Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2023 Adult Fiction

RULES FOR GHOSTING de Shelly Jay Shore

RULES FOR GHOSTING combines the humor, fraught-but-loving family dynamics, and obsession with death seen in books like Mostly Dead Things, One Last Stop, and Fun Home. It is the gay, Jewish, Six Feet Under we’ve all been waiting for.

RULES FOR GHOSTING
by Shelly Jay Shore
Ballantine, Summer 2024
(via Frances Goldin Literary)

Twenty-eight-year-old Ezra Friedman is only a little bit clairvoyant, but enough to make growing up in a funeral home miserable. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if his Zayde’s ghost didn’t keep giving him this look of betrayal and disapproval as he went through an HRT-induced second puberty, or if the dead’s hands weren’t so cold. But, it’s no wonder that Ezra would want to get as far away as possible from the family business.
With his parents’ marriage imploding, Ezra finds himself pulled back into the effort to help save the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel from financial ruin. That means long days of puzzling out his mom’s cryptic filing systems while surrounded by the ghosts no one else can see, while balancing his role as referee between the warring factions of his family. Add in his unfortunate crush on the cute funeral home volunteer who just happens to live downstairs from where Ezra and his ex are now living together as friends, and the new ghost who keeps breaking every spectral rule Ezra’s managed to figure out about the dead, and Ezra’s more than ready to make another run for the hills.
The more Ezra learns about the tangled web of secrets that haunt the Chapel’s halls, the harder it is to maintain the distance that (he thought) kept him sane. As the pressure mounts to figure out how to keep the funeral home from being snapped up by a corporate “body farm”, Ezra is forced to do something he never thought possible.

Shelly Jay Shore (she/they) is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. Their writing on queer Jewish identity has been published by Autostraddle, Alma, and the Bi Resource Center. RULES FOR GHOSTING is her debut novel.

BLOOD OF THE FORSAKEN de Maxym M. Martineau

An epic romantic fantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Scarlett St. Clair.

BLOOD OF THE FORSAKEN
by Maxym M. Martineau
Sourcebooks Casablanca, August 2024

When Charmers begin falling beneath the thrall of a powerful spell, the Council devises a plan to find the two people in all the realm who might be able to save them: Kaori’s parents, long thought lost…but not, it seems, dead. As fate would have it, they’ve spent years trapped inside Galvanhold, a magical prison designed to incapacitate the worst of the worst—and once you enter Galvanhold, there’s no escape.

Time is running out; they need the knowledge Kaori’s parents hold, or all is lost. Willing to risk everything for the woman who showed him so much kindness, the assassin Calem volunteers to be sent away as a prisoner so he can get the information they need and break out again with the help of his unpredictable powers.

But once inside, Calem is unexpectedly faced with a familiar and terrifying figure: his mother, the prison’s cruel Warden. As Calem’s past threatens to consume him, Kaori and her friends must find a way to rescue him and complete their mission. But when their plan goes awry, the group unwittingly unleashes the Lost, a powerful magician who has been biding his time waiting for revenge. With chaos descending upon the realm, Kaori and her friends must confront their deepest fears and fight for their very survival. But even as Kaori and Calem find solace in each other’s arms, can their love survive the trials ahead?

Maxym M. Martineau is an article and social media writer by day and a fantasy romance author by night. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University, and lives with her husband and fur babies in Arizona.

THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS de R.J. Jacobs

Six students. One professor. All trained in the art of deception. All with a reason to kill…

THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS
by R.J. Jacobs
Sourcebooks Landmark, September 2023

It’s almost spring break in the university town of Forest, North Carolina. Campus is deserted and the temperature is dropping. Someone is watching and waiting. Someone who has killed before plans to kill again.

Under the direction of Professor Joe Lyons, five graduate students remain on campus. They have been conducting an experiment on the psychology of deception to uncover the science behind lies. But they each have something to hide themselves.

Then, a test goes awry, and an angry subject ends up in handcuffs. The group believes it to be a fluke incident. But when one of them is discovered murdered in Lyon’s office less than twenty-four hours later, they find that their studies may have deadly consequences–and that each of them had a reason to kill. With a local detective on the case and a major snowstorm moving in, the students soon realize that lies can be more dangerous than they ever believed. How do you spot a liar who may be an expert on the psychology of deception?

R.J. Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. He maintains a private practice in Nashville, focusing on a wide variety of clinical concerns. After completing a post-doctoral residency at Vanderbilt, he has taught Abnormal Psychology, presented at numerous conferences, and routinely performs PTSD evaluations for veterans. He is the author of Always the First to Die.

THE WOMAN AT THE WHEEL de Penny Haw

Carl Benz may be known as the “Father of the Automobile,” but Bertha Benz was the woman behind the wheel driving the world into a new era. THE WOMAN AT THE WHEEL is a gorgeous historical fiction novel that takes a peek under the hood, examining the life of a fascinating woman who refused to let men hit the brakes on her revolutionary machine.

THE WOMAN AT THE WHEEL
by Penny Haw
Sourcebooks Landmark, November 2023

He is known as The Father of the Automobile, but she drove their success.

Bertha Benz not only invested her dowry in the invention of the world’s first motorized carriage, which she and her husband, Carl labored over for years; she’s also the chief designer, mechanic, and tester of the machine.

Now, however, with the moguls who promised to back the machine withdrawing their support, Carl is ready to throw in the towel. Bertha knows that to give up would not only bankrupt the Benz family, but that it would also ruin everything they’ve worked for and their marriage. Besides, Bertha believes in the machine.

Ignoring the cynics and the men who ridicule her, Bertha takes matters into her own hands, secretly planning a trip that will either hasten the couple’s passage to absolute derision and impoverishment or prove to the world their genius. What Bertha doesn’t know is that Carl is on the cusp of making a deal with their nemesis. She is not only risking her marriage and life’s work, but is also up against her husband’s doubt and duplicity, the bias of every man she knows— and the clock.

Penny Haw is a long-time journalist and columnist and latter-day author. She has written for many leading South African newspapers and magazines for more than three decades. The Wilderness Between Us was her debut contemporary novel for adults and The Invincible Miss Cust was her debut historical fiction novel. Haw lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

THIS DAY IS DARK de r.h. Sin

r.h. Sin’s THIS DAY IS DARK is a blistering case study of when red flags are mistaken for passion and love falls in the hands of the wrong people, as explored in his signature poetic voice.

THIS DAY IS DARK
by r.h. Sin
Andrews McMeel, August 2023

From New York Times bestselling author r.h. Sin comes THIS DAY IS DARK, a heartbreakingly relatable collection of poetry and prose that captures some of the darkest moments over an 18-year period. THIS DAY IS DARK is an evocative exploration into what it means and how it feels when forever is temporary and once celebrated love becomes unrecognizable.

r.h. Sin is a New York Times bestselling author of poetry books. He lives in New York with his wife, poet Samantha King Holmes, and two kids.