Cirrus@Austlit

'A bewitching journey behind the closed doors of a secret society, featuring sinister toadmen, resistance witches and a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, from the acclaimed author of A Hunger of Thorns.

'Merriwether Morgan doesn't need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is: simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

'But Merry's best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen - a secret society upholding backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions - and she is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with her academic arch-nemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face behind a glamour.

'An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the nightmarish Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn't rescue Teddy, she'll lose him forever. But the further she travels into Deeping Fen's foul waters, the more Merry wonders if she can possibly save her friend - or if she's walking straight into a trap.

'Because there's nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress . . .' (Publication summary)

'Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. But Maude grew up and lost her magic.

'Then two weeks ago Odette went missing, and everyone believes she is dead. Everyone except Maude. 

'Maude is sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest - a place nobody else seems to remember is there. 

'Soon she discovers that wild magic is both deeply enchanting and terrifying. Can she find her friend - and stop the horrors of corrupted magic from overtaking everyone and everything she loves? ' (Publication summary)

'I wake up, and for a few precious seconds I don't realise there's anything wrong.
The rumble of tyres on bitumen, and the hiss of air conditioning. The murmur of voices. The smell of air freshener. The cool vibration of glass against my forehead.

'A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There's a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom - she's fighting for her life.

'The acclaimed author of After the Lights Go Out returns with another compelling YA thriller - a timely novel about the intensity and unpredictability of human behaviour under pressure.' (Publication summary)