MANderella: A New York Fairy Tale

by Kevin Grote, Denise Grote (Editor)

Liam O’Connell, an East Village graphic designer, is a dreamer who watches the world from his fire escape. His quiet life is upended when he sees a beautiful, mysterious woman drop an antique locket and vanish into a cab. Convinced it's a sign of destiny, Liam embarks on a quest to find her, armed with only the locket and its cryptic Latin inscription, “Perpetua Virtus, Semper Novum” (Eternal Virtue, Always New).
With his improv-actor friend, Noah, by his side, Liam's search becomes a modern fairytale. The trail leads them through a series of colorful characters and unlikely allies, from a cryptic antiquarian in Greenwich Village to a wise deli owner in Washington Heights. As they piece together the clues, they discover the locket is a legacy from an architectural dynasty and a key to a deeper mystery. The chase culminates at the historic Lyra Theater, where the woman, Isabella Rossi, is an architect working to uncover the building's "forgotten heart," a secret passed down through generations. Liam must now navigate the high-stakes world of New York's elite and find a way to not only return the locket but help Isabella reveal her family's truth, proving that in a city of millions, sometimes all it takes is a single, dropped breadcrumb to find your entire world.

142 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2025