Varhaiset kirja-arvostelijatJulie Stielstra

In an age when the old sorceries have mostly died out, a single unexpected burst of magic upends the lives of three households. Selfish heiress Vespasia Marchand berates an ill woman in the street, a woman who was once a renowned spell-caster. Her granddaughter Melu has inherited her gift, though it has not been nurtured. In a fit of anger, the girl impulsively transforms Vespasia into a wasp, doomed to live out an ordinary wasp's life unless she can sting another person and occupy their body. The shrewd and ambitious Vespasia sets her sights on the queen Callao, a gentle and beloved woman with an adoring husband, King Ranulph, and adored daughter, the princess Linnea.

With the soul-theft accomplished, how will Vespasia carry off the charade? How can the king and the young Linnea cope with the sudden awful shift in the queen's character? The heiress's maid Ginevra Hawkeshaw has witnessed the curse; Melu's family flees. The disappearance of Vespasia has set Ginevra free from a lifetime of unhappy servitude, so she isn't sure she wants to help the doughty sheriff Hugh discover what might have happened. And yet, she feels compelled to try to undo the damage. Distrust and trust, love and resistance, ambivalence and dedication, selfishness and generosity, truth and lies, must be navigated to resolve the heartache (with the help of a perspicacious dog).

In an age when the old sorceries have mostly died out, a single unexpected burst of magic upends three households. A peevish heiress escapes a curse by stealing the soul of a queen. The queen's family reels before her new character. An unhappy maidservant may have the key to undoing the damage - if she chooses to. Trust and distrust, love and resistance, selfishness and generosity, truth and lies must be unknotted as good people face down cruelty, forgive errors, and learn to tell the difference - with the help of a perspicacious dog.

Fifteen-year-old Luis Romero has lived his whole life on the back side of horse racing. Seven days a week, undocumented people like his mother Blanca live and work to feed, groom, exercise, care for, and clean up after the high-strung horses with long pedigrees. It's not just your job - it's your home, your life, your community. Lose the job, and you lose everything. A cheap trainer with a pill habit entices Luis to help her take care of her horses, pulling him deeper into a future on the track... but when Blanca takes up with a security guard with another agenda, it may all fall apart. Luis has to decide, for the sake of his family and his life, what race he really wants to run.