Independent Press Award
2024 winner
The Palace at Dusk: A Novel
Angela Terry
The Palace at Dusk explores the complexity of love in an illicit office romance.
Harvard-educated corporate attorney Jasmine “Jae” Phillips promised herself that she wouldn’t date anyone at the office. She’s too focused on the job, and her meh dating history can be summed up with a shrug. Then came Brad Summers.
When Jae’s colleague Brad enters her office—boyish and handsome with his tousled hair and sparkling green-gold eyes—and asks if she’d like to grab a drink, she’s flattered. Their conversation makes her feel alive, fascinating, and fun, and the lonely Jae can’t help but bask in Brad’s attention. Soon Jae is breaking her never-date-at-the-office rule. And when she later discovers that Brad has a wife and child, she finds herself breaking a much more serious rule.
After Jae spends years in love with a man who isn’t hers and jeopardizes her career in the process, a series of unexpected developments shake her awake and force her to confront the cost—and the future—of their affair. She needs to make a choice, but love stories are rarely black and white, and the right path isn’t so clear. With her head and her heart pulling her in opposite directions, Jae must somehow chart a course between them in order to find her happily ever after.