by T. Kingfisher
Read by Eliza Foss & Jennifer Pickens
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Content: There is some mild swearing, and instances of child abuse. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Cordelia’s mother is… not great. She’s a sorceress who has always gotten everything she wanted by any means possible. When Cordelia did anything her mother didn’t like, she just made Cordelia “obedient” – basically taking over her body and controlling it. Now that Cordelia is 14, though, her mother has decided they need to move on to bigger and better things – and has her sights set on a squire to marry.

Hester is that squire’s brother, and she sees Cordelia’s mother as Doom, and is going to do everything she can to stop it.

That’s the plot in a nutshell, but like other of Kingfisher’s books, the beauty of it is not in the plot. It’s in the characters and in the little things that just make her books wonderful. It’s in the portrayals of the women in all their complexity – Hester is insecure about being older and having a cranky knee (I can relate!); Cordelia is traumatized and unsure of herself but grows immensely throughout the book. It’s in the sly asides (Penelope! Imogene!), and in the way the magic is used throughout the book. Additionally, the narrators were just perfect for the characters – it alternates between Cordelia and Hester – and I found myself not wanting to stop listening.

In short, this book stole my heart, and I love that it did.