Allyson Dahlin

Cake Eater

She has a million followers on social media.

She uses her fashion-forward eye to pick the perfect angle and filter on every photo.

She’s iconic.

She’s a trend-setter.

She’s Marie Antoinette, the year is 3070, and she’s arrived in the Franc Kingdom to marry the prince, secure an alliance, and rake in likes from her fans.

Versailles is not the perfect palace Marie’s seen on The Apps. Her life is a maze of pointless rules, and the court watches her every move for mistakes. Her shy husband Louis is more interested in horses and computer-hacking than producing heirs. Versailles seems like a dream full of neon-lit statues, handsome android soldiers, and parties till dawn. Under the surface, it’s a creepy den of secrets: surveillance in Marie’s bedroom, censored news feeds, disappearing courtiers.

When Marie and Louis become king and queen long before they’re ready to rule, any efforts to aid their suffering subjects are stamped out by the mega-corporations of the First Estate. Between riots in Paris and image-wrecking social media firestorms, Marie can’t afford to lose her head. Using her social media savvy and Louis’ hacking knowledge, they try to fix their reputations and change their kingdom for the better, but the royals may find it’s already too late. They’re ruling over the end of an era.

Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: August 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-0063096776

"Cake Eater's cyberpunk reimagining of Marie Antoinette whisks you into the dazzling neon-lit world of far future Versailles only to peel back layer after layer of unnerving truths. A bittersweet story about one girl's struggle against the tragic cycles of human greed and human history." — Xiran Jay Zhao, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Iron Widow

"With a love story for the ages, this vivid tale takes the history we know and recasts it into an exciting, technicolor, future world that challenges what we know here in the present, and how we know it. I loved it! I couldn't put it down!" — Beth Revis, New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy

"Viciously sharp, Cake Eater is part-mystery, part-thriller, and part rom-com. Biting and unflinching, Cake Eater is unlike any YA book I have ever read." — Lillie Lainoff, author of One for All

“The slow blossoming of the royal romance will break readers’ hearts… Intriguing and imaginative.” — Kirkus Reviews

Available for order:

AMAZON

Allyson Dahlin grew up on a farm in central New York, where she had little to do but read loads of library books and make up magical and slightly creepy stories about the woods and farm animals while pretending to be a witch/homesteader. She studied psychology in college while working as a housekeeper at a motel in Cooperstown. That job involved a lot of boring hours to think up backstories for the guests whose rooms she cleaned. A shawl left on a chair by an aging opera soprano, a stack of old baseball cards left by a Hall of Fame inductee, and the legend of a monster in the lake were all fodder for stories. It was during that time she transformed from a reader and a daydreamer to a writer.

With some writing courses and a psychology certification in hand, Allyson worked in school counseling and then at a boarding school for girls with complex trauma. Writing kept her spirits up during her intensely emotional work. Eventually, she fell into internet marketing, which meant writing for her day job as well as focusing on her novels. Her first novel, CAKE EATER, was inspired by a trip to Versailles and the realization that the circumstances of Marie Antoinette’s life could just as easily happen today.

https://allysondahlin.com/

Tags: YA, Speculative Fiction/SFF