[QCrit] THE JESTER'S GAME, YA Fantasy, 79k, 1st attempt
Open to any feedback. So far I have sent out 40 queries. My first query sent out got a full manuscript request from my dream agent. Still waiting to hear back (it’s only been 4 weeks). Since then, I have gotten 7 rejections and silence from the other 40 agents. I feel like something isn’t clicking. But I’m unsure if I should change it since it did work for my ideal agent. Any thoughts??
Complete at 79,000 words, THE JESTER’S GAME, is a YA fantasy with romance elements that has similar whimsy fantasy elements as Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart, along with the epic tournament style of Alex Aster’s, Lightlark. This is a standalone novel with series potential.
Valentina Quinn mourns her childhood love, Emmett, who recently passed. He left her a letter the night he died confessing his love for her. When she and her best friend, and sister of her crush, see a large ship pass by, they recognize it as La Ressurrección, the infamous magical ship where The Jester throws a deadly competition once a year where he revives the life of the winner’s choosing.
Valentina lives in the Shallows, the part of Veradelle where only criminals reside. Her mother and her manage and live in a brothel posed as a tavern, while her father is a pirate who collects enchanted tokens. Valentina always dreamed that marrying Emmett would be her way out of the Shallows, though, until he died, she never knew he felt the same. When Valentina is caught helping one of her mother's ladies escape the brothel by the owner, he fires Valentina and her mother and gives them two weeks to find a new home. Valentina wishes Emmett were still alive even more so now, knowing that his dowry would secure Valentina and her mother's future.
That night a mysterious man comes to the tavern and leaves two free tickets to the infamous Resurrection Games competition. Desperate to bring Emmett back to life, her and her best friend enter The Resurrection Games.
It’s not long on the ship before the charming and cruel Jester seeks Valentina out and offers her a deal. He will rig his game in her favor if she procures a magical token for him from her pirate father. But soon, Valentina realizes that negotiating with a magical being isn’t as fair as she once thought. And she is hiding a secret of her own that puts her at dire risk, all while fighting the slow burning attraction growing between them. If she can’t provide him with what he is looking for, she will lose Emmett for good, and her way out of the Shallows, forever.