Sarah Beth Durst
Description
Review "Durst consistently defies expectations...while exploring sophisticated themes of found family, integrity, and morality."-- "Publishers Weekly
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(starred review)" Product Description In this epic standalone fantasy, the acclaimed author of the Queens of Renthia series introduces an imaginative new world in which a pair of strong and determined women risk their lives battling injustice, corruption, and deadly enemies in their quest to become monster racing champions.Life, death, and rebirth in Becar, everyone knows that who you are in this life will determine what you are in your next life. The augurs can read your fate in your aura: hawk, heron, tortoise, jackal, human. Armed with that knowledge, you can change your destiny with the choices you make, both in this life and your next. But for the darkest individuals, there is no redemption: you come back as a kehok, a monster, and you will always be a kehok for the rest of time.Unless you can win the Races.As a professional trainer, Tamra was an elite kehok rider. Then a tragic accident on the track shattered her confidence, damaged her career, and left her nearly broke. Now Tamra needs the prize money to prevent the local temple from taking her daughter away from her, and that means she must once again find a winning kehok and a rider willing to trust her.Raia is desperate to get away from her domineering family and cruel fiancé. As a kehok rider, she could earn enough to buy her freedom. But she can t become good enough to compete without a first-rate trainer.Impressed by the inexperienced young woman s determination, Tamra hires Raia and pairs her with a strange new kehok with the potential to win if he can be tamed.But in this sport, if you forget you re riding on the back of a monster, you die. Tamra and Raia will work harder than they ever thought possible to win the deadly Becaran Races and in the process, discover what makes this particular kehok so special. About the Author Sarah Beth Durst is a graduate of Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat.
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