The Lies We Conjure
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Featured in: Fangirlish and PW's "New and Noteworthy"
Knives Out meets The Inheritance Games with magic in this standalone supernatural thriller by Sarah Henning: thirteen witches, a locked-room murder, and two non-magical sisters trapped in a deadly whodunit.
Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings.
So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand—each—for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.
But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this.
The hostess is dead, the gates are locked, and a magical curse ensures no one can leave until they solve both her murder and the riddles she left behind—in just three days. Because everyone else at this party is a powerful witch. And if the witches realize Ruby and Wren are imposters? The sisters won’t make it out of Hegemony Manor alive.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While working at Ren Fest in a small Colorado town, sisters Ruby and Wren Jourdain—17 and 16, respectively—are approached by a mysterious elderly woman. She offers them a cash reward to impersonate her grandchildren, who live abroad, at a private dinner hosted by Ursula Hegemony in the Hegemony Manor. Eager to peek into the beautiful gothic venue, the sisters agree, and don expensive evening wear and rabbit-foot bracelets to become Lavinia and Kaysa Blackgate. But when the host is murdered, Ruby and Wren discover that this was no ordinary gathering of reclusive millionaires: the Hegemonies are leaders of a secret witch society, and Ursula's untimely demise has magically trapped all the guests in the estate until her killer is found. The siblings struggle to navigate the ensuing power struggle while maintaining their false identities, a task made more challenging by the scrutiny of distractingly attractive heirs Auden and Evander Hegemony. Ruby and Auden's alternating POVs drive this propulsive drama, giving tantalizing insight into contrasting pieces of the puzzle and the complicated web of relationships between the devious and compellingly wrought cast. Most characters read as white; Evander is described as having "warm brown skin." Ages 13–up.
