A Fate So Cold

Gr 9 Up–Every year, Winter tears through the near-perpetual Summer of Alderland bringing brutal cold, monstrous winterghasts, and dangerous storms for six weeks. In a modern society driven by magic, the country lives in fear of the next cataclysm, where only the wand bound to Summer magic and the next Chosen One will be able to defend the land from Winter’s threats. With a limited number of wands waiting to be bound to new magicians, competition is always fierce among ambitious students keen to make their marks in Aldrish society and rise beyond the ranks of hedge magicians. When Valmordion, the greatest wand of Summer, awakens for the first time in living memory, it marks the approach of the next—and potentially most dangerous—cataclysm and the call for a new Chosen One. Domenic Barrow, a boy shrouded in tragedy and a bad reputation he wears like a shield, is horrified when he is Chosen. Ellery Caldwell, who turned her own tragic history and raw potential into armor, is a much more likely candidate—until she creates the first Winter wand in history, making the duo an unprecedented Chosen Two. Complex protagonists and their mixed feelings about their destinies give life to the comparatively superficial worldbuilding that never fully reconciles the existence of seasonal magic alongside modern technology. Domenic has fair, freckled skin and russet hair; Ellery has fair skin, blonde hair, and pale blue eyes.