A Forgery of Fate

Gr 7 Up–This inspired retelling of Beauty and the Beast traps a reluctant con artist in an underwater kingdom with a dragon lord determined to destroy the gods. Truyan’s father disappeared at sea and her mother has drowned their family in gambling debts, leaving Tru to try and keep them afloat by forging paintings. She is excellent at it, but her true talent emerges with a prickling of her fingertips, and in those moments, she can paint the future—and that future always comes true. When her mother is threatened by a gang to pay off all her debts by midnight or lose her daughters, Tru’s attempts to save her family throw her into the path of the dragon lord Elang. Cold and driven by his own goals, Elang will pay her family’s debts and set them up for life if Tru marries him and helps infiltrate his grandfather the Dragon King’s inner circle. Tru’s power to paint the future has never been so perilous as the future they’re aiming for commits treason against the gods. Lim has a special talent for creating engaging characters, and Tru’s empathy and wit make her a delight to follow. The romance is a yearning slow-burn, full of tension as Lim balances Tru’s clairvoyance with the mystery of how the future comes to be. While readers might wish for deeper descriptions of the underwater world, the pacing and plot are exceptional.