Skin

The Dark Lord's Daughter

Fury of the Dragon Goddess: The Adventures of Sik Aziz

The Ghost Job

Finn's Quest: Coldkeep Castle

The Boy Who Went Magic

Waking Merlin

Once Upon a Tim

Little Thieves

"Gorgeous prose, delicious magic." - V.E. Schwab

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection
Kids' Indie Next Pick
Amazon Best Book

A scrappy maid must outsmart both palace nobles and Low Gods in a new YA fantasy by Margaret Owen, author of the Merciful Crow series.

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love―and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Skin

Christine Webster, 2005

The Dark Lord's Daughter

Patricia C. Wrede, 2023

Fury of the Dragon Goddess: The Adventures of Sik Aziz

Sarwat Chadda, 2023

The Ghost Job

Greg Van Eekhout, 2023

Finn's Quest: Coldkeep Castle

Eirlys Hunter, 2004

The Boy Who Went Magic

A.P. Winter, 2018

Waking Merlin

Tanya Landman, 2006

Once Upon a Tim

Stuart Gibbs, Stacy Curtis, 2022