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NEWS

HEATED RIVALRY by Rachel Reid set a Canadian Screen Awards record with 16 wins, including Best Drama Series, Best Lead Performer for Hudson Williams, Best Direction, and Best Writing.

WE BURNED SO BRIGHT by TJ Klune was selected for Amazon’s Best Books of the Year So Far 2026, Apple's Best Books of the Year So Far, Goodreads’ Readers’ Hit New Books of the Year So Far, and Spotify's Books of the Year So Far.

A DEADLY INHERITANCE by Kelley Armstrong was named one of Indigo’s Best Teen Books of 2026 So Far and was also celebrated in an Indigo social media feature.

Cat Sebastian was selected to appear on the cover of Kirkus Reviews’ Aug. 1 special Romance Issue after the publication gave STAR SHIPPED a starred review and praised it as “A swoonworthy contemporary gay romance from a beloved historical-romance author.” The cover invitation included an original illustrated portrait of Sebastian and placed her among the publication’s 2026 featured authors.

THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA by TJ Klune was selected by author, podcaster, and influencer Brooke Averick as one of People’s top seven books for summer reading, where she praised its endearing found-family story. It was also included by Book Riot among seven seaside romance books to pack in a beach bag.

THE GUEST BOOK by Mae Marvel received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, which praised its fast-moving, high-heat sapphic romance; was featured in a release-day excerpt from The Nerd Daily; earned five stars in a The Bookcase and Coffee review that highlighted its treasure hunt, English setting, and thoughtful treatment of grief and addiction; and was included in BookBub’s 27 Unforgettable New Books to Read During Pride Month.

THE DOOR IN PENROSE FOREST by Sean David Robinson received a positive review from Red Carpet Crash, which called the debut “a suspenseful page-turning novel” and said Robinson “delivered on all levels,” while It’s All About Books awarded the novel 4.25 stars in an ARC review that praised its unusual premise and successful blend of genres.


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AUTHOR TIP OF THE MONTH

Sean David Robinson is a writer living in Asheville, NC. When he's not dreaming up a new story, he loves to travel, play music, and obsess over baking competition shows with his wife and their fur babies. THE DOOR IN PENROSE FOREST is his debut novel.

 
Sean David Robinson

Sean's Tip:

No Filter

Compelling fiction feels immersive, and there is hardly an aspect of craft more crucial to anchoring the reader in your invented world than point of view. But POV is more than just a choice of tense and pronoun. The element of distance, often accidentally increased by an overuse of filter words, can inadvertently keep the reader at arm’s length. Consider the following sentence:

“He became aware that his hands were shaking.”

An average sentence, nothing terribly offensive, right? But hiding here is an intermediary, a barrier between we, the readers, and the mind of the character. A filter. Removing the filter lets us fully enter the world of the story. Consider the revision:

“His hands were shaking.”

This revision removes the filter (“became aware”) which reminds us that we are reading about a character who is thinking the thought we are reading. Instead, we see shaking hands, and we see them through the eyes of the character. When editing a manuscript, keep a watchful eye for filter words – seemed, thought, knew, felt (a quick web search will give you a comprehensive list). Remove the filter, and soon the reader forgets they are reading at all, and will lose themselves in your story.

RECENT DEALS

Avery Flynn's THE CHARMING AND THE CHISELED, pitched as a soapy, unhinged, sexy why-choose romance in which a woman, back from the almost-dead after someone tried to kill her, returns to a glittering, scandal-soaked ski resort enclave to hunt down her would-be murderer, to Holly Ingraham at Sourcebooks Casablanca in a good deal at auction, by Elaine Spencer

Kelley Armstrong's IMMORTAL LIES, about a young woman who must team up with a vampire hunter to save a college from a coven of vampires targeting its campus, to Elizabeth Agyemang at 47North in an exclusive submission for a two-book deal, by Lucienne Diver 

TJ Klune's THE STARS LOOK LIKE HOME, to Memoris (Denmark), by Diana Gvozden at Marianne Schoenbach Literary Agency on behalf of Elaine Spencer

Kelley Armstrong's DIVE BAR AT THE END OF THE WORLD, to Elysande (France) in a nice deal, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency on behalf of Lucienne Diver

NEW CLIENTS ON THE BLOCK

bisi

Bisi Adjapon

Bisi Adjapon has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly, Washington Post, Ms Magazine, Aljazeera, New York Times and The Guardian. She has won the Foreign Service Award for Human Relations and an Excellence in Teaching Award. She divides her time between Ghana and America.

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Margaret Torres

Margaret Torres spends her days ghostwriting about cybersecurity, software engineering, and a hundred other topics she secretly knows nothing about. Luckily, her contemporary romance novels are far more irreverent, sex-positive, and feminist—think sex toys and men who make going to therapy look hot. She currently lives in St. Louis, MO and can usually be found napping, reading, or spooning her dogs.

NEW RELEASES

THE GUEST BOOK by Mae Marvel

THE GUEST BOOK by Mae Marvel

AMAZON - B&N - BOOKSHOP

A romance on an epic, generation-spanning scale, Mae Marvel's The Guest Book delivers the authors' signature heart, sapphic steam, and humor in a book you'll curl up with and never forget.

The whole world believes Cosima Frank's life has been a fairytale. Now she's trying to live up to the overwhelming legacy left to her by her late mother, the Queen of Hollywood. As the pressure begins to build, Cosima does the only thing she can think of: run straight to the inn where her parents met and fell in love, intent on finishing her mother's bucket list.

Edie Whitelock isn't like anyone Cosima has ever met. She's persistent enough to march up to Cosima's door and provoke her to get out of bed and follow the disarming woman through the charming English village. Edie's also on the run from her past, but she finds that she relishes bickering with the pretty Los Angeles princess a whole lot more than she expected.

PLAGUE BIRDS: The Red Day Edition by Jason Sanford

PLAGUE BIRDS: The Red Day Edition by Jason Sanford

AMAZON - B&N - BOOKSHOP

Glowing red lines split their faces. Shock-red hair and clothes warn people to flee their approach. They are plague birds, the powerful merging of humans and artificial intelligences who serve as judges and executioners after the collapse of civilization. And the plague birds' judgment is swift and deadly, as Crista discovered as a child when she watched one kill her mother.

In a world of gene-modded humans constantly watched over by benevolent AIs, everyone hates and fears the plague birds. But to save her father and home village, Crista becomes the very creature she fears the most. And her first task as a plague bird is hunting down an ancient group of murderers wielding magic-like powers.

THE DOOR IN PENROSE FOREST by Sean David Robinson

THE DOOR IN PENROSE FOREST by Sean David Robinson

AMAZON - B&N - BOOKSHOP

A man returns to his strange hometown twenty years after his mother climbed a staircase in the wilderness and disappeared in this speculative mystery where We Used to Live Here meets The Midnight Library.

As a boy, Nico once accompanied his mother on a research trip to investigate a stalled migration of monarch butterflies. One night, upon hearing her sneak out of their rented cabin, he followed her to a clearing in the forest where a famed mansion once stood. Paralyzed with fear, he watched his mother climb a staircase and vanish, along with the stairs and the strange glowing door at its peak. No one believed his story, and as he grew older, he too stopped believing it was real.

WE DANCE UPON DEMONS by Vaishnavi Patel

WE DANCE UPON DEMONS by Vaishnavi Patel

AMAZON - B&N - BOOKSHOP

From the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi, a galvanizing stand-alone contemporary fantasy following a burnt-out reproductive health care worker as she fights back against escalating attacks on her clinic and the malevolent forces in hot pursuit of her newly acquired power.

As a reproductive health care worker in Chicago, Nisha is barely staying afloat in the ocean of abortion bans, screaming protestors, and her own all-consuming depression. When she escapes to the Indian art exhibit at her favorite museum for a brief respite, Nisha suddenly finds herself bleeding, disoriented, and collapsed on the ground. The last thing she remembers is the statue that beckoned her to touch it.

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