Client Books

 

For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.

He who controls ichorite controls the world. 

A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.

One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.

Only Marney survives.

A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger – or save her from it.

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal From Heaven is a caustic, dizzying eco-fantasy that addresses labor politics, corporate greed, and the relentless grind of capitalism, while also embodying a visceral lesbian revenge quest against the people and institutions who control and oppress the helpless.

"A riotous phantasmagoria that epitomizes the phrase 'be gay, do crime.'" - Melinda Borie, Collection Development Librarian, Floyd County Library (New Albany, IN)

 

It’s the summer before senior year of college, and Grace is about to make the worst decision of her life in this “sexy, sun-drenched cocktail of chaotic good fun and heartfelt hilarity” (Sarah Kuhn, author of the Heroine Complex series) that captures the messiness of your early twenties, while highlighting the necessity of girlfriends at any—and every—age.

How far would you go to win back an ex?

If Grace is being honest, she knows her choices skate past questionable and probably into destructive. But her heart is broken and the guy who broke it—her ex Josh—keeps hinting at a reunion. So when her best friends, Tiff and Camille, suggest they take a girls trip to help her get over her heartache, Grace doesn’t hesitate to recommend Cancún. She just doesn’t mention that Josh also happens to be there.

But juggling her friends, Josh, and the increasing number of lies she’s telling is a lot harder than she expected. And things only get more complicated when she clicks with a hot local guy, Daniel, who turns out to be half Taiwanese too. As the days unfold, Grace starts to think maybe she’ll get away with it. But will her past decisions and her need for closure come back to ruin the relationships that matter most to her?

“Full of true friendship, deep self-discovery, and all the swoons,” (Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love), The Breakup Vacation captures the hilarious chaos of being twenty-one, when love is still new, when adulthood feels so close and yet so far away, and when friends are everything.

 

Available now!

Film/TV Rep: Phoebe Schmidt at Paradigm Talent Agency

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants goes to the French Open in an emotionally honest and openhearted novel for fans of Yamile Saied Méndez and Mary HK Choi.

Three teen girls compete at an elite tennis tournament for a shot at their dreams—if only they knew what their dreams were.

Alice is on her own for the first time. She has no coach. No friends. Not even clothes that meet the Bastille Invitational’s strict dress code. There’s only the steady drumbeat of guilt inside—pressure to make the tournament’s costly expense “worth it” in the wake of Ba’s unexpected passing. But will a win on court justify the price she paid to get here?

Violetta is Bastille’s darling: social media influencer, coach’s pet, and daughter of a former tennis star who fell from grace. Bastille is her chance to reclaim the future her mother gave up to raise her. But is that what she wants for herself?

Leylah hasn’t competed in two years, thanks to a back-stabbing ex-friend. Bastille is her last chance to prove she’s ready for a life of professional tennis. But will her fixation on past wrongs keep her from reclaiming her rightful place at the top?

One week at the elite Bastille Invitational tennis tournament will decide their futures. If only the competition between them stayed on the court.

The Misdirection of Fault Lines is an incisive coming-of-age story, infused with wit and wisdom, about three Asian American teen girls trying to find their ways forward, backward, and in some cases, back to each other again. Anna Gracia, acclaimed author of Boys I Know, delivers with a refreshingly true-to-life teen voice that perfectly captures the messiness of adolescence and the pressures of expectation.

★“Gracia engages readers from the start with well-developed characters whose motivations and secrets are carefully revealed over the course of the tournament. Chapters alternate between Alice’s, Violetta’s, and Leylah’s perspectives and examine trauma, addiction, class, and representation through the passion—and desperation—of elite athletes. Compelling and memorable.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

 

"Barrett writes with tremendous care for anyone who has ever felt lonely." —Rosie Danan, author of The Roommate

Jesse Logan doesn’t want a fresh start. He wants his old life back—before an injury made his career as a firefighter impossible, before his grandfather’s Alzheimer’s got so bad he doesn’t recognize Jesse anymore. When a friend tells him about a paid psychological study, Jesse sees it as a chance to get back to the man he was while making a little extra cash.

All Lulu Banks is asking for is a fresh start. Back home after a devastating breakup, she’s struggling to find her place. She’s always been a lot—too loud, too eager, too obvious about her feelings. The friendship study seems like a great idea…until she’s paired with Jesse Logan, who recently ghosted her after a blind date that led to a steamy make-out session.

Now that old familiar tension is back. Despite the program’s strict “no romance” rule, Jesse and Lulu are quick to find a work-around that allows them to explore their tenuous connection. And soon they’re on their way to total self-improvement…

As long as they don’t get caught.

 

On Sale August 8, 2023!

Add to your Goodreads TBR!

Film/TV Rep: Paradigm Talent Agency

FORGED BY BLOOD by Ehigbor Okosun

A brilliant new voice brings a brilliant new novel: debut author Ehigbor Okosun’s first book in an action-packed, poignant duology inspired by Nigerian mythology—full of magic and emotion and set in a highly atmospheric, complex world in which a young woman fights to survive a tyrannical society, having everything stripped away from her, and seeks vengeance for her mother’s murder and the spilled blood of her people.

In the midst of a tyrannical regime and political invasion, Dèmi just wants to survive: to avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her ancestral homeland of Ife; to escape the King’s brutal genocide of her people—the darker skinned, magic wielding Oluso; and to live peacefully with her secretive mother while learning to control the terrifying blood magic that is her birthright.

But when Dèmi’s misplaced trust costs her mother’s life, survival gives way to vengeance. She bides her time until the devious Lord Ekwensi grants her the perfect opportunity—kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. With the help of her reckless childhood friend Colin, Dèmi succeeds, but discovers that she and Jonas share more than deadly secrets; every moment tangles them further into a forbidden, unmistakable attraction, much to Colin’s—and Dèmi’s—distress.

The kidnapping is now a joint mission: to return to the King, help get Lord Ekwensi on the council, and bolster the voice of the Oluso in a system designed to silence them. But the way is dangerous, Dèmi’s magic is growing yet uncertain, and it’s not clear if she can trust the two men at her side.

A tale of rebellion and redemption, race and class, love and trust and betrayal, Forged by Blood is epic fantasy at its finest, from an enthusiastic, emerging voice.

 

On Sale Now!

Add to your Goodreads TBR!

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett

A fiery restaurant owner falls for her enigmatic head chef in this charming, emotional romance

Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.

Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane…

Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.

Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean…

Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.

 

Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett

Ruby Barrett’s HOT COPY, a workplace romance in which a meet-cute-gone-wrong on his first day leads an intern to prove to his boss that he’s not the type of man she thinks he is, and they’re both forced to choose what matters more: work or love.

Buy e-book and audiobook at Carina Press

 
Gracia-boysiknow.jpeg

On Sale Now!
Add to Goodreads TBR!

Film/TV Rep: Paradigm Talent Agency

BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia

June Chu, a high school senior in Iowa, balances her academic expectations with her fraught love life and discovering what she wants for herself, outside of the expectations of her family and society.

Readers of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han’s novel’s will be glued to the page as June navigates messy boys and messier relationships in this bitingly funny and much-needed look into the overlap of Asian American identity and teen sexuality. Anna Gracia has crafted an outstanding coming-of-age novel.

Recent Deals

 

Locus, Andre Norton, and Dragon Award finalist and author of the Scapegracers trilogy, under the pen name H.A. Clarke, august clarke’s METAL FROM HEAVEN, a revenge-fueled lesbian industrial fantasy about the lone survivor of a failed worker’s strike seeking e; THE FELICITY COMPLEX, a darkly comedic horror novel about disgruntled staff for a luxury bunker who cannibalize their ultra-wealthy guests; and an untitled speculative novel, to Sarah Guan at Erewhon, with Diana Pho editing, in a nice deal, in an exclusive submission, in a three-book deal, for publication in fall 2024, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English).

FORGED BY BLOOD by Ehigbor Okosun

Debut author Ehigbor Okosun’s FORGED BY BLOOD, a duology pitched as inspired by Nigerian mythology, in which a young woman fights to survive a tyrannical society, having everything stripped away from her, and seeks vengeance for her mother’s murder and the spilled blood of her people, to David Promerico at Harper Voyager, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2023, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world).
Film/tv: Phoebe Schmidt at Paradigm Talent Agency.

Author of the forthcoming THE ROMANCE RECIPE and HOT COPY Ruby Barrett’s THE LEARNING CURVE, where bi, down-on-his-luck ex-firefighter joins a cross-disciplinary academic study teaching millennials how to make friends as adults, but an unexpected flirtation with an earnest people-pleasing female participant jeopardizes the study and their hearts, to Stephanie Doig at Carina Adores, for publication in winter 2024, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English).

Author of the forthcoming BOYS I KNOW Anna Gracia’s THE BREAK-UP VACATION, the first in the MTV Beach House series, following a college student, who plans a girls’ trip to Cancun with her two best friends-only they don’t know that her ex-boyfriend is also there, or that she will do whatever it takes to get him back, to Christian Trimmer at MTV Books, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world).

MISDIRECTION OF FAULT LINES by Anna Gracia

Author of the forthcoming BOYS I KNOW Anna Gracia’s MISDIRECTION OF FAULT LINES, pitched as a tennis version of Center Stage, following three Asian American teen girls—the underdog, the social media darling, and the defiant ex-friend—from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds who compete against each other at an elite tennis summer camp and discover they’re not so different after all, to Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2024, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world).

WHILE IT’S HOT by Ruby BarrettRuby Barrett’s While It’s Hot, returning to the universe of HOT COPY, in which a restaurant owner hires a former reality TV chef to save her struggling kitchen, only to discover that the talented yet enigmatic woman seems determined to undermine her authority at every turn, but when fire spreads from the kitchen to the bedroom, they’re forced to reckon with their growing attraction before they lose everything, to Stephanie Doig at Carina Adores, for publication in spring 2022, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English).

WHILE IT’S HOT by Ruby Barrett

Ruby Barrett’s While It’s Hot, returning to the universe of HOT COPY, in which a restaurant owner hires a former reality TV chef to save her struggling kitchen, only to discover that the talented yet enigmatic woman seems determined to undermine her authority at every turn, but when fire spreads from the kitchen to the bedroom, they’re forced to reckon with their growing attraction before they lose everything, to Stephanie Doig at Carina Adores, for publication in spring 2022, by Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English).

BOYS I KNOW by Anna GraciaAshley Hearn at Peachtree Teen has acquired Boys I Know by debut author Anna Gracia. This coming-of-age story follows a “year in the life” of high school senior June Chu as she navigates sex, love, and Planned Parenthood in her small Midwestern town, while clashing with her Taiwanese mother’s expectation that she will follow her older sister to Northwestern on a music scholarship. Publication is scheduled for summer 2022; Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Agency brokered the deal for world rights.

BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia

Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen has acquired Boys I Know by debut author Anna Gracia. This coming-of-age story follows a “year in the life” of high school senior June Chu as she navigates sex, love, and Planned Parenthood in her small Midwestern town, while clashing with her Taiwanese mother’s expectation that she will follow her older sister to Northwestern on a music scholarship. Publication is scheduled for summer 2022; Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Agency brokered the deal for world rights.