[QCrit] EAT MY HEART OUT, Adult, Gothic Fantasy, 95k

Hi all!

Throwaway account. So excited to finally post this here.

Some specific questions for you lovely folks:

• Does everything make sense and flow in a logical manner?
• Do your eyes glaze over at any point? If so, where?
• Do you assume I have no idea what I'm doing comping Wendell Bambleby in a gothic fantasy?
• Any other thoughts/comments/suggestions are of course welcome.

-----------------------

Dear agent,

Rebecca meets Prey. EAT MY HEART OUT follows the daughter of a Chosen One desperate to survive her mother’s legacy. It is a 95,000-word adult Gothic Fantasy novel with a romantic subplot. It combines the toxic codependency of Ava Reid’s Juniper & Thorn, the suffocating theocracy of Rachel Gillig’s The Knight and the Moth and the prim and enigmatic love interest of Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Rayna is her dead mother’s failed heir and an insult to her God. Her meager crumb of magic—sensing electric fields in the air—lost her right to rule as priestess. To survive, she caters to her usurping priest’s many…appetites. After all, no one would dare lay a hand on the priest’s favorite pet. But she feels his interest in her waning—and with it, the protection she desperately needs.

When Rayna finds her friend with her heart carved out of her chest, her friend’s brother, Luc, is the prime suspect. But Rayna sensed the pulsing field of the murderer, and it wasn’t Luc. Amidst her grief, she sees an opportunity—she needs to solidify her station with her priest, and the denizens of the city need a savior. So Rayna makes her priest an offer: she will hunt the murderer to prove her worth, if he marries her.

He agrees.

Rayna partners with Luc under the guise of helping him avenge his sister and clear his name. In doing so, they uncover stories of people who wandered into the forest after hearing the cries of children. And in the heart of the forest, they discover a pitfall trap littered with human bones. The more time they spend together, the more Luc’s faith in Rayna grows, and his calm and steady presence is a balm she comes to crave. But when someone goes missing and leaves nothing but a bloody trail into the sewers, Rayna follows it. Alone. There, she finds a monstrous creature long-believed to be extinct feasting on the viscera of a corpse. Confronting the creature would be suicide.

Rayna must choose between risking her life to prove her worth, and living the rest of her life tormented for failing to live up to her mother’s legacy.

I live a suspiciously quiet life in [The Shire] with my husband, fur beasts, and unreasonable number of houseplants. This would be my debut novel.

All the best,

-WhatsTatersPrecious