Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
In the aftermath of World War I, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts, and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.
To those who are bright and young, to those who are wild and wicked…welcome to Crow Island.
On Crow Island, people whisper, real magic lurks just below the surface. But when Annie Mason arrives at the idyllic summer getaway, she never expects to discover her enigmatic new neighbor is a witch.
When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Crow Island’s extravagant parties, she is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where the boundaries of wickedness are tested, and the cost of illicit blood bargains might be death.
Reasons to read it: For a sapphic, magical retelling of The Great Gatsby. May’s prose expertly builds atmosphere and mystery while a slow-burn romance develops. The side characters are really engaging, and the dynamics between all characters is interesting to see. Hannah Whitten, author of For the Wolf, said that the book is “Brimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild and Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book.”
