"Tough, tender and laced with tension, this Bronx-set Latinx crime drama tells a heart-pounding tale of female friendship, survival, courage and community."
Reeling with raw beauty and an unstoppable spirit of survival, Melissa Coss Aquino’s Carmen and Grace debut is a devastatingly forceful coming of age novel set around an underground drug empire in the Bronx. Powered by the harrowing struggles and courage of two cousins who’ve been inseparable since they were little girls, it’s an exceptional crime drama underpinned by a sense of hope that it’s possible to break the most vicious cycles of violence, and that lost girls can be found, and come to find themselves.
Carmen and Grace are characters you won’t forget in a hurry. Cousins who are more like sisters, they survived tough childhoods marred by addiction and neglect. While Grace has a desire for power, Carmen wants a different kind of life. Into this comes Doña Durka, a powerful matriarchal figure in their Bronx neighbourhood who takes Grace in and also looks out for Carmen. But with this sense of strong stability comes the violence and risk that goes with the drugs trade, for Doña Durka oversees a drugs empire.
What happens when the matriarch kingpin suddenly dies and Grace is set to take over and expand the business will have you on the edge of your seat. Consummately gritty and gripping, Carmen and Grace explores ambition, injustice, breaking constraints and sisterhood with fire and heart.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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Closing date: 04/07/2026
Carmen and Grace have been inseparable since they were little girls – more like sisters than cousins, survivors of a childhood marked by neglect and addiction. For too long, all they had was each other.
That is, until Doña Durka swept into their lives and changed everything, taking Grace into her home and playing an outsize role in Carmen's upbringing too.
But Durka is more than a beneficent force in their Bronx neighbourhood. She's also the leader of an underground drug empire, a larger-than-life matriarch who understands the importance of taking what power she can in a world too often ruled by violent men.
So when Durka dies suddenly, Carmen and Grace's lives are thrown into chaos. Grace has been primed to take over and has grand plans to expand the business, but Carmen is ready to move on – from Durka's shadow, and from always looking over her shoulder in fear.
As tough and tender as its main characters, Carmen and Grace is a devastatingly wise and intimate story about the bonds of female friendship, ambition and found family.
Carmen and Grace features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, General Fiction, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes, Recommendations
Carmen and Grace is available in Paperback, Hardback
Carmen and Grace was written by Melissa Coss Aquino and published by Head of Zeus
Carmen and Grace has 448 pages
£8.99
