Archives de catégorie : Fiction

WHAT WE SACRIFICE FOR MAGIC d’Andrea Jo DeWerd

A coming-of -age novel featuring three generations of witches in t he 1960s, this whimsical yet heartwarming debut explores the importance of family and the joys and heartbreak of discovering who you truly are.

WHAT WE SACRIFICE FOR MAGIC
by Andrea Jo DeWerd
Crooked Lane, September 2024

It’s 1968, and the Watry-Ridder family is feared and respected in equal measure. The local farmers seek out their water charms and the teenagers their love spells. The family’s charms and spells have long served the town, passed down through generations of witches descending from the Black Forest.

Eldest daughter Elisabeth has just graduated high school?she is expected to hone her supernatural abilities so that she can help her grandmother, the indomitable Madga. She’s also expected to marry her high school sweetheart, and live the rest of her life in the small town of Friedrich, Minnesota. But all she can ask is why her? Why is her path set in stone?

She soon discovers that magic isn’t the only thing inherited in her family. That magic also comes with a great price- and a big family secret. The more she digs, the more questions she has and the less she trusts the grandmother she thought she knew. Who is Elisabeth without her family? She must ultimately decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for her family, for their secrets and their magic, or risk it all to pave her own way. A touching look at family and coming into one’s own, WHAT WE SACRIFICE FOR MAGIC is perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman and Louisa Morgan.

Andrea Jo DeWerd is a writer, speaker, and the founder of the future of agency LLC, a book marketing and publishing consulting agency. Andrea received her M.S. in Publishing from New York University and B.A. in English from the George Washington University. Born and raised in Minnesota, Andrea now lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. WHAT WE SACRIFICE FOR MAGIC is her first novel.

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT de Cynthia Weiner

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT by Cynthia Weiner (the words Freud used to describe a cocaine high) is Sweet Bitter meets The Girls with some Girl, Interrupted thrown in.

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT
by Cynthia Weiner
Crown, TBD

Set against the summer of 1986 in NYC, beginning with the gruesome razor blade slashing of an aspiring model outside a midtown bar in June, and ending with the strangulation of an 18 year old girl in Central Park whose half-clothed body was discovered behind the Metropolitan Museum – Nina Jacobs starts her summer with two goals: to lose her virginity before she goes to college, and avoid provoking her mother’s depression fueled rages at home. Temping meaningless jobs by day, and hanging out at Flanagans, the bar on the upper east side that is a magnet for the private school set, during this summer Nina will discover just how dangerous the world is for women, but also that she is tougher than anyone, including herself, thinks.

Cynthia Weiners short stories have been published in Ploughshares, The Sun, Open City, and Epiphany, and one of them, « Boyfriends, » received a Pushcart Prize. She has an M.F.A. from Brown University and is the Assistant Director of The Writers Studio in New York where she teaches fiction writing. A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT was inspired by Weiner’s teenage years on the Upper East Side in the 80s.

THAT’S NOT MY NAME de Megan Lally

A twisty, fast-paced dual-POV narrative about a teen with no memory who must unravel the truth of who she is, and the boyfriend who is determined to find his missing girlfriend and clear his name.

THAT’S NOT MY NAME
by Megan Lally
Sourcebooks Fire, December 2023

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there—or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos.

He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

Megan Lally is a professional book coach who loves writing all things creepy and twisted. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. THAT’S NOT MY NAME is her debut.

MOONSTORM de Yoon Ha Lee

A new YA SciFi trilogy by the New York Times bestselling author of Dragon Pearl.

MOONSTORM
Lancers Series, Book 1
by Yoon Ha Lee
Delacorte, June 2024
(via The Gernert Company)

Hwa Young was just ten years old when imperial forces destroyed her rebel moon home. Now, six years later, she is a citizen of the very empire that made her an orphan. Desperate to shake her rebel past, Hwa Young dreams of one day becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using the empire’s most advanced tech—giant martial robots. Lancers are powerful, and Hwa Young would do anything to be the strong one for once in her life. When an attack on their boarding school leaves Hwa Young and her classmates stranded on an imperial space fleet, her dreams quickly become a reality. As it turns out, the fleet is in dire need of pilot candidates, and Hwa Young—along with her brainy best friend Geum, rival Bae, and class clown Seong Su—are quick to volunteer. But training is nothing like what they expected, and secrets—like the fate of the fleet’s previous lancer squad and hidden truths about the rebellion itself—are stacking up. And when Hwa Young uncovers a conspiracy that puts their entire world at risk, she’s forced to make a choice between her rebel past and an empire she’s no longer sure she can trust.

Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean-American who was born in Texas, went to high school in South Korea, and received a B.A. in mathematics from Cornell University. Yoon’s previous books include the Hugo Award nominated Machineries of Empire series and the New York Times bestseller Dragon Pearl.

THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY d’Allison King

THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY combines the cross-generational relationships and epistolary form of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being with the magical alternate history and probing questions of R.F. Kuang’s Babel. Told in dual timelines, its overarching question is: who owns a story?

THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY
by Allison King
HarperCollins, Summer 2025
(via The Gernert Company)

Yun is a ninety-year-old woman recounting her time growing up in the Phoenix Pencil Company in 1940s Shanghai. While Japan invades China, Yun’s cousin moves in with them, and the two develop a competitive yet loving relationship. When the government discovers their family can magically Reforge a pencil’s words, bringing its words back to life, the cousins are separated and forced into a life of betraying stories in order to survive.

Monica is Yun’s granddaughter, a modern-day college student in America, set on using her software engineering skills to help reunite Yun with her long lost cousin. Through her attempts, she meets Louise, an aspiring digital archivist, ruthlessly determined to record the stories of those who survived World War II. As Monica learns more of Yun’s story, she must confront the same questions her grandmother once did—of what kinds of stories should be preserved, and when data should be left private—all while navigating her growing feelings towards Louise.

THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY is part historical fantasy, part romance, all complex family dynamics, with a smattering of data privacy thrown in. It is loosely inspired by Allison’s own grandparents and the pencil company they once ran in Shanghai.

Allison King is a software engineer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has dedicated time to sharing local community stories and working in data privacy. A story of hers is to be featured on LeVar Burton’s podcast this fall, and other pieces have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Fantasy, among others. She is also a 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow.