Heart’s Gambit (Heart’s Gambit #1)

Black teens from rival magical families opt to fight fate instead of each other in debut author Myall’s extravagantly imagined series launch. In 1860, after escaping from the Louisiana plantation where they’re enslaved, sweethearts Venus Davenport and Titus Baldwin are cursed by the wife of their enslaver, powerful and sadistic witch Sabine. Though Sabine blesses Venus, Titus, and their respective relatives and descendants with wide-ranging magical abilities that include time travel, her gift also ensures that Venus and Titus’s families will never be able to interact without triggering each other’s magic-incurred bloodlust. Further, at regular intervals, a Baldwin and a Davenport of Sabine’s choosing must participate in the Tethered Gambit, a to-the-death tournament that strengthens Sabine and helps maintain her immortality. Generations pass, with every Gambit fostering more mutual hatred between the Baldwins and Davenports. One family’s annihilating the other seems like the only solution—until Sabine taps 18-year-olds Emma Baldwin and Malcolm Davenport for the Gambit. Following a chance meeting, attraction sparks, and the teens work in secret to find a way to save both families. A sprawling, hazily defined magic system sometimes lessens stakes and slows plot. Still, it’s a vibrantly wrought portrayal that celebrates Black culture and community while illustrating the legacy of racism and discrimination in the United States. Ages 13–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend and Sarah Gerton, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Feb.)