Moonflower lands Jewers' debut historical thriller and YA novel from Kean-Wood
Independent publisher Moonflower Books has acquired YA novel Milkshakes for the Almost Dead by Louise Kean-Wood, and debut historical thriller novel The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys by Jack Jewers.
Publisher Christ Daugherty acquired world rights to Jewers’ book and UK and Commonwealth rights to Kean-Wood directly from the authors. Jewers’ novel will publish across all formats in August this year, with Kean-Wood’s following in spring 2023.
Milkshakes for the Almost Dead is the fifth novel by Kean-Wood and her first in 10 years, having previously published four commercial women’s fiction titles with HarperCollins UK, including The Perfect Ten.
"When 16-year-old Diana Lind finds herself spending the summer in the sleepy seaside town of Lattering with her mad Aunt Vita, she’s not happy at all", the synopsis reads. "Lattering is where her mother walked out into the ocean when Diana was just a baby, and never came back. Every time she looks at the ocean she imagines her mother’s disappearance again. With no friends and a town full of rich private school kids, who treat her with contempt, her life couldn’t get much worse. Forced to take a job at the worst café in town, she meets 17-year-old Gloria. A Lattering local, and Diana’s fellow waitress, Gloria is glamorous, funny, and beautiful. She’s everything Diana wishes she could be. Except Gloria hates Diana on sight.
"But everything is not so sleepy in Lattering. People keep disappearing, and nobody knows why. Can Diana and Gloria see past their differences to find out who is behind all the bad things that keep happening? Can they even survive the summer?"
Daugherty said: "Milkshakes For the Almost Dead has everything I love in a young adult thriller – a fabulous setting in the south of England during a very hot summer, a school that isn’t what it seems, and characters so real you wouldn’t be surprised to meet them on the street. I couldn’t put it down, and I think readers are going to adore it. Louise is a hugely talented writer, and she uses all the skills she honed writing adult novels in this fabulous new book."
Jewers’ historical thriller "balances just the right amount of historical authenticity with sharp, sassy, contemporary writing," the publisher said. "With both comedy, romance and intrigue, this brilliant debut, think ’Bridgerton’ meets ’Sherlock’, brings English history into the 21st-century while celebrating one of fiction’s favourite tropes, the diary."
"The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys is a rollicking tale fans of historic crime are going to devour," Daugherty added. "It brings the 17th-century to life in the most vivid and exciting fashion. Jack has a knack for making history so thrilling, the action so non-stop, and his characters so lively, you can forget the hours he’s spent researching. This is the perfect book to take with you on holiday this summer."
