Archives par étiquette : Mushens Entertainment

STAR AND THE STOLEN WISH de Stephanie Sosa

A standalone middle-grade adventure with a touch of magic and series potential that is perfect for fans of The Manifestor Prophecy and The Last Cuentista.

STAR AND THE STOLEN WISH
by Stephanie Sosa
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Twelve-year-old Star has only ever had one dream: to sail the high seas with el Capi, her ex-pirate father, his crew of pirate hunters, and her best friend Maite. But with her disposition for seasickness, and a surprise visit from her estranged Lady Mother, Star’s dream is sinking fast. Her Lady Mother plans to take her far away from both her beloved father and any chance of an adventurous life as soon as she turns thirteen, instead mooring her to a landlocked capital city she has never seen.

With just one week before her dreams are swept away, Star catches a break when she overhears the notorious Coralillos gang, el Capi’s nemeses, plotting to steal a Wish from the governor. If she can stop them and save the day, then her parents would have to see that she is meant to spend her life protecting the seas.

After surviving her mother’s shopping trips, she meets a nosey young boy, Ciro, who warns her that wishes can be dangerous if not used with great care, convincing Star even more that she’s doing the right thing. With Ciro and Maite’s help, Star is able sneak into the governor’s mansion just in time to stop the thieves from stealing the wish. Unfortunately, she absorbs its magical powers when the vial containing it breaks in her hand.

Now in hiding from the guards, the gang, and her family, and with only Maite and Ciro left to confide in, she has to protect the wish from those who want nothing less than to eradicate her family and put themselves in power—all while resisting the urge to use the life-changing magic for herself.

Stephanie Sosa was born and raised in Mexico, and received a bachelor’s degree in English and French from Amherst College, and a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson. She now continues to live in New England, where she fights the colder temperatures with tea and blankets. In her writing, she combines her Mexican heritage with magic, and a healthy pinch of complicated family dynamics. When she’s not writing, she can be found at the movies or deeply immersed in a DnD campaign.

FELLOW CREATURES d’Emma Lowther

Obsession and ambition collide in FELLOW CREATURES when outsider Shannon – a new student at one of London’s most prestigious drama schools – becomes dangerously infatuated with a fellow classmate. Perfect for fans of dark academia and toxic friendships, FELLOW CREATURES is Saltburn meets If We Were Villains, with a dash of The Talented Mr Ripley.

FELLOW CREATURES
by Emma Lowther
Quercus, April 2026
(via Mushens Entertainment)

I wasn’t like the ‘Victoria’s of the world.
My future wasn’t written in the stars.
It was scratched in the dirt…

Shannon Bell is a nobody. She’s the girl who hangs around the edges, the girl whose name you forget. But Shannon has a hidden talent: she can act.

When she’s accepted into one of London’s most selective drama schools, northerner Shannon finds herself uprooted from her old life and thrown into a dazzling yet cut-throat new world.

It’s there that she meets the beautiful, wealthy and well-connected Victoria, who is everything Shannon has always wanted to be. When Victoria takes a liking to her, the two become inseparable, forming an intense bond. And suddenly, Shannon is no longer a nobody – instead she finds herself on the inside, part of Victoria’s exclusive group of friends.

But Victoria’s privilege soon begins to prove its worth – winning her countless auditions and opportunities. Poisonous jealousy begins to seep into her relationship with Shannon and the others, driving the group apart, with deadly consequences.

Emma Lowther is a queer, neurodivergent, Northern writer. She was the winner of the 2021 London Writers Award. She trained as a performer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now works as an actor, voiceover artist and freelance copywriter. FELLOW CREATURES is her debut novel.

THE GODS BELOW d’Andrea Stewart

In this sweeping epic fantasy comes a story of magic, betrayal, love, and loyalty, where two sisters will clash on opposite sides of a war against the gods.

THE GODS BELOW
(The Hollow Covenant, Book 1)
by Andrea Stewart
Orbit, September 2024
(via Mushens Entertainment)

A divine war shattered the world leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And, as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms―if they survived at all.

Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself, and her sister Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighboring kingdom. But when tragedy separates them, Hakara is forced to abandon her beloved sister to an unknown fate.

Alone and desperate for answers on the wrong side of the world, Hakara discovers she can channel the magic from the mysterious gems they are forced to mine for Kluehnn. With that discovery comes another: her sister is alive, and only the rebels plotting to destroy the God Pact can help rescue her.

But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.

‘Andrea Stewart is one of the best fantasy writers I’ve read in a long time’ —Sarah J. Maas

‘An epic and heart rending struggle between gods and mortals, lovers and siblings . . . Stewart is a writer of genius and brilliance’ —Hannah Kaner

‘Stewart’s worlds are some of the most exceptionally inventive in modern fantasy. A must read!’ —Shannon Chakraborty

‘THE GODS BELOW is as breathtaking as its magic system promises. Expect old gods, altered beings, magic stones, fighting, romance, and rollicking good fun. Stewart’s newest series cements her as a bright voice in the fantasy genre’ —L. R. Lam

‘This awe-inspiring trilogy-starter is everything fans of high fantasy have been looking for. Its characters are compelling, its world is vivid, new, and visceral’ —Booklist (starred review)

Andrea Stewart is the Chinese American daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. When her (admittedly ambitious) dreams of becoming a dragon slayer didn’t pan out, she instead turned to writing books. She now lives in sunny California.

EVERYONE I KNOW IS DYING d’Emily Slapper

A razor-sharp, honest, uncompromising and bleakly funny literary debut novel for 2024, perfect for fans of Coco Mellors and Meg Mason.

EVERYONE I KNOW IS DYING
by Emily Slapper
hq, July 2024
(via Mushens Entertainment)

When she’s having sex with her boss, Iris likes to have the lights on so he can see how much younger she is than his wife. She likes watching her colleagues eat unhealthy lunches at their desk while her stomach aches with emptiness. She likes coasting at work knowing she’s going to land a big promotion anyway.

So why when it arrives does she find herself sprawled on her hallway floor, crying uncontrollably? Why, instead of a sense of triumph, does a crippling depression threaten to overwhelm her? Why does the support and stability of her family and friends feel so suffocating? And why, torn between her flatmate George – good, kind, reliable George – and cold, indifferent Patrick, does she only seem capable of making choices that cause her pain?

A razor-sharp, bleakly funny exploration of mental health crises, the societal pressures on young women, and toxic sexual and romantic relationships from one of the most exciting new literary voices. Perfect for fans of Sorrow and Bliss or Cleopatra and Frankenstein.

Emily Slapper grew up in Northampton before studying Cinema and Photography at the University of Leeds. After graduating she moved to London to work in advertising whilst hoping to one day become a screenwriter. But wanting to write films turned into wanting to write books and so she started a Creative Writing MA at Royal Holloway. Everyone I Know is Dying is her debut novel. In her spare time she loves walking around South East London with her dog, Tina.

THE POET EMPRESS de Shen X. Tao

In the declining Azalea Dynasty, where poetry magic is forbidden to women, rice farmer Wei tricks her way into being selected as imperial concubine to a cruel tyrant and must harden her heart and learn to wield literomancy in secret in order to change the fate of an empire.

THE POET EMPRESS
by Shen X. Tao
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land is consumed by a famine, and poetry magic is lost to all except the powerful. After the fifth death of a sibling, young rice farmer Wei Yin is determined to save her family from desperate hunger, a difficult feat when women are forbidden from education, and crucially, literacy.

Wei finds her chance to improve the conditions of her family and her village when Prince Terren, the cruel, unkillable heir to the throne, begins a search for concubines to bear him a son. Wei tricks her way into the inner court, but little does she know, life in the lush and enchanted Azalea Palace is rife with danger and brutality she wasn’t ready for. For one, there is a covert succession war; Terren’s influential eldest brother, the one who should have been heir, has long been eyeing the crown. For another, Terren’s thirty concubines are fighting a war of their own, for the position of future empress. They know to whisper sweet words and deliver pretty smiles in public, but when nobody is looking, they are not afraid to sabotage each other with rumours or poison.

But most terrifying of all is the prince himself. Terren turns out to be just as sadistic as the rumours, willing to torture even the most powerful of those who cross him, let alone a peasant girl with no status. To survive in court, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself, even if it means learning the forbidden art of poetry magic and wielding the most powerful spell of all—a heart spirit poem that requires the wielder to love the target in order to kill them.

Chinese-Canadian author Sophia Tao (writing as Shen X. Tao) has dreamed of publishing fantasy stories since she was seven. Though her roots lie in Nanchang and Toronto, she later moved to Seattle to be closer to the mountains and the ocean, where she currently resides with her partner, her piano, and her menagerie of stuffed critters. When not working as an engineer, she can be spotted hiking, taking long walks in the city, or feeding the local park geese. Sophia is a finalist for the Mike Resnick Memorial Award for science fiction and a two-time finalist for the PNWA unpublished novel contest, and a graduate of the 2023 Taos Toolbox and Viable Paradise speculative fiction workshops.