Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

THE BITTER END d’Alexa Donne

Eight teens. One blizzard. Zero exits. And a killer on the loose. The trip of a lifetime might be the death of them all.

THE BITTER END
by Alexa Donne
Crown (Penguin Random House), October 2024
(via Laura Dail Literary Agency)

Willa believes she’s cursed. Now bad luck has followed her up a mountain.

Declan became TikTok-famous for pranks. But this trip is no joke.

Delaney is the perfect girlfriend. Her boyfriend? He’s the perfect liar.

Wyatt has mastered every video game. Too bad there are no extra lives IRL.

Eden has never shied away from drama. Will her secrets get the best of her?

Liam is a literal Boy Scout. Now he’ll have to put his survival skills to use.

Camille is the ultimate competitor—and she’ll fight to the death.

Piper wasn’t supposed to be on this trip at all. Or was she?

The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore… until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident. And when a blizzard strikes, secrets are revealed, betrayals are exposed, and survival is at stake in a race to the bitter end.

Alexa Donne is the author of Brightly Burning and The Stars We Steal, YA sci-fi romances, and The Ivies and Pretty Dead Queens, YA thrillers. A graduate of Boston University, she works in TV marketing and has done pro bono college admissions mentoring since 2014. In her “free” time she manages one of the most popular writing advice channels on YouTube.

THE SECRETS OF LOVELACE ACADEMY de Marie Benedict et Courtney Sheinmel

From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and Courtney Sheinmel comes a historical adventure that follows the young and gifted Lainey as she is plucked from a London orphanage to begin attending Lovelace Academy, a boarding school with ivy-covered walls that hide more secrets than Lainey can even imagine.

THE SECRETS OF LOVELACE ACADEMY (Book 1)
by Marie Benedict and Courtney Sheinmel
Aladdin (Simon & Schuster), April 2025
(via Laura Dail Literary Agency)

London, 1904.

Lainey Phillips has lived at the Sycamore Home for Orphaned Children since she was three years old. Now nearly a teenager, her life is difficult, and she doesn’t expect it to get better—until a chance encounter during an open house changes everything when Lainey meets a woman who invites her to attend the prestigious Lovelace Academy.

Fitting in amongst the many privileged students at Lovelace Academy proves challenging in a different way, though. Terrified she’ll be cast out of the academy, Lainey grabs the chance to prove herself by traveling to Switzerland to witness a female scientist craft a groundbreaking theory. The journey that includes a train, a ferry, and a mysterious boy named Gen is treacherous, but the real test is what awaits her at the home of Mileva Maric, wife of Albert Einstein.

Marie Benedict is the New York Times bestselling author of several adult books of historical fiction, including The Other Einstein, the inspiration for this book. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Courtney Sheinmel is the author of nearly thirty books for kids and teens, including the acclaimed Stella Batts and My Pet Slime series for young readers. Her book, Helen Keller, was part of Chelsea Clinton’s She Persisted series. Courtney received a National Scholastic Outstanding Educator Award for her work as a writing instructor at the non-profit Writopia Lab. She lives in New York City.

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY de Chinaza Bado

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY is a fast-paced high fantasy about court intrigue, dangerous politics, power struggles, devastating violence, and surviving in a world dedicated to destroying you, perfect for readers who crave their next heart-shattering epic read.

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY
by Chinaza Bado
Voyager, Summer 2025
(via Nancy Yost Literary)

© courtesy of the author

Pitched as Game of Thrones meets Children of Blood and Bone, BIRTH OF A DYNASTY is an edge-of-your-seat, drama-filled, and gut-wrenching, epic high fantasy is set in Alkebulan, a fictionalized Africa, where magic is feared and giants are real. It follows three high noble families as they fight to maintain their power in the midst of averting a devastating prophecy.

M’Kuru Mukundi, the sole surviving member of the high noble Mukundi family of Madada, barely escapes a brutal attack by Prince Effiom and the Red Sun Army of the Zenzele. After watching his parents, then his sister, her lover, and everyone else he ever knew slaughtered by Prince Effiom, ten-year old M’kuru makes a vow:

We shall not forgive. We shall not forget. We will have our vengeance.

M’kuru flees to a small village where he hides as farm boy Khalil Rausi, unaware that the real Khalil’s father is the bloodthirsty Commander of Prince Effiom’s army. When an imposter claiming to be M’kuru shows up in the village, the real M’kuru—now Khalil—must make impossible choices and do the unforgivable as he makes his way to the capital, where he will one day avenge the murder of his family and his people.

Meanwhile, in Winneba, young Zikora Nnamani, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, wants nothing more than to be a fierce Seh Llinga warrior. But Zikora is the most beloved child of Winneba and, according to the prophecy, the only living threat left to to the Zenzele Dynasty. When the Queen’s messenger arrives to « invite » Zikora to the castle, her family is not in a position to refuse. However, before she leaves her home, Zikora’s father secretly begins the dangerous Rite of Blessing to protect her, with the risk that it may also bring the world one step closer to completion of the prophecy that Prince Effiom so fears.

Between scheming ladies at court, backstabbing princes on the prowl, and everyone in between having nothing to lose, M’kuru and Zikora must do what they can, no matter how terrible, to save their people and claim vengeance for their families. No choices are easy, and nothing is as it seems…

Chinaza Bado has previously written under the pen name, J.J. McAvoy, in a variety of genres, most recently Regency romance. Her titles have sold in the UK, Hungary, Brazil, Poland, and were bestsellers in Turkey, Israel, and France. Chinaza is second generation Nigerian, who spends her free time traveling throughout Africa collecting stories and visiting family in Nigeria.

MAGGIE THE UNDYING d’Ilona Andrews

MAGGIE THE UNDYING is the brand new work by Ilona Andrews, the #1 NYT  bestselling author duo, who’ve created an incredible new world combining elements of heroic fantasy, romantasy, portal isekai, and D&D.

MAGGIE THE UNDYING
by Ilona Andrews
Tor, TBD
(via Nancy Yost Literary)

Our dauntless heroine wakes up cold, filthy and naked in Kair Toren, a city in the kingdom of Rellas, a world she knows intimately from the pages of a famously unfinished epic-historical-fantasy series she’s been reading, re-reading (and reading again!), while waiting (years!) for the final novel.

She has no idea how or why she’s landed in this gritty world filled with rival warlords, magic and mayhem, but she’s determined to survive until she can figure out how to get home. Her only tools? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the book’s plots, settings, and the characters’ actions, motivations, fates and ambitions: information she can sell to the dueling factions, while staying under the radar so as not to affect the very information she plans to barter.

She quickly discovers she has another, surprising ’skill’: she cannot be killed (though many will try!).

But her initial goals swiftly change as she becomes attached to the motley band she’s somehow gathered — which includes a disgraced lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, and a dangerous and experienced soldier, as well as various outrageous creatures — and instead she finds herself trying to save them and the Kingdom of Rellas from the cataclysmic war she knows is brewing.

“Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Texas with their two children and many dogs and cats.

They have co-authored several bestselling series, including the #1 NYT bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels, rustic fantasy of the Edge, paranormal romance of Hidden Legacy, and Innkeeper Chronicles.

HOPE FOR CYNICS de Jamil Zaki

Cynicism is making us sick; Stanford Psychologist Dr. Jamil Zaki has the cure—a “ray of light for dark days” (Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

HOPE FOR CYNICS
The Surprising Science of Human Goodness
by Jamil Zaki
Grand Central Publishing, September 2024
(via The Gernert Company)

For thousands of years, people have argued about whether humanity is selfish or generous, cruel or kind. But recently, our answers have changed.  In 1972, half of Americans agreed that most people can be trusted; by 2018, that figure had fallen to 30%. Different generations, genders, religions, and political parties can’t seem to agree on anything, except that they all think human virtue is evaporating.

Cynicism is a perfectly understandable response to a world full of injustice and inequality. But in many cases, cynicism is misplaced.  Dozens of studies find that people fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others really are.  And cynical thinking worsens social problems, because our beliefs don’t just interpret the world—they change it. When we expect people to be awful, we coax awfulness out of them.

Cynicism is a disease, with a history, symptoms—and a cure. Through science and storytelling, Jamil Zaki imparts the secret for beating back cynicism: hopeful skepticism. This approach doesn’t mean putting our faith in every politician or influencer. It means thinking critically about people and our problems, while simultaneously acknowledging and encouraging our strengths. Far from being naïve, hopeful skepticism is a more precise way of understanding others, and paying closer attention re-balances how you think about human nature.  As more of us do this, we can take steps towards building the world we truly want.

Dr. Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He trained at Columbia and Harvard, studying empathy and kindness in the human brain. He is interested in human connection and how we can learn to connect better.