Gate to Kagoshima

Kuroki (the Black Diamond series) launches a historical romantasy series with this addictive, high-concept epic that travels from the modern day to 1870s Japan. Isla Mackenzie heads from Scotland to Kagoshima, Japan, to research what became of her great-great-great-grandfather, Hisakichi Kuroki, whose story has been lost to time. While searching through shrine grounds on a stormy night in the city, she’s unexpectedly transported to 1877, the last days of the samurai. She soon meets samurai Keiichirō Maeda, and a doomed romance blossoms. Isla knows all too well that the samurai do not survive the bloody Satsuma Rebellion after their leader Saigō Takamori is killed. Now she must choose: return to her own time, stay with Keiichirō and die alongside him—or try to change the course of history. Isla’s foreknowledge keeps the stakes of the love story sky-high against the vivid, wonderfully detailed backdrop of feudal Japan. Readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. Agent: Jason Yarn, Jason Yarn Literary. (Feb.)