PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Margie Fuston grew up in the woods of California where she made up fantasy worlds that always involved unicorns. In college, she earned undergraduate degrees in business and literature and a master's in creative writing. Now she's back in the woods and spends all her time wrangling a herd of cats and helping her nephews hunt ghosts, pond monsters, and mermaids.
"Fuston (Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things) adds a historical fantasy spin to a Hunger Games-style tournament in this urgent action-adventure. Teen Bly and her family, including her younger sister Elise, struggle to survive while living in the Gap, a locale between Vagaris and Havenwhile, both powerful cities ruled by vampires and witches, respectively, each of whom needed Gap residents ""hungry enough to sell their blood."" Bly wants to escape the Gap, certain she could cultivate a life free from hunger rather than skipping meals to pay for necessities. More than that, she wants her best friend Emerson to share in her adventures. But when her plans for escape bring tragedy, she resorts to selling blood and planning for the Revenant Games, the one time of year when humans compete for the rare opportunity to toy with mortality as Vagaris and Havenwhile have done for centuries. With no magic of her own, however, Bly must do everything she can to win--even if it means aligning with the enemy. Via inviting and introspective prose, Fuston fashions a ruthless world filled with desperation and gilded cages, where revolution simmers beneath the surface and chaos awaits around every corner. Bly and her family read as white and Emerson has dark brown skin. Ages 14-up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Agency. (Mar.)--Publishers Weekly ""1/8/24"""
