Even the Darkest Stars

Gr 8 Up—As youngest daughter of the village elder, 17-year-old Kamzin is being trained to become a shaman, a conjurer of magic. She wants more than anything to be an explorer. When the young, ruggedly attractive Royal Explorer, River Shara, descends upon her village in a hot-air balloon, the world shifts for Kamzin, and sparks fly between the two. In this YA fantasy series opener, complications ensue, and Kamzin embarks on an expedition to seize the magic talisman at the top of Raksha—a mountain from which no explorer has ever returned alive. If they fail to claim it, the dormant kingdom of witches will rise again and destroy all the villages, including Kamzin's. To prevent this, the two heroes and their team begin climb through pelting hail, avalanches, and freezing winds. They must also contend with the presence of hostile mountain ghosts. Unknown to the party, River has made a secret contract with a fire demon; each time he invokes its power, he must give a piece of his soul to the smoldering creature. Kamzin reels from her strong physical attraction to River, which conflicts with her inner voice that warns he is deceiving her on some level.