Neue AutorInnen entdeckt in 2022 | Top Ten Thursday №30

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

In the Kingdom of Kaloma, women are forced to marry by the age of 26. It’s the law.

In the remote village of Sevens, at the northernmost point of the kingdom, there lives an impoverished family with four daughters and a son. Without the means to make love matches, the daughters are trapped by their circumstances.

When one daughter discovers a golden key deep in the Whitling Woods, it may have the power to change everything...

Auri Fareview, practical and realistic, does what she can to serve her family. When she finds a golden key that could be the answer she needs to save her sisters from the unjust Kaloma Marriage Laws, she discovers the treasure might be more than she bargained for. Enchanted, it doesn’t just come with a price attached, it’s also home to an imprisoned god, who wreaks havoc on her body, her heart, and her soul. And those aren’t practical matters. He has the power to break her.

Nixus Uraiahs has lost track of how long he’s been imprisoned by the spell on the key. There have been six key-keepers, all of whom have failed to break the spell to free him, and Nix knows he’s the reason why they haven’t. So, he will hold this 7th key-keeper accountable to the bargain of the spell: three wishes and a price for each. There’s no hope in her freeing him, however. Nix knows she'll be like all the key-keepers who came before her. Except Auri approaches her wishes differently than any of the others, and Nix begins to see her as more than just a key-keeper. She intrigues him, proving her strength, surprising him, and enchanting him. Though he’s entrapped by the enchantment placed on the key, Nix realizes his heart is at risk of being captured by the seventh key-keeper. That is a risk he can’t afford to take knowing his villainy is just a single wish away.

Wesen aus dem Wald – oder Wahnvorstellung einer Mörderin?
Geheimnisvoll, düster und faszinierend unheimlich: Grusel-Fantasy aus Norwegen für alle Fans von Tim Burton und Guillermo Del Toro

Dies ist die Geschichte der verstorbenen Cassandra Tipp. Cassandra war erfolgreiche Autorin, exzentrische Tante – und angeklagte Mörderin. Sie hinterließ ihren Nachfahren ein Buch, das ihre Geschichte erzählt. Eine Geschichte von Pepper-Man, dem Wesen aus dem Wald, das Cassandra beschützte; eine Geschichte von blutigen Nächten und magischen Geschenken; eine Geschichte von Ehemännern aus Zweigen und Steinen.
Und die Geschichte von Kindern, die im Wald verloren gingen.

Oder vielleicht doch eine Geschichte über ein kleines Mädchen, das im Schatten eines dunklen Waldes und furchtbarer Erinnerungen aufwuchs?

Es ist deine Entscheidung, ob du Cassandras düsterem Märchen glaubst.

Denn was ist, wenn uns die Vernunft nur davor schützt, die Wahrheit zu sehen?

»Pepper-Man« von der norwegischen Autorin Camilla Bruce ist ein Fantasy-Roman, der geschickt mit der Frage nach unserer Einbildungskraft und dem Glauben an das Übersinnliche spielt. Die tiefen Wälder Norwegens sorgen dabei für eine magisch-unheimliche Atmosphäre.

A fae girl with a human heart.

A Seelie Queen with a penchant for stealing mortals.

And an Unseelie King who will have to give up his throne.

On the coast of Georgia rests a small southern town where faeries still take changelings. Faye lost her mother to the Folk, but has she spent her whole life longing for a glimpse—however brief—behind the veil.

When Faye finds her way in, she also finds the truth of why the dark and alluring world of the Folk has always called to her: She's half-faerie, and heiress to the Dark Court's throne.

When the rival court steals her best friend, she'll have to claim her crown to get her back. But that means learning how to use her glamour so she can face three deadly trials—and not falling for the dark and brooding king she's meant to be replacing, or the nymph-turned-knight teaching her to fight.

They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis—neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse—and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip.

When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. A telekinetic like her, he has traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. He sees Nina not as a witch, but ripe with potential to master her power under his tutelage. With Hector’s help, Nina’s talent blossoms, as does her love for him.

But great romances are for fairytales, and Hector is hiding a truth from Nina — and himself — that threatens to end their courtship before it truly begins. The Beautiful Ones is a charming tale of love and betrayal, and the struggle between conformity and passion, set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.

With the sweeping romance of Passenger and the dark fantasy edge of This Savage Song, this standout YA contemporary fantasy debut from Vanessa Len, is the first in a planned trilogy.

It should have been the perfect summer. Sent to stay with her late mother’s eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her nerdy job at the historic Holland House, and when her super cute co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place.

But she soon learns the truth. Her family aren’t just eccentric: they’re monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And Nick isn’t just a cute boy: he’s a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to bring them down.

As she battles Nick, Joan is forced to work with the beautiful and ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family that hates her own. She’ll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story . . .

. . . she is not the hero.

Feinfühlig, atmosphärisch und intensiv: Ein Roman über den einen Sommer, der alles verändert.

Wo soll man eigentlich hin, wenn man vor sich selbst davonläuft? In irgendeinen Zug einsteigen und bis zur Endstation fahren? So jedenfalls landet Lale auf dem heruntergekommenen Campingplatz an diesem See, der fast zu schön ist. Sie hilft dem alten, grantigen Besitzer Gustav beim Renovieren der maroden Bäder, füttert die flauschigen Kaninchen, trägt jeden Tag die gleiche, alte Latzhose und schweigt.
Bis Christophe diese vermeintliche Ruhe durcheinanderbringt. Christophe mit den dunklen Augen, angereist vom anderen Ende der Welt, auf der Suche nach seinen Wurzeln. Christophe, der zu spüren scheint, was Lale fühlt.
Gemeinsam erleben sie den einen Sommer, der bleibt: Flirrende Hitze, glitzerndes Wasser, gemeinsame Floßfahrten, ausgeblichenes Haar. Ein Roman über zweite und dritte Chancen, über das Ankommen, Loslassen und Neubeginnen.

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.

But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin... desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to discover who did this, and to seek vengeance at any cost—even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, the outlier among the seven demon brethren, always choosing duty over pleasure. He’s been tasked by his master with investigating a series of women’s murders on the island. When Emilia and Wrath’s fates collide, it’s clear this disturbing mystery will take a bewitching turn...

For the Shadow is a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down the deep well . . .

After decades of civil war, the Via Sancta has declared victory over humanity’s basest instincts. Anger, hatred and greed are suppressed by intricate Marks on the skin. Wards have tamed the wild psychic magic of the ley. Four of the six cities still stand, and if a few rebel Nightmages haunt the ruins of the other two, the Church has dismissed them as toothless.

Alexei Bryce is a priest in the storm-wracked southern capital of Novostopol. He hunts deviants whose Marks have inverted, driving them mad. When a prominent doctor violently turns, Alexei stumbles across a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Via Sancta. The trail leads to Kasia Novak, a tarot reader with dangerous secrets of her own. The cards say their fates are intertwined — but only if the threads aren’t snapped short.

Now the ley is rising again. A Nightmage has infiltrated the city, bent on finding Kasia. And Alexei discovers that his faith’s victory over the darkest recesses of the human soul is more fragile than he imagined.

What is your deepest desire? Money? Power? Revenge? Lust? I’ll give to you.

Malach is many things. Corrupter of the pious. Survivor of the Via Sancta’s bloody campaigns. Implacable enemy of all it stands for. He’s primal desire made flesh, and the thing he wants most is a child. Half-bloods are fragile creatures, but if this one survives, it will be monster, a savior — or both.