Dear Reader, may I introduce the surprising, memorable, and very proper Lillian Velvet, who lives a very lonely life with her Grandmother. That is, until her tenth birthday, when she is given a pickle jar of coins, along with a note with clear instructions: don’t go out, don’t open the door for anyone, and don’t spend all your coins in one day. Lillian finds this quite strange. But then, she is whisked away to a different time and place, where she’ll encounter a cast of characters as refreshing and wonderful as they are strange: a small boy in a circus about to be crushed to death by a load of gravel. A lively family, each member in a distinctive form of mortal danger, who are strangers to Lillian. A boy with a skateboard and a girl who can Whisper. And a web of dangerous magic closing tight around it all.

Lillian can’t help but wonder: why is she here? How is she supposed to help these new friends? And—most importantly—what happens if she fails?

Jaclyn Moriarty brings us a new exciting tale in the Kingdoms and Empires world, spinning, spinning, spinning seemingly disparate elements until all is revealed as one delicious, tantalizing whole.