*A 2019 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book*

""Listeners will fall under the spell of the prose and narration

and won't wake up until the last word is spoken—and maybe not even then.

Highly recommended.""—Erin Entrada Kelly, 2018 Newbery Medalist and New

York Times bestselling author

A dark, twisted, unforgettable fairy tale from

Elana K. Arnold, author of the National Book Award finalist What Girls

Are Made Of

The

rite has existed for as long as anyone can remember: When the king dies, his

son the prince must venture out into the gray lands, slay a fierce dragon, and

rescue a damsel to be his bride. This is the way things have always been.

When

Ama wakes in the arms of Prince Emory, she knows none of this. She has no

memory of what came before she was captured by the dragon or what horrors she

faced in its lair. She knows only this handsome young man, the story he tells

of her rescue, and her destiny of sitting on a throne beside him. It’s all like

a dream, like something from a fairy tale.

As

Ama follows Emory to the kingdom of Harding, however, she discovers that not

all is as it seems. There is more to the legends of the dragons and the damsels

than anyone knows, and the greatest threats may not be behind her, but around

her, now, and closing in.