THE WEAVER BRIDE

A teen witch enters a deadly competition to become a prince’s bride.

In Balmoore’s capital, Isle d’Eylau, Lovett Tamerlane survives by thievery. She’s a silkwitch, whose unique Wit enables her to unlock any door. Lovett keeps her identity hidden; if she hasn’t married one of the sorcerers known as Weavers—someone who harvests silkwitch hair to spin into magesilk—by her 21st birthday, she’ll be banished to the cloisters forever. One day, Lovett unknowingly targets a Weaver, Eliot Lear, who comes from a prominent political family. When he catches Lovett in the act of stealing, he makes her a proposition. In exchange for his not reporting her, she’ll enter the Vainglory and find out who killed his silkwitch sister, Ophelia, during last year’s competition. In the sinister Vainglory, ten silkwitch maidens compete to become the bride of Noé Alaire, son of the Weaver King. With a great deal of disdain for Eliot—but little choice over the matter—Lovett agrees to the deal. Her transformation into an appropriately socially adept contender for the prince’s affections is bumpy; she encounters adversaries at every turn, and her relationship with Eliot gets complicated. As Lovett gets closer to the truth, she finds herself in even more danger. Themes of class and gender politics appear throughout. The heartbeat of this engaging, slow-building story is Lovett, with her determination, fierceness, vulnerability, and brilliant powers of deduction. Main characters read white.

Thoroughly enjoyable and filled with surprising twists.