Let us know if you enjoy these books @22Debuts on Twitter and Instagram! ​

SPEECH AND DEBACLES by Heather DiAngelis 5/31/2022, Totally Entwined Group/Finch

When her drama teacher recruits her for the Speech and Debate team, Taryn can't believe it. She's part of a powerhouse team, and--even better--the group also includes the eye-catching superstar debater Riker, who hopefully got the hint that she likes boys and girls. Soon, though, Taryn starts experiencing painful pelvic cramps that threaten to sabotage her chances at debate and at getting closer to Riker.

https://www.22debuts.com/heather-diangelis.html​

HOW TO SUCCEED IN WITCHCRAFT by Aislinn Brophy 9/27/2022, Putnam/PRH

Shay's close to a perfect witch--academically skilled, magically brilliant, and, unfortunately, totally overcommitted. Still, she's determined to win a scholarship that could be the ticket to the university of her dreams. To do that, she must beat her competition and impress her drama teacher. But as she rehearses for the musical she's been asked to star in, she realizes her competition--Ava--might not be so bad and that her drama teacher is behaving increasingly inappropriately. She wants to speak out, but worries she'll give up her future if she does.

                                                     www.22debuts.com/aislinn-brophy

​We begin with 4 great Middle Grade reads.

Janelle McCurdy​’s MIA AND THE LIGHTCASTERS from Faber Children's on 8/4/2022

A fresh, action-packed, magical middle-grade adventure, Mia and the Lightcasters is the first in a bold, cinematic, commercial new series, perfect for fans of Pokemon, Nevermoor and The Last Kids on Earth.
​
​https://www.22debuts.com/janelle-mccurdy.html

Emily Seo’s THE SCIENCE OF BOYS from Tradewind Books on 8/15/2022

The Science of Boys is about a girl struggling to fit in who uses her science mind to improve her social life. What she discovers is that fitting in is not the same as belonging. A story of family and friendship interlaced with science concepts.

​https://www.22debuts.com/emily-seo.html
​

Refe Tuma’s FRANCES AND THE MONSTER from Harper Children's/HarperCollins on 8/23/2022

Adventurous and charming, this middle grade twist on Frankenstein features a precocious main character who does just that. Perfect for fans of Serafina and the Black Cloak and the Greenglass Houseseries.

https://www.22debuts.com/refe-tuma.html

Skyler Schrempp’s THREE STRIKE SUMMER from Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster) on 8/30/2022

Sandlot meets Esperanza Rising in this lyrical middle grade novel set in the 1930s about a strong-willed girl who finds her voice in a tale of moxie, peaches, and determination to thrive despite the odds. 
​
https://www.22debuts.com/skyler-schrempp.html

Melissa See’s YOU, ME, AND OUR HEARTSTRINGS from Scholastic on 8/2/2022

What if the whole world was watching while you fell in love for the first time? A fresh and fun teen romance starring a girl with cerebral palsy, and a boy with severe anxiety. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/melissa-see.html

Elisa A. Bonnin’s DAUNTLESS from Swoon Reads/Macmillan on 8/2/2022

A teen girl must bring together two broken worlds in order to save her nation in this lush, Filipino-inspired young adult fantasy novel from debut author Elisa A. Bonnin. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/elisa-a-bonnin.html

Cristina Fernandez’s HOW TO DATE A SUPERHERO (AND NOT DIE TRYING) from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen on 8/2/2022
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A romantic coming-of-age story about growing up, falling in love, and surviving life—all set in the world of superheroes—from debut author Cristina Fernandez, proving that you don’t need a superpower to be the hero of your own origin story, perfect for fans of The Rest of Us Just Live Here and Renegades.

https://www.22debuts.com/cristina-fernandez.html

Francesca M Padilla’s WHAT'S COMING TO ME from Soho Press/Soho Teen on 8/2/2022
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Seventeen-year-old Minerva Gutiérrez plans revenge on her predatory boss in this equally poignant and thrilling contemporary YA about grief, anger, and fighting for what you deserve.

https://www.22debuts.com/francesca-m-padilla.html

Sathya Achia’s IN MY HANDS from Ravens & Roses Publishing on 8/8/2022
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After the death of her mother, 16-year-old Chandra S. Chengappa reluctantly leaves small-town Virginia for the jungles of India to find the weapon of a Hindu Goddess to destroy the demon hell-bent on obliterating her ancestral home.

https://www.22debuts.com/sathya-achia.html

Allyson Dahlin’s CAKE EATER from HarperTeen on 8/9/2022           
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Decadent, thrilling, and romantic, this Black Mirror-esque retelling of the reign of one Marie Antoinette is perfect for fans of The Belles and American Royals. Cake Eater will take readers to a dazzling world full of breathless luxuries, deadly secrets, and a thrilling romance that attempts to rewrite history itself.  
​
https://www.22debuts.com/allyson-dahlin.html

Rimma Onoseta’s HOW YOU GROW WINGS from Algonquin Young Readers on 8/9/2022          
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An emotionally riveting novel for fans of Ibi Zoboi and Erika L. Sánchez about two sisters in Nigeria on their journey to break free of an oppressive home. Debut author Rimma Onoseta deftly explores classism, colorism, cycles of abuse, and how loyalty doesn’t always come attached to love.

https://www.22debuts.com/rimma-onoseta.html

Britney S. Lewis’ THE UNDEAD TRUTH OF US from Disney Hyperion on 8/9/2022         
Death was everywhere. They all stared at me, bumping into one another and slowly coming forward. In this surrealist journey of grief, fear, and hope, Britney S. Lewis's debut novel explores love, zombies, and everything in between in an intoxicating amalgam of the real and the fantastic. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/britney-s-lewis.html

R.D. Stevens’ THE JOURNAL from Vulpine Press on 8/18/2022
         
Ethan Willis is a confused eighteen-year-old who struggles with the depth and uncertainty of life. It's been six months since Charlotte, his free-spirited sister, disappeared in Cambodia. In a last desperate attempt to find her, he sets off to follow her trail around Southeast Asia.

https://www.22debuts.com/rd-stevens.html

Aaron H. Aceves’ THIS IS WHY THEY HATE US from Simon & Schuster BFYR on 8/23/2022
         
This fun, irreverent summer romp is Netflix’s Never Have I Ever meets What If It’s Us about a high school senior determined to get over his unrequited feelings for his best friend by getting under someone else.

https://www.22debuts.com/aaron-h-aceves.html

Charlene Thomas’ SETON GIRLS from Dutton/Penguin RandomHouse ​ on 8/30/2022
         
A smart and twisty debut YA that starts off like Friday Night Lights and ends with the power and insight of Dear White People. 
​
​https://www.22debuts.com/charlene-thomas.html

Lisa Williamson Rosenberg’s EMBERS ON THE WIND from Little A Books on 8/1/2022
         
The past and the present converge in this enthralling, serpentine tale of women connected by motherhood, slavery’s legacy, and histories that span centuries. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/lisa-williamson-rosenberg.html

Noué Kirwan’s LONG PAST SUMMER from HQN Books/HarperCollins on 8/2/2022
         
It's hard to move on from a broken heart—and harder to move on from a broken friendship. With flashbacks to summers of first loves and fragile friendships, Long Past Summer looks at the delicate and powerful thread that binds and breaks friends and flames. 

https://www.22debuts.com/noue-kirwan.html

Amy L. Bernstein’s THE POTRERO COMPLEX from Regal House Publishing on 8/2/2022
         
A teenager is missing, and it falls to Journalist Rags Goldner to fight the forces of apathy, paranoia, and creeping fascism to learn the shocking truth about Effie Rutter’s fate—and the fate of thousands like her.
​
https://www.22debuts.com/amy-l-bernstein.html

Victor Manibo’s THE SLEEPLESS from Erewhon Books on 8/2/2022
         
In a near-future New York City where a minority of the population has lost the need for sleep, a journalist fights to uncover the truth behind his boss’s murder on the eve of a sinister corporate takeover—while his own Sleeplessness spirals out of control. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/victor-manibo.html

Sunyi Dean’s THE BOOK EATERS  from Tor Books (Macmillan) on 8/2/2022
         
Devon, a Book Eater forced into arranged marriages, gives birth to a Mind Eater and loves her son so fiercely she becomes a monster herself to save him from her family’s violent ways.

https://www.22debuts.com/sunyi-dean.html

Shamiso M. Lezard’s THE LOST CANTRELL from Wild Rose Press on 8/3/2022
         
A luxury hotel, a mysterious guest, a secret organization...and a girl caught in the middle. All that stood between her and death was a pendant she received by chance. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/shamiso-m-lezard.html

Jen Devon’s BEND TOWARD THE SUN from St. Martin's Griffin on 8/9/2022
         
Jen Devon's Bend Toward the Sun is a gorgeous, emotional love story about taking unexpected paths, accepting loss, and finding strength in the transformative power of love. 

​https://www.22debuts.com/jen-devon.html

Naseem Jamnia’s THE BRUISING OF QILWA from Tachyon Publication on 8/9/2022
         
In this intricately layered debut fantasy, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease causing political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.

​https://www.22debuts.com/naseem-jamnia.html

Annie Kirby’s THE HOLLOW SEA from Penguin Michael Joseph (UK)​ on 8/18/2022
         
THE HOLLOW SEA is a literary fiction novel exploring themes of involuntary childlessness, mother-daughter relationships, reconnection with nature, grief and recovery. ​

​https://www.22debuts.com/annie-kirby.html

Courtney Kae​’s IN THE EVENT OF LOVE from Kensington and Headline Eternal​ on 8/30/2022
         
Offering a steamy, queer spin on the feel-good tropes of a Hallmark movie, this sweet, funny #OwnVoices rom-com is perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Alexandria Bellefleur!

https://www.22debuts.com/courtney-kae.html

Let us know if you enjoy these books @22Debuts on Twitter and Instagram! 
​​
Curated and posted by: Anna Kopp

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne
November 15, 2022 - Berkley
 Local DJ and social media influencer Liza Bennett has fine eyes and pert opinions about music. Which is why she is currently jamming Jazmine Sullivan's 'Pick Up Your Feelings' after a certain "proposal" from the brooding Mr. Dorsey goes left.

Groupies by Sarah Priscus
July 12, 2022 - William Morrow/HarperCollins
In a debut perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & The Six, Mary Jane, and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Sarah Priscus shines a bright light on the grungy yet glittery world of 1970s rock 'n' roll and the women – the groupies – who unapologetically love too much in a world that doesn’t love them back. After her mother’s death, Faun, a naïve college dropout, grabs her Polaroid and hops a Greyhound to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, she reconnects with her charismatic childhood friend Josie, now an up-and-coming model and muse. To make their reunion even sweeter, Josie is now dating Cal Holiday, the frontman of the superstar rock band Holiday Sun, and Faun is positively mesmerized.

Let the Mountains Be My Grave by Francesca Tacchi
May 17, 2022 - Neon Hemlock Press
Several songs are featured in the book: songs of revolution, melancholic folk songs, religious songs. They hold meaning for the main characters, and some of these same songs have become symbols of the Italian partisan resistance. It's the case of “Fischia il Vento”, one of the partisan songs Veleno and his comrades sing as they embark in their dangerous mission. One rendition of this traditional song is by combat folk band Modena City Ramblers.

The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
March 8, 2022 - Angry Robot Books
Jess is a fan of galactic pop sensation Jasmine Jonah, famed for her highly polished yet edgy beats. A close Earth analogue to her sound would be “Strict Machine” by Goldfrapp.

The Last Feather by Shameez Patel Papathanasiou
July 19, 2022 - Flame Tree Press
Lucas and Cassia can both relate to Imagine Dragons’ “Next to Me”, which represents the way they support each other in their friendship.

Dad's Girlfriend and Other Anxieties by Kellye Crocker
Out September 1, 2022 from Albert Whitman & Co.
Features: Anxiety

When her father takes her to Colorado to meet his girlfriend for the first time, 12-year-old Ava must come to grips with both her newly diagnosed anxiety disorder and her rapidly changing family. But she learns from the mountains that it's okay to want two opposite things at once, and that the bravest people are the ones who are scared but do what's right anyway. ​

The Grave Thief by Dee Hahn
Out March 1, 2022 from Tundra Books, Penguin Random House
Features: Physical disability

Twelve-year-old Spade is a grave thief. With his father and brother, he digs up the recently deceased to steal jewels, the main form of trade in Wyndhail.

Digging graves works for Spade -- alone in the graveyard at night, no one notices his limp or calls him names. He's headed for a lifetime of theft when his father comes up with the audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery. Spade and his brother get caught in a royal trap, and Spade must find the master of the Woegon: a deadly creature that is stalking the castle by night.

Along the way, he meets Ember, the queen's niece, and together they race to solve the mystery of the legendary Deepstones and their connection to the Woegon, the queen, a missing king and the mysterious pebble Spade finds in the Wyndhail cemetery.

This is a fantastic story of friendship, bravery, grief and acceptance.

The Unforgettable Logan Foster by Shawn Peters
Out January 18, 2022 from Harper Collins
Features: Neurodivergence

Logan Foster is an undersized, neurodivergent 12-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and zero filter. He has no expectations of ever being adopted and spends his spare time searching for the younger sibling he believes is still out there. But when he’s fostered by a kind, suburban couple who are clearly hiding something from him, Logan’s logical mind won’t stop until he uncovers the super-secret truth; superheroes are real… and his new foster folks are actual superhumans.

Air by Monica Roe
Out March 15, 2022 from FSG/Macmillan
Features: Physical disability

An action-packed, empowering middle grade novel about a girl who has to speak up when her wheelchair motocross dreams get turned upside down.

Twelve-year-old Emmie is working to raise money for a tricked-out wheelchair to get serious about WCMX, when a mishap on a poorly designed ramp at school throws her plans into a tailspin. Instead of replacing the ramp, her school provides her with a kind but unwelcome aide--and, seeing a golden media opportunity, launches a public fundraiser for her new wheels. Emmie loves her close-knit rural town, but she can't shake the feeling that her goals--and her choices--suddenly aren't hers anymore. With the help of her best friends, Emmie makes a plan to get her dreams off the ground--and show her community what she wants, what she has to give, and how ready she is to do it on her own terms.

Air is a smart, energetic middle grade debut about thinking big, working hard, and taking flight.

Speech and Debacles by Heather DiAngelis
Out May 31, 2022 from Finch Books​
Features: Chronic pain/illness, endometriosis

Drama class is nothing like Taryn Platt’s favorite TV show—no one has broken out into song yet, and there isn’t nearly as much kissing. But the seventeen-year-old is surprised to find one thing going the way she’d hoped. It turns out she’s not half bad at acting. When her Drama teacher recruits her for the school’s powerhouse Speech and Debate team, she can’t believe her luck. Even better when she finds out the guy catching her eye, Riker, is one of the team’s strongest competitors—and hopefully he got the hint she likes boys as well as girls. But when painful, amped-up cramps invade her pelvis, performing on demand and getting close to Riker become increasingly less feasible.

Up until junior year, Riker Lucas had one life goal—break into the world of voice acting to perform videogame voiceovers. Then one look from the green-eyed new girl from Speech brings on a second goal—getting himself over the hurdle of actually talking to her. The task proves impossible when a nagging inner voice constantly reminds him how worthless he is, how he doesn’t stand a chance.

Taryn’s pain worsens, keeping her out of commission at the most inopportune moments, and Riker’s oppressive self-denigrating thoughts steal his interest from his favorite activities. As Riker and Taryn float closer together and then farther apart, they both must work to find solutions for coping—or they’ll miss out on each other as well as their performance goals.

The Moth Girl by Heather Kamins
Out March 8, 2022 from ​Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Features: Chronic illness

Anna is a regular teenaged girl. She runs track with her best friend, gets good grades, and sometimes drinks beer at parties. But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious . . . but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity in the disturbing first symptom of a mysterious disease.

This begins a series of trips to the hospital that soon become Anna’s norm. She’s diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.

Anna’s world is turned upside down, and as she learns to cope with her illness, she finds herself drifting further and further away from her former life. Her friends don’t seem to understand, running track is out of the question, and the other kids at the disease clinic she attends once a week are a cruel reminder that things will never be the same.

From debut author Heather Kamins comes a beautiful and evocative story about one girl’s journey of choosing who she wants to be—in a life she never planned for.

One for All by Lillie Lainoff
Out March 8, 2022 from Macmillan / FSG
Features: POTS

One for All is an OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for new Musketeers: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a sword fight.

With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels that she has a purpose, that she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming—and might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.

Lillie Lainoff's debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.

The Turning Pointe by Vanessa Torres
Out February 22, 2022 from Knopf Books For Young Readers
Features: TBI

A bold and emotionally gripping novel about a teenage Latinx girl finding freedom through dance and breaking expectations in 1980s Minnesota.

When sixteen-year-old Rosa Dominguez pirouettes, she is poetry in pointe shoes. And as the daughter of a tyrant ballet Master, Rosa seems destined to become the star principal dancer of her studio. But Rosa would do anything for one hour in the dance studio upstairs where Prince, the Purple One himself, is in the house.

After her father announces their upcoming auditions for a concert with Prince, Rosa is more determined than ever to succeed. Then Nikki--the cross-dressing, funky boy who works in the dance shop--leaps into her life. Weighed down by family expectations, Rosa is at a crossroads, desperate to escape so she can show everyone what she can do when freed of her pointe shoes. Now is her chance to break away from a life in tulle, grooving to that unmistakable Minneapolis sound reverberating through every bone in her body.

Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe by Lindsay S. Zrull
Out July 19, 2022 from Flux
Features: Mental illness

Bounced between foster homes since the age of seven, Jessica knows better than to set down roots. Most of the kids at her new Michigan high school think she’s a witch anyway (because, you know, goth). The only one who gives her the time of day is geeky Oscar, who wants to recruit her fashion skills for his amateur cosplay group. But Jess is fine showing off her looks to her Insta fans—until a woman claiming to be her biological mother barges into her DMs.

Jess was claimed by the state when her bio mom’s mental illness made her unstable. While their relationship is far from traditional, blood ties are hard to break. There’s only one problem: Jess can’t reunite with her mom in New York City without a bunch of paperwork and she worries her social worker will never approve the trip. That’s when she remembers Oscar’s cosplay group, who are aiming for that big convention in New York…

So Jess joins Oscar’s team—with every intention of using them to get to her mom. But her plan gets complicated when she discovers that, actually, cosplay is pretty great, and so is having friends. And Oscar, who Jess thought was just a shy nerd, can be as gallant and charming as the heroes he pretends to be. As the big convention draws near, Jess will have to decide whether or not chasing a dream of “family” is worth risking the family she’s built for herself.

Love at First Spite by Anna E. Collins
Out January 4, 2022 from Graydon House/HarperCollins
Features: Meniere's disease

They say living well is the best revenge. But sometimes, spreading the misery seems a whole lot more satisfying. That’s interior designer Dani Porter’s justification for buying the vacant lot next to her ex-fiancé's house…the house they were supposed to live in together, before he cheated on her with their realtor. Dani plans to build a vacation rental that will a) mess with his view and his peace of mind and b) prove that Dani is not someone to be stepped on. Welcome to project Spite House.

That plan quickly becomes complicated when Dani is forced to team up with Wyatt Montego, the handsome, haughty architect at her firm, and the only person available to draw up blueprints. Wyatt is terse and stern, the kind of man who eats his sandwich with a knife and fork. But as they spend time together on-site and off, Dani glimpses something deeper beneath that hard veneer, something surprising, vulnerable, and real. And the closer she gets to her goal, the more she wonders if winning revenge could mean losing something infinitely sweeter...

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
Out August 9, 2022 from Tachyon Publications
Features: C-PTSD

In this intricately layered debut fantasy, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease causing political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.

Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.

But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family.

Powerful and fascinating, The Bruising of Qilwa is the newest arrival in the era of fantasy classics such as the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Four Profound Weaves, and Who Fears Death.

Seton Girls, Charlene Thomas
Penguin Random House, August 30th 2022

Get ready to become immersed inside a prep school with as many successes as it has secrets. World changing secrets a small group of girls might just expose.
https://www.22debuts.com/charlene-thomas.html

Mindwalker, Kate Dylan
Hodder Books, September 1, 2022

Eighteen-year-old Sil Sarrah is determined to die a legend. In the ten years she's been rescuing imperilled field agents for the Syntex Corporation—by commandeering their minds from afar and leading them to safety—Sil hasn't lost a single life. And she's not about to start now.
https://www.22debuts.com/kate-dylan.html

The Last Feather, Shameez Patel Papathanasiou
Flame Tree Press, July 19, 2022

Perfect for fans of Suzanne Collins, VE Schwab, or Sarah J Mass. Twenty-two-year-old Cassia goes on the adventure of a lifetime to save her dying sister to another realm. In this realm, she finds her missing best friend Lucas who is apart of a community of Reborns. To keep the Reborn numbers manageable, the king of the Firsts releases a curse to cull them and Cassia finds herself in the middle of it. She needs to break the curse before her time runs out, otherwise she will be trapped there forever.
https://www.22debuts.com/shameez-patel-papathanasiou.html

Other Side of the Tracks, Charity Alyse
Simon Teen, November 22, 2022

Other Side of the Tracks tells the story of a racially divided town separated by train tracks and what happens when Black blood is spilled on the white side of town. Get ready for mystery, Black love, forbidden romance (like Romeo and Juliet but make it interracial!) jazz, dream chasing, and historic town blood feuds. This story will wreck you and put you back together all over again.
https://www.22debuts.com/charity-alyse.html

The Sleepless, Victor Manibo
Erewhon Books, August 2, 2022

Journalist Jamie Vega is Sleepless: he can’t sleep, nor does he need to. When his boss dies on the eve of a controversial corporate takeover, Jamie doesn’t buy the too-convenient explanation of suicide, and launches an investigation of his own. Things don't stop there, Jamie discovers that he was the last person who saw Simon alive. Not only do the police suspect him, Jamie himself has no memory of that night. Get ready to be immersed in a story that's larger than life.
https://www.22debuts.com/victor-manibo.html

The Turning Pointe, Vanessa L Torres
Knopf, February 22, 2022

A novel about a teenage Latinx girl finding freedom through dance and breaking expectations in 1980s Minnesota. Prince! Dance. What more can you ask for? This is a love story of family, self, and romance. I personally read The Turning Pointe in two days and I LOVED IT. This is one of the best books of 2022!
https://www.22debuts.com/vanessa-l-torres.html

Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li
Penguin Publishing Group, April 5, 2022

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back. (Psst! This book is soon to be a movie!)
https://www.22debuts.com/grace-d-li.html

The Blue Bar, Damyanti Biswas
Thomas & Mercer, October 25, 2022

On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in an evocative thriller about lost love and murderous obsession.
https://www.22debuts.com/damyanti-biswas.html

Air, Monica Roe
FSG/Macmillan, March 15, 2022

An action-packed, empowering middle grade novel about a girl who has to speak up when her wheelchair motocross dreams get turned upside down.
https://www.22debuts.com/monica-roe.html

Monsters Born and Made, Tanvi Berwah
Sourcebooks/Fire, September 6, 2022

Koral grew up battling the monsters that live in the black seas, but it couldn't prepare her to face the cunning cruelty of the ruling elite. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Fable, this South Asian-inspired fantasy is a gripping debut about the power of the elite, the price of glory, and one girl's chance to change it all.
https://www.22debuts.com/tanvi-berwah.html

The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia
Tachyon Publications, August 9, 2022

In this intricately layered debut fantasy, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease causing political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.
https://www.22debuts.com/naseem-jamnia.html

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win, Susan Azim Boyer
Wednesday Books, November 1, 2022

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win features a bitingly funny, Mindy Kaling-esque, Iranian American heroine, who makes messy, complicated choices that snowball into an avalanche when an international incident intrudes on her high school election, forcing her to reckon with her identity in a way she never has before.
https://www.22debuts.com/susan-azim-boyer.html

Nura and the Immortal Palace, M.T. Khan
Little Brown Books for Young Readers, July 5, 2022

Look at this GORGEOUS COVER! Pakistani 12-year-old Nura works as a mica miner to help her sweatshop worker mother. But when the mines collapse and her best friend is ruled dead, Nura digs deeper to find a portal world of jinn, and that the kids aren’t dead—they’ve been stolen.
https://www.22debuts.com/maeeda-khan.html

Let the Mountains Be My Grave, Francesca Tacchi
Neon Hemlock Press, May 17, 2022

Let the Mountains Be My Grave unfolds at breakneck pace in 1944 Italy, where partisan Veleno thinks of nothing but killing as many Nazis as he can before leaving this world. Beloved by the ancient Italic goddess Angitia, Veleno is the perfect person to recover a strange weapon the Nazis are planning to use against the Allies in the battle of Montecassino, but doing so may force him to confront his death differently than he expects.
https://www.22debuts.com/francesca-tacchi.html

Pride and Protest, Nikki Payne
Berkley, November 15, 2022

A woman goes head-to-head with the CEO of a corporation threatening to destroy her neighborhood in this fresh and modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by debut author Nikki Payne.
https://www.22debuts.com/nikki-payne.html

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer
November 1, 2022 - Wednesday Books
Jasmine’s dream is to become a music journalist and cover New York City’s exploding early 80s punk scene. David Bowie is her lifelong obsession — particularly his ability to reinvent himself. She's determined to be the first student reporter to interview Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of the The Pretenders, when they tour the U.S.. Bowie’s “Win” becomes her anthem — even if she completely misinterprets the lyrics! — and her playlist would include music by Kate Bush, Siouxie Sioux, Elvis Costello, and The Clash.

The Turning Pointe by Vanessa L. Torres
February 22, 2022 - Knopf Books
Rosa is Prince-obsessed. His groovy Minneapolis sound, the way he moves, and his gender-bending fashion is magnetic, consuming her in a way that distracts her from troubles at home. And the new love in Rosa's life, Nikki, is all of the above and then some. Because he's more than a funky beat on the record player. He is right in front of her, and waiting to be kissed to the rhythm of Prince's D.M.S.R.

Goth Girl Queen of the Universe by Lindsay Smith Zrull
July 19, 2022 - Flux
Geeky cosplayer Oscar is obsessed with the sci-fi book series Prince of Moons. When he starts to fall for foster teen/goth queen Jess, he uses David Bowie's music to connect with her. Bowie once said that "Starman" was written to be a message of hope for the young people of the world. That's a message Oscar and Jess would definitely get on board with.

A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy
June 7, 2022 - Balzer & Bray
Emmett dreams of being country music's biggest, gayest superstar. Luke, meanwhile, hates country music because he thinks it ruined his family's life. With Emmett focused on his career, and Luke not out to his family, neither boy is looking for romance. But when they meet while working at Wanda World, the theme park owned by country music legend Wanda Jean Stubbs, they can't help but feel an attraction to each other...which makes Dolly Parton's "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That?" the perfect song for them.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah
September 6, 2022 - Sourcefire Books
Koral adores listening to music. She attributes music as being a life saver, her sole companion as she burrows in her underground room, on days when her family is falling apart. Her favorite kind of music is something that will help her make sense of the tangled emotions in her mind, whether it is a ballad or just an instrumental with lots of strings. A close comparable song would be "Lovely" by Billie Eilish (with Khalid).

Unravel by Amelia Loken
February 15, 2022 - Sword and Silk
Deaf princess, Marguerite, learns to step into her identities - deaf, royal, and magical - as she attempts to save her kingdom from her tyrannical and abusive uncle. Though she doesn't have access to our music, she would love Taylor Swift and all the Girl-Power-themed music out there, but the song that captures her story best is, "I Dare You," by Bea Miller.

Once More With Chutzpah by Haley Neil
February 1, 2022 - Bloomsbury
Hopeful lyricist Tally Gelmont has dreamed of writing musical theater hits ever since she saw  Waitress on Broadway . She’d love to make someone feel the way she does when she hears songs like “She Used to be Mine” by Sara Bareilles. Maybe this temple youth group trip will be just the kind of inspiration she needs. Except thoughts like that are selfish. This trip isn’t about her… it’s to help her twin brother who’s struggling in the wake of a car accident. (Still, she’ll bring her music journal along, just in case).

The Holloway Girls by Susan Crispell
June 7, 2022 - Sourcebooks Fire
Remy Holloway kisses a boy the first night of her kissing season and accidentally curses him instead of granting him good luck. Now she craves music that's as dark and broken as she feels. Her Spotify is a mix of Breaking Benjamin, Starset, Bring Me The Horizon, I Prevail, Papa Roach, AFI, The Used, The Amity Affliction. Until she receives an anonymous playlist with "Follow You" by Bring Me The Horizon, which makes her want to believe in love again — if she can break the curse.

The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim
January 23, 2023 - Salaam Reads
Zahra is a fan of fierce female pop stars like Blackpink, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift. These artists help her sort through her emotions while dealing with her feelings for two very different Bengali boys—the stoic but secretly sensitive Harun who her mom set her up with and dreamy, unsuitable Nayim, who works with her at a local tea shop. The book also nods to traditional Bangladeshi/South Asian music sometimes, particularly that which features in natoks and Bollywood, local cinema. Her Spotify playlist would include the Bridgerton instrumental version of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and the songs Paper Rings and The Very First Night by Taylor Swift.

DEEP DIVE by Ron Walters
Out now from Angry Robot

Peter is a game developer who's in dire need of a win to save his struggling company. But when he beta-tests a new VR headset, he finds himself in a world similar to his own where his family no longer exists, and the lines between virtual and real begin to blur.

Check it out if you love: video games, emotional family themes, fast-paced tech thrillers in the vein of Blake Crouch

BLUEBIRD by Ciel Pierlot
Out now from Angry Robot

Rig is a maverick thief and gunslinging rebel who's turned her back on the galaxy's powerful warring factions. But when Rig's former faction demands that she return something she stole or else they’ll kill her sister, Rig sets off on a cross-galaxy journey to save her sister's life (and maybe bring down the whole faction system in the process!)

Check it out if you love: Scrappy space rebels with a cause, heart-pounding action scenes, witty & snarky MCs

THE CIRCUS INFINITE by Khan Wong  
Out now from Angry Robot

Jes, a misfit with gravity powers, joins a circus to hide from those who want to study and exploit his abilities. When Jes becomes unwittingly embroiled with a crime boss on a notorious pleasure moon, it's up to him and his new friends from the circus to take the mobster down.

Check it out of you love: vivid worldbuilding, incredibly cool aliens, soft found family themes set against a backdrop of espionage & peril

THE BLOOD TRIALS by N.E. Davenport
Out now from Harper Voyager (Book 1 in a duology)

Ikenna, a young Black woman in a racist and misogynistic society, must survive a series of lethal, bloody trials and become an elite warrior if she wants to uncover the truth about who killed her grandfather. A gritty, emotional blend of murder mystery, historical fantasy and science fiction.

Check it out if you love: fiercely determined MCs, worldbuilding that blends magic and technology, themes of vengeance & justice in the vein of Red Rising

UNDER FORTUNATE STARS by Ren Hutchings
Out now from Solaris

Smuggler Jereth Keeven's junk freighter breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, encountering a vessel that claims to be from 152 years in the future. Jereth is shocked to learn that the people on board believe his crew are the historical heroes who ended the war, and that more than the fate of their two ships may be in play.

Check it out if you love: accidental time travel, history nerds to the rescue, space opera with Star Trek: TNG vibes

MAI TAIS FOR THE LOST by Mia V. Moss
Out now from Underland Press (Novella)

Marrow Nightingale is the only private investigator in Electric Blue Moon, an undersea city full of wealthy and powerful elites, where the party doesn't stop just because the world above is on fire. But the rich playboy who just turned up dead is Marrow's adoptive sibling, and the stakes have never been higher if Marrow can't crack this case.

Check it out if you love: voicey detective protagonists, noir-inspired sci-fi with climate themes, deliciously fascinating worldbuilding

WAKE OF WAR by Zac Topping
Coming July 19th from Forge Books

The United States of America is a crumbling republic where a rebellion has caught fire. When forces clash in Salt Lake City, alliances will be shattered, resolve will be tested, and when the dust clears nobody will be able to lie to themselves, or be lied to, again.

Check it out if you love: near-future speculative settings, bitingly realistic military combat, deep dual POVs on opposing sides of a conflict

THE SLEEPLESS by Victor Manibo
Coming August 2nd from Erewhon

Journalist Jamie Vega is one of the Sleepless: people who no longer need to sleep. When his boss dies under suspicious circumstances and Jamie investigates, his own secrets are threatened, and he must tangle with extremist organizations and powerful corporate interests in a bid to uncover a truth about Sleeplessness that imperils all of humanity.

Check it out if you love: page-turning mysteries with a unique premise, bio-hacking thrillers, sharp critiques of capitalism

THE REGISTRATION by Madison Lawson
Coming September 27th from CamCat Books

In a world where it's legal to commit one murder in your lifetime so long as you Register the victim and accomplish the kill within fourteen days, Lynell Mize is shocked to learn a stranger has Registered to kill her. Desperate to survive the next two weeks, she must find out who wants her dead and why.

Check it out if you love: near-future dystopian settings in the vein of The Purge, pacey thrillers, stories that examine the concepts of 'right and wrong'

SELF-PORTRAIT WITH NOTHING by Aimee Pokwatka
Coming October 18th from Tordotcom

Abandoned as an infant, Pepper Rafferty has secretly discovered that her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for claiming her portraits summon their subjects' doppelgangers from parallel universes. Researching these rumors, Pepper can't help but wonder what her life might have been like in these other universes.

Check it out if you love: literary speculative fiction, academic protagonists, contemplating the possibilities of alternate universes

THE STARS IN THEIR EYES by Kristy Gardner
Coming October 18th from City Owl Press

Calay and Tess’s love has kept them alive four years after the aliens decimated Earth. But when Tess goes missing, Calay is determined to risk it all to reunite with Tess: alien executioners, a mysterious man whom she can’t quite put her finger on, the rise of a sinister cult, and a shocking family secret.

Check it out if you love: horror-leaning sci-fi, The Walking Dead, fiercely determined MCs fighting to the ends of the earth for love

Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe by Lindsay S. Zrull
July 19, 2022 - Flux / NorthStar Editions

Bounced between foster homes since the age of seven, Jessica knows better than to set down roots. Most of the kids at her new Michigan high school think she’s a witch anyway (because, you know, goth). The only one who gives her the time of day is geeky Oscar, who wants to recruit her fashion skills for his amateur cosplay group. But Jess is fine showing off her looks to her Insta fans—until a woman claiming to be her biological mother barges into her DMs.

Jess was claimed by the state when her bio mom’s mental illness made her unstable. While their relationship is far from traditional, blood ties are hard to break. There’s only one problem: Jess can’t reunite with her mom in New York City without a bunch of paperwork and she worries her social worker will never approve the trip. That’s when she remembers Oscar’s cosplay group, who are aiming for that big convention in New York…

So Jess joins Oscar’s team—with every intention of using them to get to her mom. But her plan gets complicated when she discovers that, actually, cosplay is pretty great, and so is having friends. And Oscar, who Jess thought was just a shy nerd, can be as gallant and charming as the heroes he pretends to be. As the big convention draws near, Jess will have to decide whether or not chasing a dream of “family” is worth risking the family she’s built for herself.

As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr
June 7 2022 - Forever/Grand Central Publishing

Emerging journalist Adina Gellar is done with dating in New York City. If she’s learned anything from made-for-TV romance movies, it’s that she’ll find love in a small town—the kind with harvest festivals, delightful but quirky characters, and scores of delectable single dudes. So when a big-city real estate magnate targets tiny Pleasant Hollow for development, Adi knows she’s found the perfect story—one that will earn her a position at a coveted online magazine, so she can finally start adulting for real . . . and maybe even find her dream man in the process.

Only Pleasant Hollow isn’t exactly “pleasant.” There’s no charming bakery, no quaint seasonal festivals, and the residents are more ambivalent than welcoming. The only upside is Finn Adams, who’s more mouthwatering than the homemade cherry pie Adi can’t seem to find—even if he does work for the company she’d hoped to bring down. Suddenly Adi has to wonder if maybe TV got it all wrong after all. But will following her heart mean losing her chance to break into the big time?

Speech and Debacles by Heather DiAngelis
May 31, 2022 - Finch Books

Drama class is nothing like Taryn Platt’s favorite TV show—no one has broken out into song yet, and there isn’t nearly as much kissing. But the seventeen-year-old is surprised to find one thing going the way she’d hoped. It turns out she’s not half bad at acting. When her Drama teacher recruits her for the school’s powerhouse Speech and Debate team, she can’t believe her luck. Even better when she finds out the guy catching her eye, Riker, is one of the team’s strongest competitors—and hopefully he got the hint she likes boys as well as girls. But when painful, amped-up cramps invade her pelvis, performing on demand and getting close to Riker become increasingly less feasible.

Up until junior year, Riker Lucas had one life goal—break into the world of voice acting to perform videogame voiceovers. Then one look from the green-eyed new girl from Speech brings on a second goal—getting himself over the hurdle of actually talking to her. The task proves impossible when a nagging inner voice constantly reminds him how worthless he is, how he doesn’t stand a chance.

Taryn’s pain worsens, keeping her out of commission at the most inopportune moments, and Riker’s oppressive self-denigrating thoughts steal his interest from his favorite activities. As Riker and Taryn float closer together and then farther apart, they both must work to find solutions for coping—or they’ll miss out on each other as well as their performance goals.

Groupies by Sarah Priscus
July 12, 2022 - William Morrow/HarperCollins

It’s 1977, and Faun Novak is in love with rock ‘n’ roll.

After her mother’s death, Faun, a naïve college dropout, grabs her Polaroid and hops a Greyhound to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, she reconnects with her charismatic childhood friend Josie, now an up-and-coming model and muse. To make their reunion even sweeter, Josie is now dating Cal Holiday, the frontman of the superstar rock band Holiday Sun, and Faun is positively mesmerized.

Except it’s not just the band she can’t get enough of. It’s also the proud groupies who support them in myriad ways. Among the groupies are: a doting high school girl at war with her mother; a drug-dealing wife and new mom who longs to be a star herself; and a cynical mover-and-shaker with a soft spot for Holiday Sun’s bassist.

Faun obsessively photographs every aspect of this dazzling new world, struggling to balance her artistic ambitions with the band’s expectations. As her confidence grows for the first time in her life, her priorities shift. She becomes reckless with friendship, romance, her ethics, and her bank account.

But just as everything is going great and her boring, old life is falling away, Faun realizes just how blind she has been to the darkest corners of this glamorous musical dreamland as the summer heats up and everything spirals out of control . . .

Equal parts an evocative coming-of-age and a cutting look at fame, desire, and the media, Groupies is a novel that will have you turning the pages until the music and drug-fueled end.

Jasmin Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer
Sep 1, 2022 - Wednesday Books

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win features a bitingly funny, Mindy Kaling-esque, Iranian American heroine, who makes messy, complicated choices that snowball into an avalanche when an international incident intrudes on her high school election, forcing her to reckon with her identity in a way she never has before.

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne
Nov 15, 2022 - Berkley

Liza B–The Only DJ That Gives a Jam—wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at their corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly—but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head.

At first, Dorsey writes Liza Bennett off as an over-caffeinated woke weekend warrior.  As the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family he’s always felt a bit out of place, and knows a fraud when he sees one. But when Liza’s protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistible revolutionist is the most real woman he’s ever met.

The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
March 8, 2022  - Angry Robot Books

A circus takes down a crime-boss on the galaxy’s infamous pleasure moon.

Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon. Here, everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job. When the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him, or face vivisection.

With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down together. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.

The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar
Sep 13, 2022 - Forge Books

He promised her he would never let go. She’s willing to risk everything to hold on.

It was never Elsa Arnasson’s dream to live in the woods, let alone off the grid, in a house her husband is building from the trees he fells by hand. But the big-hearted, nature-loving Silas has ideals enough for them both, and with him, Elsa can finally set down roots.

When a logging accident changes everything for their budding family, Elsa has more questions than answers about how to carry on in an unfinished house. How do you fix a generator? What’s the best way to split wood? How do you build a fire that will last the night and keep the children warm? As winter descends and challenges mount, threatening both her sanity and her health, Elsa makes one decision after another that no one—not even her in-laws—can support. If she wants to stay, she must learn how to forge her own relationship with the land and accept help from the people and places she least expects.

Dunbar, drawing from her own lived experiences, vividly describes the wonder and harshness of life off the grid. Told over the course of a year, The Net Beneath Us is a lyrical exploration of loss, marriage, parenthood, and self-reliance; a tale of how the natural world—without and within us—offers us healing, if we can learn where to look.

Second Star to the Left by Megan Van Dyke
February 15, 2022 - City Owl Press

Banished for doing the unthinkable, selling the hottest drug in Neverland—pixie dust, Tinker Bell wants absolution. Determined to find a way home, Tink doesn’t hesitate to follow the one lead she has, even if that means seducing a filthy pirate to steal precious gems out from under his…hook.

Captain Hook believes he’s found a real treasure in Tink. That is, until he recovers from her pixie dust laced kiss with a curse that turns the seas against him. With his ship and reputation at the mercy of raging storms, he tracks down the little minx and demands she remove the curse. Too bad she can’t.

However, the mermaid queen has a solution to both of their problems…if Tink and Hook will work together to retrieve a magical item for her.

As they venture to the mysterious Shrouded Isles to find the priceless treasure, their shared nemesis closes in, and his wrath is nothing compared to the realization that achieving their goal may mean losing one another for good.

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
June 7, 2022 - HarperCollins/William Morrow

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the “prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman’s body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods—a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries—have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight…and chooses to trust.

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
Aug 9, 2022 - Tachyon Publications

Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.

But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family.

Powerful and fascinating, The Bruising of Qilwa is the newest arrival in the era of fantasy classics such as the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Four Profound Weaves, and Who Fears Death.

Other People’s Secrets by Meredith Hambrock
September 6, 2022 - Crooked Lane Books

Baby’s down—and could be out for good—when she faces off with forces bent on turning her lakeside paradise into a living hell, for fans of Alissa Nutting and Amy Engel.

Baby’s heart is in the right place, but she’s got problems—namely, a fierce taste for booze and an on-again, off-again boyfriend who can't commit. She’s living and working at Oakwood Hills, a crumbling lakeside resort, with her friends, Crystal Nugget and DJ Overalls, reeling since her adoptive mom died of a stroke. And now, the return of the local drug kingpin, Bad Mike, is about to throw her already unstable summer into full-blown chaos.

To make matters worse, the owner of Oakwood Hills announces plans to sell the resort to Amelia, her boyfriend's wealthy twin sister, who plans to renovate it, sucking the life out of the only home Baby's ever known. Desperate to thwart the sale, Baby and her friends decide to try to recover a sunken treasure rumored to be sitting at the bottom of the lake. But Bad Mike also has his eyes on the prize and when the search gets criminal, Baby will be forced to walk down a road full of hidden secrets that will change how she sees herself—and her life—forever.

The Last Feather by Shameez Patel Papathanasiou
July 19, 2022 - Flame Tree Press

Twenty-two-year-old Cassia's sister is dying, and she doesn't know why. Cassia wakes up in another realm to find her missing best friend, Lucas, who knows how to save her sister.

Lucas is part of a community of Reborns, people who were born on earth and after death, were reborn in this realm with magical abilities. The original beings of the realm, the Firsts, rule over them.

To keep the Reborn numbers manageable, the king of the Firsts releases a curse to cull them. Cassia needs to break the curse before her time runs out and she is trapped there forever.