In debut author J.D. Myall's breathtaking and brooding romantic YA fantasy, Heart's Gambit, two 18-year-olds fall in love as they attempt to destroy a centuries-long curse.
Emma Baldwin and Malcolm Davenport are members of two feuding Black families whose enslaved ancestors fell in love and were bound by the cruel sorcery of the magical plantation owner. Both bloodlines were granted supernatural "gifts" and forced into endless enmity. Additionally, once a generation, a Baldwin and a Davenport must fight in an enchanted duel, the Tethered Gambit, in which a death preserves the witch's immortality.
Emma, who has a very tenuous hold on her "gift" (granting wishes), feels unfulfilled performing in her family's nightly circus, where her brother "reaches into... minds," her mother has telekinetic skills, and her father can conjure the unbelievable. At the same time, Malcolm performs on his guitar, creating illusions in his family's evening revue. But Malcolm wants to do more--to change the world for Black people all over. When Emma and Malcolm are chosen to compete in the Tethered Gambit, the teens are drawn to each other. One must die for the bloodlines to survive but the newly-in-love teens are desperate to rewrite fate.
Myall creates a bewitching and original setting by fusing sci-fi time travel tropes with the witch's "gifts." The characters traverse heightened moments in U.S. Black history such as "Mississippi Delta, 1904," "Harlem, 1943," and "Philadelphia, 2024." Emma and Malcolm's alternating first-person perspectives show the teens grappling with tradition as they attempt to heal generational wounds. Heart's Gambit is a daring, romantic, and enthralling first installment in what will surely be an exciting series. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer