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by Elias Cold
A trans teen who steals and ransoms body parts with magic investigates a string of missing girls―falling in love with one of them from afar.
Wielding a magic that allows him to pop off limbs, con artist Phyllis steals body parts and his partner Lucent ransoms them. Everyone who knows about Phyllis's magic is afraid of him―except for Lucent. But his partner's love comes with one condition: Phyllis must keep stealing. But when a mark can't afford ransom for his missing nose, Phyllis loses his resolve. The man claims his sister, Adeline, was taken, and without her money he can't pay until she's found.
Intrigued, Phyllis investigates Adeline's disappearance, but she is not the only missing girl in their seedy city. To gain answers from the nobility, Phyllis masquerades as a duke―Lord Phillip of Rabbiton―and begins to fall in love with both stories of Adeline and the man he's becoming to try and find her. Soon, he's not sure he ever wants to return to Lucent and their life of crime together.
When he finally finds Adeline with another missing girl, it turns out they're not dead―but undead.
To win Adeline's heart and break from his toxic past, Phillip will have to scheme to keep his title and master his evolving magic.
"I found myself tearing through the book to uncover every twist Cold delivers in their distinctivte, delightful voice. The Duke stole my heart right out of my chest, and he'll steal yours too." ―S. Hati, author of And the Sky Bled
"Darkly witty, richly atmospheric, and achingly tender. With incisive commentary on gender and identity―alongside a fresh magic system―queer readers will be both captivated and comforted by Cold's YA debut." ―Cass Biehn, author of Vesuvius
"Delightfully original. This is a world readers will want to lose themselves in over and over again." ―David Ferraro, author of A Vile Season and The Alchemy of Moonlight
This information about The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Elias Cold (they/them) is a speculative fiction writer, editor, and former medical geneticist. Their work tends to center queer and neurodivergent characters and has appeared in Rabbit Journal and Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. They live in rural Australia with their two cats.
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