Description

Nettles Hollow is as good a place as any to restart your life. At least, Ambrose Howl hopes so after his life falls apart.

The town's got everything he needs: a general store carrying his favorite cigarettes, a library he could get lost in, and a hedge witch who immediately befriends him. He settles in as an herbalist, using the knowledge he'd gained from academia that he'd left behind, and for once in his life, he feels like he could be content. It's not so bad living in some rural, far-flung town.

Until he's visited and kidnapped by the skeleton valet of Renwick Frey, a fey lord living in hiding who is cursed to eat human hearts every five summers to remain alive. As his next victim, Ambrose saves himself by making the desperate claim of knowing how to break curses. Renwick is charmed enough to let him try, but if Ambrose can't break the curse by summer's end, then his heart is forfeit.

The problem? He's never broken a curse in his life, and given the mysterious circumstances of this one, he might even die before summer ends.