Rebecca Podos – författare

The Mystery of Hollow Places is a gorgeously written, stunningly original novel of love, loss, and identity, from debut author Rebecca Podos.

All Imogene Scott knows of her mother is the bedtime story her father told her as a child. It’s the story of how her parents met: he, a forensic pathologist; she, a mysterious woman who came to identify a body. A woman who left Imogene and her father when she was a baby, a woman who was always possessed of a powerful loneliness, a woman who many referred to as “troubled waters.”

Now Imogene is seventeen, and her father, a famous author of medical mysteries, has struck out in the middle of the night and hasn’t come back. Neither Imogene’s stepmother nor the police know where he could’ve gone, but Imogene is convinced he’s looking for her mother. And she decides it’s up to her to put to use the skills she’s gleaned from a lifetime of reading her father’s books to track down a woman she’s only known in stories in order to find him and, perhaps, the answer to the question she’s carried with her for her entire life.

Brought to you by Penguin.A delightful queer cottagecore romantasy full of friends-to-lovers romance, found family, rival family drama, and cozy garden magic.Yael is the only heir to one of the wealthiest families in the realm, destined for a life of power and privilege. But that’s not the life they want, and so, chafing at their family’s restrictions and expectations, they flee in search of a grand adventure.Margot, plant witch, tea lover and stressed greenhouse owner, has never felt further from adventure in her life. Since her grandmother died and her family fortune was stolen she’s been desperately trying to keep what remains of the family business afloat. So, when her childhood friend – and former crush – unexpectedly gallops back into her life, it makes sense to offer them a job and a place to lie low.In amongst harvesting strawberries for heartbreak jam and some totally, absolutely harmless flirting, they form a plan to take back everything that was stolen from Margot. But can their fragile arrangement survive their swiftly-blooming attraction? Not to mention the machinations of scheming parents determined to get Yael back – no matter the cost.© Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Brought to you by Penguin.Kitty Pryde, Betsy Braddock, and America Chavez race against time itself to save Jean Grey and the X-Men in this epic Multiversal adventure reimagining Marvel origin stories.So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched generations of mutants live in a world shaped by Jean Grey’s legacy. But what if… that legacy was cut tragically short, dooming the world to a future without the X-Men? What if… a watcher must do more than watch? The year is 1990: The X-Men all perished more than a decade ago, and Kitty Pryde is no hero. Emma Frost rescued Kitty from an obscure existence as a mere rebellious teen kicked out of boarding school, terrified of ever being discovered as a mutant. After growing up under the tutelage of the White Queen, Kitty is an apex predator of a superior species, yet she lives alone in a tiny, rundown apartment, preferring isolation to a knife in the back. What is her alternative? The world is what it is.But sometimes Kitty isn’t so sure of that. Sometimes it feels like she phases right out of her own life. Breathe in: She’s suddenly surrounded by friends she’s never known, living out events that never happened. Breathe out: It’s all back to normal. Kitty always shoves these flashes down, until someone from that other life finds her. This familiar stranger, Betsy Braddock, is a rambling confirmation that something is wrong with their world.Betsy has a wild theory and if it’s right, Kitty’s only shot at changing the present is to free-fall into the past. The girls follow a tenuous psychic trail back to the glory days of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where they embed themselves with the X-Men. There they discover the inflection point that will unravel their future revolves around a certain omega-level mutant, destined to become the Phoenix. But little do Kitty and Betsy know, they’re not alone in their search.The year is 1975: Jean Grey has weeks left to live. The Whisperer is coming. He has recruited an ally and accounted for every foreseeable variable. He will leave nothing to chance. He will lead this reality to its Doom.© TBC 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025