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ALT An autumnal themed still art photograph, featuring various pumpkins and squash, flowers, and a snuffed candle, all situated on a round table. The top reads TO THE WIZARD, 85k Adult Fantasy.

ALT Text: Pitch After all her brothers are taken year after year by the elusive Wizard, Bronlei knows she is next. But when her best friend is taken instead, she decides to enter the annual contest to Hunt and Kill the Wizard. The only person who can help her reach the top of the mountain is her first love. The only problem? He despises her, and for good reason. But when Bronlei reveals she's in possession of the only existing guide on how to find and kill a wizard, the pair enter a tenuous alliance to help the other navigate the dangerous magic that has turned the mountain into an unpredictable gameboard.

ALT Text: Prelude On the eve of the Taking, the people of the mountain smear their doorways with blood. They sprinkle blessed holly ash through holes in the floor and hang their branches upside over from cracks in the ceiling. Each room is lined with salt, every headboard burned with iron in the shape of a petal. Some people say a chant in old Eila, some flip their rugs over. Others fill a dozen basins with water and leave them in the kitchen with a brew of clean bones, dead flowers, and uncut quarry stone. Their doors are bolted twice, windows locked, curtains drawn. What they don’t know, the people of the mountain, is that none of it matters. Salt or spruce, iron or ash, the Wizard takes who he wants. There is no way to stop him.

ALT A diagram of book covers from left to right: UPROOTED by Naomi Noviks (tone and intrigue) THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater (atmosphere and romance) BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN by M.L. Wang (politics and secrets) NETTLE & BONE by T. Kingfisher (quest and stakes)