Moonshine

In Ashland’s Soot City, “settled in a terrain of lava beds and dusty woods,” stylish modern girl (think flapper) Daisy Dell explores magic and her newfound independence in Gower’s meandering, Jazz Age–flavored fantasy debut. Daisy, fresh out of women’s college, is thrilled to land a job at Stripes Management. It’s soon revealed that Stripes is a front for a speakeasy that manufactures mana, the addictive, outlawed substance necessary to keep magicians’ bodies balanced while practicing magic. Enjoying the nightlife with her coworkers is fun, but when a hit woman is hired by a corrupt politician to take down a magician—any magician—she targets Daisy, who possesses enchanted charms given to her by her grandmother that rely on faerie magic and blood sacrifice. Daisy will need her wits and her new friends to survive. Gower’s effortless depictions of queer characters is refreshing, the world is intriguing, and the climactic brawl is gloriously wild, but this frothy concoction never lets readers get too close to its large cast of characters. Hopefully readers will get to know Daisy and co. better in future installments. Agent: Laura Zats, Red Sofa Literary. (Feb.)