An adolescent sorceress must find a way to lift the curse she accidentally cast on her heroic brother in The Summer War, a touching fantasy novella by Naomi Novik (The Last Graduate; Spinning Silver).
Celia's father was made a grand duke after winning the century-long Summer War for the kingdom of Prosper. He chose two of his wives strategically and raised his older son, Argent, with the plan to marry him to a royal princess and make himself the power behind the throne. But that plan comes apart the day that Argent returns from his first summer games as a knight just long enough to declare he is leaving the kingdom. In her outrage at being abandoned, Celia shouts at her brother that she hopes no one else ever loves him again, only to realize too late that her ancestral sorceress powers have awakened, dooming him to her unintended prophecy. When Celia's marriage opens a new conflict with the faerie-like summerlings, she, Argent, and their neglected middle brother, Roric, will need to find a way to save one another.
In only a brief novella, Novik skillfully presents a fully imagined world, shaped by discord and the heart-wrenchingly rendered grief of nearly immortal beings. As is appropriate for a faerie story, curses and oaths in this world are binding; even the siblings' enemies are caught in a trap they don't entirely deserve. The light, fairy tale-like language enchants from the first page, and will be sure to delight fans of Alix E. Harrow. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library