Valiant Ladies
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Two teen vigilantes set off on an action-packed investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice in Valiant Ladies, Melissa Grey's YA historical fiction novel inspired by real seventeenth century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí.
By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeenth century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí in the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.
Then, on the night Kiki's engagement to the Viceroy's son is announced, her older brother—heir to her family’s fortune—is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.
Praise for Valiant Ladies:
“Ana and Kiki are the sword lesbians of my dreams. This is the queer Latina historical fantasy you didn't know you wanted until you got it—and then you'll want more.” —Sam Maggs, author of The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope
"Grey’s actionpacked love story offers a fresher, more nuanced take on The Three Musketeers, with a fastpaced plot and well-developed characters... Kiki and Ana are not the traditional demure ladies that swoon at the slightest provocation of violence; rather, they are the vigilante heroines that every patriarchy needs." -- Booklist, starred review
“Valiant Ladies brings the remarkable lives of two forgotten women to vivid, riotous life. Delightfully ahistorical, terribly romantic (have you ever shipped sword lesbians harder??), and all steeped in vigilante justice hell-bent on taking down a violent patriarchy—there’s only one word for it: badass.” —Mackenzi Lee, author of the New York Times–bestselling The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspired by real-life 17th-century heroines, Grey's (The Buried) historical murder mystery is an exhilarating adventure. Teenagers Eustaquia "Kiki" de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are rich young ladies of Potosí by day, vigilantes for justice by night. Despite her heroic proclivities, which remain secret from her father, Kiki must still play her role in society. Though the girls' feelings for each other continue to grow, even with Kiki's impending arranged marriage, brothel-born Ana, who was taken in by the de Sonza family, has resigned herself to her station ("We are what we are, and a change of clothes can't alter that simple fact"). When Kiki's older brother is found dead in a supposed suicide, the girls' lives are plunged into chaos as they investigate a mystery more intense than their nightly brawls, whose implications affect the future of the de Sonzas and the safety of Potosí's underprivileged women. Kiki and Ana are passionate heroines whose alternating perspectives—which embody both fierceness for justice and tender affection for each other—paired with cinematic action sequences conjure a hyper-engaging and gratifying experience. Kiki is Latinx, Ana is half-Dutch and half-Peruvian, and supporting characters are of varied Latinx descent. Ages 13–up.
