Archives de catégorie : Fiction

DO WE DESERVE THIS? d’Eleanor Elliott Thomas

A mordantly funny family drama exploring questions of luck, misfortune and privilege. Do any of us get what we deserve?

DO WE DESERVE THIS?
by Eleanor Elliott Thomas
Text Publishing, October 2025

Credit: Karin Locke 2023

When Nina Halloway is left unconscious after a car accident, her three adult children— histrionic pop star Jeremy, uptight lawyer Genevieve, and hapless twenty-something Bean— think it’s the most dramatic thing that will happen to them all year. Then they discover that the lottery ticket Bean bought her mother just before the accident is worth money—a lot of money .

At first, the three of them agree that holding on to the ticket until Nina wakes up is the right thing to do. Then, as various financial problems arise for Jeremy and Genevieve, their resolution is tested. Bean, meanwhile, begins an ambiguous relationship with a colleague whose motivations are unclear: does he know about the lottery win? When she finds out that her mother’s estranged family has made their money in some problematic ways, she begins to doubt whether the Halloways deserve their good fortune at all.

This smart and snarky novel explores big themes and complicated relationships with a light touch, and will appeal to readers of The Rachel Incident, The Long Island Compromise and Such a Fun Age.

Eleanor Elliott Thomas worked for many years as a lawyer before devoting herself to writing full time. She lives in Melbourne with her partner and two daughters. Her debut, The Opposite of Success, was published in 2023 and was shortlisted for the 2024 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Her hilarious substack can be read at: https://substack.com/@eleanorelliottthomas

THE LIBRARY OF FLOWERS de Lily Chu

Featuring poignant family dynamics, the search for love and identity, and interwoven with the narratives of other Fifth Daughters (from the Tang Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and the last days of the Qing Dynasty), THE LIBRARY OF FLOWERS is an absorbing story about finding your true heart’s desire.

THE LIBRARY OF FLOWERS
by Lily Chu
Sourcebooks Casablanca, March 2026
(via Laura Dail Literary)

Thirty-two-year-old Lucy Hua comes from an ancient, magical line of Chinese perfumers renowned for their secret ability to manipulate emotions through their ‘moli’ perfumes. Throughout history, they served the rich and powerful, from empresses to taipans and their wives to CEOs. But even among the Hua family, Lucy’s talent is rare: she can create scents that attract true love. It’s a gift that only presents itself in the eldest daughter of every fifth generation.

And her family is hoping that gift will save them now. Ever since immigrating to Vancouver after World War II, the Huas’ fortunes haven’t been the same. Eager to regain their former status and riches, they were waiting for Lucy and her powers to mark the end of their decline. Unfortunately, Lucy’s abilities never manifested and, devastated by her failure, she leaves home to open her own, thoroughly non-magical, artisanal parfumerie…until the day her past finally catches up with her again.

Lily Chu loves ordering the second-cheapest wine, wearing perfume all the time, and staying up far too late reading a good book. She writes romantic comedies set in Toronto with strong Asian characters.

ASHVALE: THE VAMPIRE’S THRALL de Jade Church

The Vampire Diaries meets Vampire Academy in this deliciously bloody vampire romance filled with tension, magick, feminine rage, and morally grey characters.

ASHVALE: THE VAMPIRE’S THRALL
by Jade Church
self-published, August 2023
(via Northbank Talent Management)

Leonora Romilly was murdered. The catch? She didn’t stay dead.

Instead, she finds herself alive-ish and swept away to Ashvale to learn how to be a fully-functioning, albeit undead, member of society.

At Ashvale, the blood runs free and the sexual tension never sleeps, but under the surface, something much more sinister lurks.

With her would-be murderer still roaming free, a new-found love, and her lost memories on the line, can Leonora survive Ashvale with both her head and her heart intact?

From bestselling romance author Jade Church, ASHVALE is a new adult paranormal romance with vampires, blood bonds, an academy setting, dark forests, ‘I-hate-that-I-want-you’ tension, hidden identities, murder, a dark debut ball, and an FMC just as morally grey as the MMC. Readers who love angsty romance, bites that feel good, and bloodthirsty main characters will devour this story!

Jade Church is an avid reader and writer of spicy romance. She loves sweet and swoony love interests who aren’t scared to smack your ass and bold female leads. Jade currently lives in the U.K. and spends the majority of her time reading and writing books, as well as binge re-watching The Vampire Diaries.

SO FAR GONE de Jess Walter

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the wild, propulsive spirit of Charles Portis’ True Grit—comes a hilarious and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

SO FAR GONE
by Jess Walter
Harper, June 2025

A few weeks after the 2016 election, at Thanksgiving with his daughter’s family, Rhys Kinnick snapped. After an escalating fight about politics, he hauled off and punched his conspiracy theorist son-in-law. Horrified by what he’d done, by the state of the country and by his own spiraling mental health, Rhys chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, off the grid and with no one around—except a pack of hungry raccoons. 

Now, seven years later, Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no phone, no computer, and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a madcap journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind. SO FAR GONE is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and ultimately moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called “a genius of the modern American moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Jess Walter is the author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers, The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in The Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

A CURSE FOR THE HOMESICK de Laura Brooke Robson

Laura Brooke Robson has crafted a fascinating story about the choices we make, the responsibilities we carry, and the ambiguities of regret.

A CURSE FOR THE HOMESICK
by Laura Brooke Robson
Mira/HarperCollins, February 2025
(via Harvey Klinger, Inc.)

On Stenland, there comes a time known as skeld season: when a woman can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of a skeld, and turn anyone she sees to stone. Skeld season comes around without warning, and while each only lasts three months, the people skelds turn to stone are very much dead.

That’s how Tess’s mother killed Soren’s parents. Maybe for this reason alone, Tess and Soren should not have fallen in love. Since the time her mother was a skeld, Tess has wanted to leave Stenland, to run from the windswept island, from her family and friends. She is unwilling to bear the responsibility of one day killing anyone, let alone someone she loves. Soren, though, has always been determined to stay, to live out his life in the only place he’s ever known as home, even if that life could be cut short. They cannot see eye to eye—and yet, they cannot stay apart. She tries to come back for him. He tries to leave for her. But can your love for one person outweigh everything else? And how do you decide how much you’re willing to risk, if it might mean destroying someone else in the process?

“A lyrical, melancholy, and deeply moving story about the people we love and the places we long for, even when we know we shouldn’t. Aching and poignant.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning

Laura Brooke Robson grew up in Oregon and studied English and Creative Writing at Stanford. She is also the author of the young adult novels Girls at the Edge of the World and The Sea Knows My Name. Laura lives in New York.