Gilded in Vengeance

In a sizzling fantasy set within an alternate 1880s New York City, the secretive Society for the Charmed keeps a tight rein on all things magical. Having been framed for fraud—presumably by her best friend Grace Montgomery—and forced to watch her beloved father’s murder, as detailed in a prologue, 18-year-old Emmy Vallillo has spent more than two years magically bound in Grimsbane Prison. Making a deal with similarly incarcerated roguish Society heir Jack Fontaine, Emmy escapes and, recruited by Jack, becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to use her unique ability to transmute objects and faces to facilitate false identities and take down the Society from the inside. Armed with a powerful relic that amplifies her conjury, Emmy ingratiates herself into the upper echelons of the Society in order to ruin the meteoric rise of Grace, whose all-consuming ambition leaves a trail of death and betrayal in her wake. As Emmy’s allies close in on their own targets, she must fight her growing attraction to Jack and decide what she’s willing to do to exact revenge. Lightly touching on themes of class anxiety and anti-immigrant sentiments of the period, Smith (Revelle) intertwines steamy romance with a rollicking revenge plot set in a glamorous Gilded Era magical high society. Emmy is of Italian descent; Jack has French ancestry. Ages 14–up. Agents: Lauren Spieller, Folio Literary. (Nov.)