A Star-Cursed Heart

Loosely riffing on The Scarlet Letter, Mare (Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon) delivers a sweeping sapphic tale of generational trauma and boundary-breaking love. The Prynnes and the Steadfasts have been feuding for 400 years. Every generation, a Prynne gains the power to steal the souls of unwary dreamers, and a Steadfast gains the power to stop them. Lucy Prynne and Ashes Steadfast grow up as inseparable best friends despite their fathers’ enmity, and eventually become young lovers—though they can feel their destinies waiting. When Rye Steadfast’s heart stops and Draven Prynne disappears, Ashes and Lucy are called to take their place and realize how little their fathers told them about the real scope of the powers they would gain and the way the battle would consume them. Forced to be mortal enemies against their will, their only hope is to break the curse that defines both their families before they destroy themselves by destroying each other. The women’s cat-and-mouse dynamic entices, and Mare’s examination of family legacy and inheritance goes deep. It’s irresistible. (May)