Something Wicked
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Dec 2, 2025
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The country of Avon is in deep turmoil...
The Uprising has overthrown Avon's monarchial rulers, and a decree has been issued. Candidates for the first presidential election will be selected by the completion of a special task: to kill the former monarch of their home province.
Callum, the son of the recently dethroned king, is determined to be in the running. But coming to terms with patricide will require the help of Lady Caterine, a Gifted courtesan at La Puissance, Avon’s premiere sex club.
Lady Caterine has always had the magical ability to manipulate the emotions of anyone who experiences an orgasm in her presence. If Callum can only open up to Cate, he will be able to commit the newly fated murder without suffering the guilt and take his place as the rightful candidate from his province. But Callum has a deep-seated mistrust of the Gifted. And the last thing he expects is to be confronted with an undeniable connection with Cate that neither of them understands or wants.
With the fate of the country at stake, Callum and Cate search for ways to bare themselves to each other, and discover a darker force building within La Puissance, one that might ruin the future of Avon forever. To stop Avon from falling to ashes, they must sacrifice everything they have . . . even if it requires betraying each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Troublesome politics, fanciful magic, and spicy romance combine but never quite cohere in this rocky romantasy from Ballard (Lease on Love). Courtesan Lady Caterine, Cate to her friends, is Gifted, possessed of innate magical powers for which she and those like her are oppressed in the erstwhile kingdom of Avon. Meanwhile, Prince Callum was heir to the throne of Scota, one of Avon's four provinces, before the Uprising successfully staged a revolution. When the Uprising decrees that Avon will be run by an elected president, but would-be candidates must kill their province's current monarch to qualify, Callum hatches a plan to kill his own father. His and Cate's destinies become intertwined when he seeks out her Gift to assist in his plot, despite his bias against the Gifted. This thorny premise is plenty entertaining, the pace is swift, and the eventual romance between the leads is satisfyingly erotic, but both the politics and the magic system feel sketchy and convoluted. The muddled plot, which falls apart in the third act, is also mired in allusions to Macbeth that never amount to much. Readers may still have a good time with this, but only if they don't think about it too hard.
