characters imbue Lang’s unconventional plot with verisimilitude and heart, inspiring readers to ponder whether the world is stranger and more beautiful than it appears. Effervescent, ethereal, and suffused with wonder. » — Kirkus (starred review)

« Lang’s melancholy, atmospheric writing sets the perfect tone as the Wilder sisters unravel the mystery. The result is a cozy supernatural outing perfect for an autumn night. » —Publisher’s Weekly

Ruth Emmie Lang was born in Glasgow, Scotland and has the red hair to prove it. When she was four years old, she immigrated to Ohio where she has lived ever since. She has since lost her Scottish accent, but still has the hair. Ruth currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband and dreams of someday owning a little house in the woods where she can write more books. Her first novel, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, was a finalist for the 2017 Book of the Year Award from Book of the Month Club and was a Target Book Club Pick in 2018.