Donald Maass Literary Agency

Booklist: In her debut, the first of a duology, Okosun creates a world based on Nigerian mythology that touches class, race, power, and colonialism. In Oyo, a world with four countries, magic users, Oluso, are not allowed to hurt anyone, and as nations started to fight one other, a division grew between those with magic and those without. The nation to the north, Eingard, went to an extreme and killed all its magic users and stole the throne from Dèmi’s family. Dèmi’s life is further complicated when Jonas reenters it. When they first met as children, they formed an instant bond. When they meet again as young adults, that connection is just as strong, but Dèmi kidnaps Jonas and wants to use him in a scheme against the Eingardian government. Dèmi is willing to do just about anything to change the fate of the Oluso. Dèmi is powerful, strong, and smart, with a kind heart—just the kind of main character readers will celebrate. While fighting the cruel Eingardians, she is also trying to figure out love and life. Add to that the spoton world building and political complications and fantasy readers will find something to enjoy in this powerful work.

Publishers Weekly: Okosun’s stunning debut puts a Nigerian spin on epic fantasy tropes to create an addictive tale of political intrigue, love, loss, betrayal, and magic. Nine-year-old Dèmi was born during a time of transition, when the queen of Ifé was replaced by a king who fears and hates hereditary magic users, called Oluso, leading to an ongoing genocide. Dèmi, an Oluso herself, assists with her mother’s forbidden but necessary magical healing work—until she is forced to flee their village after they are betrayed by a former client, leading to her mother’s death. Nine years later, the politician Lord Ekwenski tasks Dèmi with kidnapping the crown prince as part of his scheme to rise in power and become a voice for the Oluso on the king’s council. This dangerous mission is complicated, however, when Dèmi discovers a surprising connection—and attraction—to the prince and uncovers secrets about her family’s past and her own powers. Okosun’s elaborate worldbuilding is lavishly detailed and meticulously constructed, but it never feels overwhelming. The result is an impressive and refreshingly original page-turner that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the second volume.

New York Times: For more high-intensity drama in contemporary romance, you can’t go wrong with a restaurant setting. Food, feelings, knives and fire! Which is to say: Kitchen-centered romances are great at exploring more than one kind of appetite, and Ruby Barrett’s THE ROMANCE RECIPE (Carina Press, 282 pp., paperback, $15.99) stands alongside favorites like Alexis Hall’s “Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake” and Solace Ames’s erotic romance gem “The Submission Gift.”

Sophie Brunet is fresh off a cooking competition show she didn’t win, and fresh out of an engagement to a man who reacted poorly when she told him she was bi. Desperate to escape the limelight, she accepts the head chef job at a Boston restaurant — but she’d be enjoying it a lot more if her boss were less of a control freak (and less distractingly hot).

Amy Chambers has always had to be the strong one. When her father left, when her mother died, when she decided her restaurant would pay cooks and servers a living wage no matter what. Hiring a famous TV chef and applying for a new reality series with a cash prize is a last-ditch effort to get her restaurant out of the red. Her crush on Sophie was easy to ignore when it happened across the distance of a television screen — but performance pressure and close quarters have a way of turning up the heat.

The feelings in this one are dialed up so high you almost can’t look at them directly: It would be like staring into the sun. Such a style can drift into self-indulgence if the author’s voice isn’t strong enough to carry it — fortunately, Barrett’s wry, lightly bitter tone is a perfect complement to that rich, heavy angst.

Sophie’s soft yet joyful exploration of her bisexuality lightens Amy’s tragic family dynamics, and the climactic payoff feels more than usually well earned. Like Rosie Danan or Kate Clayborn, Barrett has a way of making palpable the full journey of a relationship: It’s not just two hot bodies being hot in proximity to each other — though the sex scenes are definitely spicy! — but two distinct lives growing toward a shared future.

School Library Journal: This novel is sure to resonate with teens who haven’t yet found their calling and who are trying to figure out who they are.