SHATTERED MIDNIGHT

After Zora’s magic causes a deadly accident, the Black teen is sent to live with family in New Orleans at the height of the Roaring ’20s.

Eighteen-year-old Zora’s Aunt Celine insists that she prepare for the upcoming debutante season, but Zora has little interest in high-society functions or eligible bachelors. She sneaks out at night to perform for a jazz club’s packed crowd under the stage name Sweet Willow. Music is everything to Zora: a talent, a passion, and the conduit for the magic she’s inherited from her German grandmother, Mathilda, whom readers met in the multiple-authored series’ previous volume, Broken Wish (2020) by Julie C. Dao. But ever since she lost control and brought down an entire building in a moment of righteous anger, Zora has been plagued by guilt and the fear of causing more harm. When Mama B, the local conjure woman, tells Zora that she can take away Zora’s magic, she agrees to give up music in return. Her resolve wavers, though, when she falls in love with Phillip, a charming White boy who shares her love for jazz and is determined to be with her despite the risks that come with interracial relationships. Secrets and promises are central themes, and, as in the previous volume, prejudice is a primary source of conflict—here in the form of racial segregation. The clean, vivid prose and star-crossed romance will engage readers until the bittersweet end.

A transportive and affecting tale.