Wish List for September 2016

The editors at Entangled Publishing are always looking for the next breakout hit. Could that be your book? Each month, we have a new wish list from our editors. Watch for them as they’ll change monthly. Let’s discover each other today! All submissions can be sent through our Submittable system. The link can be found here: http://www.entangledpublishing.com/submission-information/
 

Heather Howland, Associate Publisher
• Adult hacker books. Anything involving computers, software, viruses, hackers… And example on Indulgence could be a heroine who works in the IT department noticing that someone is embezzling money—and she thinks it’s the CEO.
• International espionage and CIA/FBI thrillers…with heat. We love these. How fun would a hacker/international espionage mash-up be? Just make sure the heroine isn’t in the traditionally masculine role.
• We want to see more books with everyday heroines who have normal, everyday jobs. Teachers, research analysts, physical therapists, paralegals, nurses, office professionals, IT specialists, doggie daycare owners, statisticians, librarians, veterinarians, flight attendants… Feed the readers’ fantasies by pairing these everyday heroines with confident, competent, successful man. Unless you’re querying Indulgence, the hero doesn’t need to be wealthy.
• I’m a sucker for super original meet-cutes.
• Men in uniform: military, firefighters, police, FBI/CIA, or the like. We’re looking for regular guys that invoke the idea we’re getting honorable men. Military guys don’t need to be former/current special forces.
• Growly, hot-as-hell shifters. Bring a band of brothers vibe, and a high concept plot.
• You’ll see it from the other editors as well, but just in case…we want HISTORICAL! Namely, Regency, Victorian, Highlander, and Viking eras.
 

Alycia Tornetta, Editorial Director of Bliss, Ignite and Select Suspense
• Sweet romance with animals. Maybe a vet falling for a heroine who brings in a stray.
• A romantic suspense set around a SEAL team.
• NA set internationally. Maybe during a semester abroad or attending a university or even a gap year.
• Victorian and Regency historical romance with a fun premise. Highlanders, Rakes, and Dukes welcome!
• YA historical, high concept or with fantasy twist.
 

Erin Molta, Senior Editor
• Vikings Vikings Vikings!
• I’m looking for anything involving the Norsemen but a good title to flesh out could be, The Shield Maiden’s Secret Baby—a fling with a Frenchman who is now a king. Oops! If only the new king wasn’t visiting and her son didn’t look exactly like him. The Shield Maiden could never live in France, even though the King is darn attractive…Or vice versa…the Viking warrior seduces the king’s daughter and it was great but they could never be together, until he couldn’t stop thinking about her and two years later he returns to find that she’s had a child. The resemblance is striking…
 

Jenn Mishler, Editor

For Teen Crave:
• More stories set in contemporary settings, bring on the paranormal romance! No vampires or angels/demons, but truly unique paranormal romances. She’s still looking for the next Holly Black.
For Teen Crush:
• She wants to see unique fairytale retellings in a contemporary setting.
For Bliss:
• She’d like to see more stories that feature the hot, new guy in town and either it’s love at first sight or opposites attract with our heroine.
• She wants to see more professions for the heroines like librarians, veterinarians, paralegals, nurses.
• Anything with animals would be great as well!
 

Karen Grove, Senior Editor
• A love match in which hero and heroine are brought together by a dog. Heck, who can resist a sexy guy who loves his dog? (Probably for Bliss or Lovestruck.)
• A humorous enemies-to-lovers NA that hinges on a misunderstanding, past or present, that leads to great chemistry and banter. Whatever the circumstances, heroine’s plot to humiliate the hero must be more humorous than mean. (For Embrace)
• A group of ex-military men who come together to run a working ranch, establish a retreat to teach survival skills to corporate executives/team building, or build a security company. (Any line.)
• Heroine who travels to another country to teach English, attend culinary school, or work as an art historian in a museum and finds herself falling for a local hottie. (For Embrace or Select)
• Sexy EMTs, swift-water rescue, coast guard, military, or firemen (for any line). Even better if it takes place in the close-knit community of young candidates attending an academy (for Embrace).
• A forced proximity romantic suspense involving special forces, bodyguard, or protective detail of some sort. High tension, high stakes, high romantic conflict (for Ignite).
 

Kate Brauning, Senior Editor
• YA local disaster stories—think earthquake, tornadoes, flooding, etc., that turn a teen’s life into a contemporary thriller.
• A YA thriller or horror—the classic “something’s out there” story with a twist.
• Sweet to spicy adult romance that revolves around clever and unusual meet-cutes, especially with strong setting and a strong community feel. Bonus points for LGBTQ+.
• Adult romantic suspense, especially featuring hackers
• Adult international espionage and CIA/FBI thrillers with heat!
 

Lydia Sharp, Editor
• In contemporary romance, she’s really in the mood for a billionaire/CEO alpha hero who must frequently travel to foreign territories for his business, who meets an “everyday” heroine while she is vacationing in the country he’s traveled to for work. Take the story to a setting not commonly seen, like Turkey or Finland. Though Italy is always a favorite of mine!
• She comes from a veterinary background, so she’d love to see a contemporary romance between two veterinarians, or one is a veterinarian and the other is in some other profession in the animal field, like pet rescue. She’d prefer a city setting rather than a small town or rural setting.
• In NA, she’d really like to see a couple who are both ballet dancers (m/f, m/m, or f/f pairing) and meet when they each land a contract with the same ballet company.
• And, in YA, she’s always looking for great contemporary, fantasy, and sci-fi romances that feel high concept and have unforgettable characters.
 

Robin Haseltine, Senior Editor
• Robin Haseltine is Hot for Historicals. Both Select Single Title and Scandalous, especially if they incorporate historical events, politics, or suspense. Her favorite eras are Regency, Victorian, and Highlander.
• She loves humorous and light voices as well as dark, angsty, and emotional tones.
• Bring on the high romance, clever double-entendres, and super alpha Lairds and Lords!
• She is also looking for Select: Suspense, either a thriller with lots of clues to decipher a la “Da Vinci Code,” a psychological suspense with a super alpha detective, or a military action adventure, with a great romance at the heart of the story.
 

Stacy Abrams, Editorial Director of Entangled Teen, Crush, and Crave
• Books for Crush that involve animals. Think summer internship at a vet, an aquarium, or a shelter. Tug at those heartstrings!
• Books for Crush, or Teen if done exactly right, that involve study abroad. Exotic locations, guys with accents, and the conflict that comes with being from two separate worlds.
• Books for Crave that involve teen hackers—maybe even uncovering an alien invasion or another government cover-up.
 
Stephen Morgan, Senior Editor
• I want heroines with everyday jobs. Heroes who are larger than life, financially successful and competent in every area except romance. An asshole alpha who could be AMAZING if he’d just see the light. And of course his romance with the heroine is what shows him the light… Something like the recent bestseller THE CONTRACT.
• Highly original meet-cutes will make your book stand out.
• I’d love to see something with an international setting, either a straight love story with the heroine on vacation or an international thriller.
• I’m looking for high-concept stories for our Teen, Teen Crush, and Teen Crave imprints.
• Tropes that will grab my attention: Revenge, fake relationship, reformed playboy, bait and switch, blackmail, boss/employee, enemies to lovers, in love with the nanny, mistaken identity, ugly duckling
• Strong preference will be shown for submissions to our YA, NA, and Indulgence imprints.

Suzanne Evans, Associate Editor
• I’m looking for commercial contemporary and sci-fi/fantasy YA for Entangled’s teen lines! I’m especially excited for Crush books right now—a major plus for swoony boys I know I’d have had a huge crush on and strong, stubborn heroines.
• High-heat romantic suspense. Extra points for hot cops!
• NA LGBT stories that touch on not only making your way as a new adult, but the challenges that come along with finding your identity at the same time.
• Dark-themed YA single title books that make my heart hurt. Being a teen is hard; growing up is hard. Show me adversity and the strength to overcome it and find first love anyway.
• Small town stories for Bliss! Sweet romance, reuniting old lovers.
• Vikings. Just… Vikings.
 

Tera Cuskaden, Editorial Director of Select Otherworld

For Otherworld:
• She’s looking for paranormal romance with great romantic tension between alpha males and strong heroines.
• She’s looking for fresh voices and amazing stories that will suck her into the world and keep her up past my bedtime reading.
• She’s open to all genres and themes, though she’s specifically looking for shifters (wolves, big cats, bears, and dragons in particular), vampires, and science fiction/fantasy with crossover elements, such as shifters and/or vampires.
• She’d love to see large paranormal worlds with many different paranormal elements, such as vampires, shifters, witches, angels and demons, etc., and she would love to see sci-fi stories in the style of 12 Monkeys, Firefly, and Star Wars.
For other submissions:
• She’d love to see romances with single dads that will melt her heart, romantic suspense/thrillers that make her heart race in more ways than one, sexy contemporaries featuring everyday heroines, erotic romances that make me blush, and manuscripts targeted toward the Indulgence imprint, men in uniform or veterans, and women on vacation.
 

Theresa Cole, Junior Editor
• Laugh-out-loud rom-coms. Use that fish out of water trope, and make me laugh until I cry, then make me laugh again. 😉
• Series featuring confident, alpha men (group of friends? brothers? teammates?) who are totally good with the lives they’ve built for themselves (even better if they’ve built them using their own two hands)—until they meet the women they didn’t know they were missing but can no longer live without.
• I am forever on the hunt for a series about growly, hot-as-hell shifters! (Doesn’t have to be wolves! And these could even be the group of guys I already mentioned!)
• And I’m a huge fan of the fish out of water, sibling’s best friend, and forced proximity tropes.
 

Tracy Montoya, Senior Editor
• I’d love an emotional Regency for Scandalous or Select, a Regency suspense, or even a Regency vampire novel!
• Alpha heroes who ooze charisma for Indulgence, with strong heroines who give it right back to them. No overly business-oriented plots—keep the focus on the swoon-worthy romance.
• That perfect combination of popular tropes, laugh-out-loud humor, and deep emotion for Lovestruck. Think Sarah Ballance, Jamie Wesley, and Jenny Holiday.
• Unique twists on tried-and-true tropes for Teen Crush.
• High-concept stories (that one-sentence pitch that makes you go “oooh!”) for Teen—or any of our lines.
• Would love an Embrace set in grad school, med school, or even the FBI Academy like the TV series Quantico.
• An Ignite with a hacker heroine paired with an alpha male.
• Love romances with heroines on vacation abroad. France or Italy a plus!
• Authors of color always welcome.
 

Wendy Chen, Editor
• Wendy Chen is looking for a fresh voice for Entangled’s Bliss imprint.
• She would love to see a hero in uniform, in small town USA or overseas.
• Some of her favorite tropes are enemies to lovers, relationships of convenience, surprise baby, girl/boy next door.

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Heather Riccio

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