Amazon Publishing has revealed the five finalists in each category of its sixth Breakthrough Novel Award competition.
We’ve linked to all the winners and descriptions of their books below–what’s your favorite? Here’s more from the bookseller:
From now through May 29,Amazon customers are encouraged to read excerpts from the winning books and vote for their favorite novel at www.amazon.com/abna to choose the Grand Prize winner. The Grand Prize winner will be revealed at a special awards ceremony in Seattle on June 15, 2013 and will receive a contract from Amazon Publishing, as well as a $50,000 advance. The remaining winners will each be awarded a publishing contract with a $15,000 advance.
General Fiction: It Happened in Wisconsin by Ken Moraff, Lexington, MA: “follows an aging ballplayer who looks back on his teammates’ battle for justice, the struggle between ideals and temptation, his own bittersweet love story, and his glory days barnstorming the back roads and dusty ballparks of the old Midwest.
Mystery/Thriller: The Hidden by Jo Chumas, Barcelona, Spain: “a fast-paced thriller that takes place during the political turmoil of 1940s Egypt. Worlds collide when a popular young university professor is brutally murdered in the Sinai desert, leaving his new bride, a 20-year old Egyptian-born teacher, to search for answers and justice.”
Romance: A Man Above Reproach by Evelyn Pryce, Pittsburgh, PA: “a Regency romance featuring a stoic duke who falls for a mysterious piano player at a brothel and then must navigate the choppy waters of class, identity and love.”
Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror: Poe by J. Lincoln Fenn, Haiku, HI: “a 23-year old obituary writer and college dropout runs afoul of an evil spirit while on a haunted house assignment and must uncover the common link between (among other things) a string of killings, his own deceased parents, and the strange numbered “code” that obsesses him.”
Young Adult Fiction: Timebound by Rysa Walker, Cary, NC: Seventeen-year-old Kate learns that she’s inherited a genetic license to time travel when her grandmother shares a strange blue medallion, an even stranger tale about future historians, and the unshakeable conviction that the fate of half the planet lies in Kate’s hands.
