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Adult

Please note: These are the entries for the Pitch Wars season beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2022. Please note that our Agent Showcase ends at 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday, February 14, 2022. Agents will not be able to leave comments requesting material after that time.

PW2021 Adult #37: BLOOD ON THE ICE (Speculative Thriller)

For nine years Nina has lived in Antarctica, caring for a freshly thawed, thirty-foot sabertooth cat, the only creature she’s ever truly loved. But when a billionaire big-game hunter arrives—just days after Nina’s estranged sister dies, thrusting a child into Nina’s care—Nina finds herself trapped in mortal combat: fighting for her cat, her niece, and her life, and battling not just her enemy, but her own past. Godzilla vs. Kong meets the interiority of Severance.

PW2021 Adult #38: I’M SURE SHE’S FINE (Psychological Suspense/ Thriller)

Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her meets the TV series Dirty John

“They’re after me.” That's the last thing Hailey’s mother says to her before she disappears. Hailey isn’t concerned though—her paranoid mom always does shit like this, and everything’s fine.

But when she finds a bloody mess in the basement two days later, she worries it’s more than just another “mom-cried-wolf” scenario. To find her mom, Hailey must unravel the truth—deciding who and what to believe—before they both end up imprisoned or dead. 

PW2021 Adult #39: CATCH US IF YOU CAN (Contemporary Romance)

OCEAN’S ELEVEN meets EMILY IN PARIS

Violet Abrams lacks two things: life experience and grad school tuition. When a charming French conman offers her a deal – pose as his fiancée and he’ll not only split his profits but spice up her resumé, too – Violet figures she can bend the rules, just this once. Swindling their way through Provence, she falls for more than the rosé. But as the police close in, Violet must choose: risk her future or break her own heart.

PW2021 Adult #40: CHAOS & ILLUSION (Science Fantasy; #OwnVoices; Black MC)

Tanith’s a vengeful, presumed-dead heir. Ronin’s next for the Sovereign throne — searching for Tanith, convinced she’s alive. When long-lost friends reunite, outlawed Elemental powers awaken. Tanith wants to master her electrical powers to assassinate her parents’ killer. Ronin discovers a power-erasing conspiracy that could shake their clueless society and anger the Sovereigns. Their goals interlocked, they must choose revenge or rebellion. The wrong move could cost lives.

PW2021 Adult #41: MURDER IN EL MYSTICA: THE CASE OF THE MISSING SHEEP (Fantasy Crime)

A whodunnit set in a magical city where creatures from myriad mythologies live in harmony—most of the time.

Garden gnome Nibbles Winklebottom has always dreamed of being a homicide detective, but he and his centaur sidekick, Cyrus, are stuck working burglaries. When the sheep of the aristocratic Draconnaire family goes missing, the detectives are tasked with its recovery. Only, this is no ordinary creature—and when theft turns to murder, the pair finally get their chance to catch a killer.

TERRY PRATCHETT’S DISCWORLD x AGATHA CHRISTIE x JASPER FFORDE’S NURSERY CRIMES

PW2021 Adult #42: A CURE FOR MAGIC (Fantasy: #DiverseVoices)

Everyone knows trauma awakens forbidden, deadly Ardor magic. But when rebels burn down the palace, Princess Marika finds herself brimming with the powers her family sought to destroy. Forced to seek refuge at the last magic university, where her family's enemies roam free, she must choose: controlling the magic, or unleashing it. 

SHADOW AND BONE X Dark academia.

PW2021 Adult #43: THE MARRIAGE MAVEN (Contemporary Afro-Latinx Romance/Rom-com)

Ruby has a lucrative theory: a man will marry the next woman he dates after a bad breakup–and she’s made a lot of money proving her hypothesis. Ruby is hired to charm and then dump Adan, who has avoided dating after two failed engagements. When Adan learns his promotion hinges on being in a committed relationship, he must do everything possible to keep Ruby, the breakup pro, by his side. At the same time, Ruby risks breaking her cardinal rule: don’t fall in love.

PW2021 Adult #44: FROM RAGE THEY RISE (Contemporary Fantasy—Sapphic, Non-binary #OwnVoices)

GIDEON x A SPINDLE SPLINTERED

Illyrian, a grumpy genderqueer pianist, doesn’t believe the fantasy world seen through their right eye is real. But when the cinnamon-roll non-binary knight from that realm appears in Manhattan, refusing to go back without her, Illyrian must decide whether to redeem their musical career or leave as a disgraced prodigy—before the magic tethering the swoony knight to Manhattan fades, separating them forever.

PW2021 Adult #45: THE SANTA PAGEANT (LGBTQ+ Contemporary Romance)

Queer Stars Hollow at Christmas

Determined to prove to her naysaying family that Santa could, in fact, be a lesbian, Effie enters the Santa of the Year Pageant—only to find a rival in her ex-best friend Tove, who has become a complete Scrooge in the ten years since their ill-fated first and only kiss.

PW2021 Adult #46: GO FOR THE BODY (Speculative science fiction)

The Ataraxia Corporation is renowned for its vision, philanthropy, and cutting-edge research. Lesser known activities include involuntary human experiments, like the one that accidentally gave Emery Harris superpowers. Emery’s unbreakable body may be corporate property, but she refuses to be buried alongside Ataraxia’s other secrets. Her best shot at freedom lies with a reclusive scientist, a devout hacker, and a disgraced journalist planning to expose the experiments—but the corporation will go to any lengths to keep the truth hidden. Emery’s always been a fighter, but it will take more than muscle to bring Ataraxia down.

PW2021 Adult #47: THE CAPITOL CODEBREAKERS (Historical / Women’s Fiction)

IMITATION GAME x SHAMELESS. Washington, DC, 1957: Katheryn's the newest member of Project Artemis, a government network of women who decipher classified WWII codes to prevent an imminent war with Russia. Her independence is threatened when the group’s most frustrating cipher leads to her father, who went MIA in 1944. As her family and work lives crash together, she must race to untangle the connections…before her father’s old secrets destroy the whole project and what’s left of her family.

PW2021 Adult #48: WANDERLUST (Romantic Comedy – Bi #OwnVoices)

Tired of writing nothing but quizzes at her magazine job, Dylan Coughlan impulsively rings a radio station and wins a trip around the world, giving her the chance to pitch her own column. The catch? Her travel partner is Jack, the uptight, unbearably posh guy she accidentally ghosted. Though Dylan’s sure he’ll be a drag, she soon discovers that opposites attract. But as her column’s popularity grows, so do her feelings for Jack. Could Dylan’s great escape lead to greater heartbreak, or something better than she's ever dared to dream of?

PW2021 Adult #49: THE SACRIFICE (Romantic Suspense #OwnVoices)

SHONDALAND reimagines SPARTACUS

After enemies attack her arms-dealing family, doctoral candidate Tehya Ryker secures protection by agreeing to marry the brutal leader of an underground fight-ring in the Andes. Except secrets lurk in The Compound, and soon Tehya is desperate to flee. One complication: her intense bond with assigned bodyguard, champion fighter, Lucas. When the pair is separated from The Compound during a mudslide, Tehya’s chance at freedom becomes a reality. But as their forbidden love grows, and life for one means death for the other, a sacrifice must be made.

PW2021 Adult #50: HOUNDS (LGBTQ Fantasy Mystery)

KILLING EVE X THRONE OF GLASS

After a performer dies during a key political summit, two detectives must solve the murder to prevent a war.

Darsy knows her former lover—the same woman responsible for her previous partner's execution—is involved. She has to protect her new partner Ansel from the same fate while resisting the temptations of the guileful murder suspect, Khleo.

If rookie Ansel fails to conquer his own arrogance and the disgrace that compelled him to join the force, he’ll get himself and Darsy killed—or worse, discharged.

Khleo thought she’d do anything to fulfill her dream of becoming a reporter, until her seduction gambit results in feelings for Darsy that could cost her everything.

PW2021 Adult #51: SUMMER BREAKDOWN (Upmarket Women’s Fiction)

Motherhood hasn't been the elixir Sabrina hoped. While she's drowning in crayons, a call from her mother pulls her back to Seaside. Her estranged father is dying, and their family is desperate. It’s been fifteen years since her sister's tragic accident, but now, Sabrina’s unresolved grief is waiting for her, and this time—she can’t run away. Returning home doesn't just unearth nostalgia and her high school ex, it brings to surface secrets that threaten to unravel her and her carefully crafted life completely.

PW2021 Adult #52: AFTER THE SAVIORS (#OwnVoices Historical Fiction)

PACHINKO meets HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD

After Japanese forces in the Philippines murder her father and kidnap her younger sister, seventeen-year-old Liwayway joins the Huk guerillas, fighting the Japanese while searching for her sister. But when Liwayway befriends an American GI who offers her a reprieve from war, she must choose between the possibility of finding her sister and the promise of a new life.