Dear writers: Please be aware of ongoing scams by agent impersonators. Use extra caution with any unsolicited offers from agents. Reputable agents will not ask for upfront fees of any kind. For more information, look at sites such as Writer Beware (https://writerbeware.blog/). Please always check email addresses/spellings. All official emails from Donald Maass Literary Agency will come from an address that ends in @maassagency.com (2 A's, 2 S's in MAASS).

Review: Learning to Speak Southern by Lindsey Rogers Cook

Jun 102021
 

Library Journal: Lex has been traveling the world since graduating college. She’ll go anywhere but home: Memphis, TN. Rather than facing her mother’s unsettling death, she immerses herself in words, creating a lexicon of her own lived experience. Yet after a heartbreak and with help from her godmother Cami, Lex returns to Memphis for what she assumes will be a short visit. Instead, Cami gives Lex the opportunity to learn her mother’s life story. Through her mother’s own words in diary entries from before Lex was born, this daughter begins to question who she is and how many ways there are to define family. A quick and intimate read, Cook’s second novel (after How To Bury Your Brother) embraces the classic story of a daughter realizing that within her mother was a woman she never knew, who was as spirited and strong-willed as Lex herself. Though the plot is predictable, this isn’t frustrating. The familiarity and assurance that you know what’s coming is rewarding and endears the characters to the reader. VERDICT Readers of Southern and women’s fiction will become deeply immersed in this mother-daughter narrative.

I Don’t Forgive You by Aggie Blum Thompson

Jun 082021
 

Allie Ross is an accomplished photographer and a new mom in her upscale DC suburb. She’s also being framed for a neighbor’s murder.

It all starts at a neighborhood party, when a flirtatious encounter with a local dad goes terribly wrong. When he’s found dead the next day, the police are soon knocking at Allie’s door, grilling her about a supposed Tinder relationship with the man and pulling up intimate, steamy texts between them.

Only Allie didn’t write them. And she didn’t write the vicious posts that are all over social media in her name.

Someone has hacked her, and is impersonating her online. And it’s not just her reputation―social and professional― that is at stake. It’s her life. As the killer closes in, Allie must delve into a past she hoped to forget in order to learn the shocking truth of who is destroying her life.

A taut, psychological whodunnit, that explores how much our past shapes our lives, and how forgiving ourselves may be the most difficult act of all.

Learning to Speak Southern by Lindsey Rogers Cook

Jun 012021
 

A searing Southern story about confronting the difference between the family you’re born into and the family you choose, from the acclaimed author of How to Bury Your Brother

Lex fled Memphis years ago, making ends meet with odd jobs teaching English around the world. She only returns when she has no choice, when her godmother presents her with a bargain she can’t refuse. Lex has never understood her mother, who died tragically right before Lex’s college graduation, but now she’s got a chance to read her journals, to try and figure out what sent her mother spiraling all those years ago.

The Memphis that Lex inhabits is more bourbon and bbq joint than sweet tea on front porches, and as she pieces together the Memphis her mother knew, seeing the lure of the world through her mother’s lush writing, she must confront more of her own past and the people she left behind. Once all is laid bare, Lex must decide for herself: What is the true meaning of family?

Review: I Don’t Forgive You by Aggie Blum Thompson

May 182021
 

Library Journal: In crime reporter Thompson’s gripping fiction debut, Allie is welcomed to her wealthy new neighborhood by being framed for murder. The spot-on depictions of modern parenthood and suburban life make this story even more suspenseful, as Allie tries to find the real murderer before her entire life is destroyed.

April Subsidiary Rights Deals

Apr 302021
 

a pair of black ear budsAudio rights to Molly O’Keefe’s Riverview Inn series, to Lorna Henry at Dreamscape Media, in a five-book deal, by Katie Shea Boutillier.

April Translation Rights Deals

Apr 302021
 

Chinese rights to Robert McCammon’s THE LISTENER, to Yilin Press, in a nice deal, by Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Czech rights to Skye Warren’s THE PAWN, THE KNIGHT and THE CASTLE, to Dobrovsky, in a three-book deal, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Danish rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT, FOOL MOON, and GRAVE PERIL, the first three books in the Dresden Files series, to Superlux, by Elin Rydner at Lennart Sane Agency AB in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Hungarian rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s WHITE NIGHT and SMALL FAVOR, books 9 and 10 in the Dresden Files series, to Delta Vision, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

What’s Not to Love by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Apr 202021
 

In the game of love, there’s always room for extra credit
 
An enemies-to-lovers YA rom-com filled with perfect banter, nerdy drama, and heart-pounding romance—perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Emma Lord, and Sandhya Menon. 

Since high school began, Alison Sanger and Ethan Molloy have competed on almost everything. AP classes, the school paper, community service, it never ends. If Alison could avoid Ethan until graduation, she would. Except, naturally, for two over-achieving seniors with their sights on valedictorian and Harvard, they share all the same classes and extracurriculars. So when their school’s principal assigns them the task of co-planning a previous class’s ten-year reunion, with the promise of a recommendation for Harvard if they do, Ethan and Alison are willing to endure one more activity together if it means beating the other out of the lead. But with all this extra time spent in each other’s company, their rivalry begins to feel closer to friendship. And as tension between them builds, Alison fights the growing realization that the only thing she wants more than winning . . . is Ethan

Deal: Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren

Apr 142021
 

Wendy Loggia at Underlined has bought Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren; Alison Romig will edit. Pitched as The Blair Witch Project for a new generation, this YA horror novel features a group of amateur YouTuber teen ghost hunters who travel to a haunted hotel, the site of an infamous L.A. tragedy, to spend the night and secretly film after dark. When they stumble upon a dead body, they realize that the most terrifying horror stories aren’t always paranormal. Publication is set for spring 2022; Katie Shea Boutillier did the deal for world rights.

March Translation Rights Deals

Mar 312021
 

Chinese rights to James Scott Bell’s SUPER STRUCTURE, to China Renmin University Press in a renewal, by Yijhen Lee at The Grayhawk Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Czech rights to Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka’s WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE, to Albatros Media by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Danish rights to Nnedi Okorafor’s AKATA WITCH, to Delphiki, by Philip Sane at The Lennart Sane Agency on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Danish rights to Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka’s TIME OF OUR LIVES, to Palatium, by Philip Sane and Elin Rydner at Lennart Sane Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Japanese rights to New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir’s GIDEON THE NINTH, the first book in the Locked Tomb trilogy, to Hayakawa, by Kohei Hattori at the English Agency (Japan) Ltd. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Polish rights to Robert McCamon’s BOY’S LIFE, SWAN SONG, USHER’S PASSING and THE LISTENER, to Vesper, in a four-book deal, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava i Prevodi on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Turkish rights to New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir’s HARROW THE NINTH, the second book in the Locked Tomb trilogy, and also PRINCESS FLORALINDA AND THE FORTY-FLIGHT TOWER, to Ithaki, by Merve Öngen at ONK Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Turkish rights to Brent Weeks’s THE BURNING WHITE, to Ithaki, by Merve Ongen at ONK Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Whisper Island by Carissa Ann Lynch

Feb 052021
 

It was the perfect escape

Until one by one they vanished…

For friends Riley, Sam, Mia and Scarlett, their trip to Whisper Island, Alaska, was meant to be a once in a lifetime adventure – just four young women, with everything to live for…

But as soon as they arrive things start to go wrong.  First there is the unexpected arrival of Sammy’s drug addict brother and his girlfriend Opal – why are they here?

And then the deaths begin.

As the dream trip quickly turns into a nightmare, suspicion is high.  Are they really alone on the island?  Or is there a killer hiding in the shadows?

And as each of the girls reveals a dark secret of their own, perhaps the truth is the killer is closer than they think…just a whisper away…

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