The Ones We Burn
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller!
Love and duty collide in this richly imagined young adult debut about a witch whose dark powers put her at the center of a brewing war between the only family she’s ever known and the enemy who makes her question everything. Featuring a brand-new short story and character art!
Monster. Butcher. Bloodwinn.
Ranka is tired of death. All she wants is to be left alone, living out her days in Witchik’s wild north with the coven that raised her, attempting to forget the horrors of her past. But when she is named Bloodwinn, the next treaty bride to the human kingdom of Isodal, her coven sends her south with a single directive: kill him. Easy enough, for a blood-witch whose magic compels her to kill.
Except the prince is gentle, kind, and terrified of her. He doesn’t want to marry Ranka; he doesn’t want to be king at all. And it’s his sister—the wickedly smart, infuriatingly beautiful Princess Aramis—who seems to be the real threat.
But when witches start turning up dead, murdered by a mysterious, magical plague, Aramis makes Ranka an offer: help her develop a cure, and in return, she’ll help Ranka learn to contain her deadly magic. As the coup draws nearer and the plague spreads, Ranka is forced to question everything she thought she knew about her power, her past, and who she’s meant to fight for. Soon, she will have to decide between the coven that raised her and the princess who sees beyond the monster they shaped her to be.
But as the bodies pile up, a monster may be exactly what they need.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The path to self-discovery is littered with bodies in this alluring fantasy. Ranka is a blood-witch, meaning her power is fueled by the act of killing. She’s none too pleased that a treaty between the witches and their human neighbors will force her to marry Galen, the prince of a nearby kingdom. With a mysterious virus devastating the witch population and Ranka’s coven angling for an assassination, the goodness and heroism of Galen and his twin sister, Aramis, make Ranka question her purpose—and her feelings for her new husband. We were totally drawn into debut author Rebecca Mix’s complex world of witchcraft, royals, and intrigue. The Ones We Burn is a perfect mix of captivating fantasy, political intrigue, and simmering romance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Teenage blood-witch Ranka has been chosen to marry the human prince of Isodal in accordance with a treaty meant to protect witch lands throughout the kingdom. Despite the treaty, however, humans have been ravaging the witches' homes. But when Ranka's coven, driven by vengeance, encourages her to go through with the marriage and kill the prince, she refuses. After Isodal's rulers begin abducting witches, and a sudden mysterious illness fells many of her fellow magical kin, Ranka decides to keep up her end of the treaty to save her people. At the palace, she meets the royal Sunra twins—her soft-spoken and fearful betrothed, Prince Galen, and his calculating, beautiful sister, Princess Aramis. As the twins teach Ranka how to control her blood-magic and help her investigate the mysterious disease, she must reckon with her mission to betray the prince she's befriended and the princess she's fallen for. A fully fleshed, nuanced cast driven by the need for acceptance, a desire for justice, and a thirst for power propel this adrenaline-fueled debut. Mix's striking prose skillfully layers the characters' emotional vulnerabilities without reading as saccharine or sacrificing momentum. Ranka is white; the twins are Black. Ages 14–up.
