A gifted heroine must fulfill her destiny, no matter how fraught. Vicky is the middle daughter of Kat Wardrop, a notorious ex-Raven guard of Queen Evangeline--and the only one to ever leave her service. Advised by a shadowy group called the Collective, the queen wants new Raven recruits to attend the Hogwarts-like Corvus School for the Artfully Inclined. As her daughter shows prowess in both combat and magic, Kat wants to shelter Vicky from Corvus and let her choose her own path. When a sudden and devastating event forces Vicky into attending the school after all, she, desperate with grief, makes a rash decision that could alter the fate of the entire kingdom. Marr's splashy offering is packed full of an extensive array of beloved fantasy tropes ranging from mystical creatures like gargoyles and kelpies to a magical boarding school, alchemists, thieves, and portals to other worlds. While certainly a crowd pleaser, the plotting tends toward being overcrowded to the point of cliché, but the fast-paced chapters, each narrated from a different point of view, help move everything along. Echoing elements from series like Harry Potter and Nevermoor, and even Disney's Frozen franchise, this will be popular with a wide swath of readers. Main characters read as White. A veritable buffet of fantasy conventions. (Fantasy. 8-11) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Following a complicated series of events involving her mother's career as guard to manipulative Queen Evangeline, 12-year-old Victoria Wardrop, a powerful warder capable of working magic through both athames and sword, is sent to the Corvus School for the Artfully Inclined, where she hopes to learn enough to address her past. There, she meets Algernon Nightshade, son of the Queen's alchemist, who dreads the day he'll have to murder and replace his father, and street thief Milan, who sees the school as an unexpected route to stability and success. As the three form a tentative alliance, they also wrestle with their respective family legacies and discover that all is not right at the Hogwarts-esque school. Filled with ley lines and animate gargoyles, Marr's (Pretty Broken Things) engaging fantasy is primed for magic and mystery, but it feels more like an extended, jam-packed introduction than a full, fleshed-out arc. While the story line can feel unfocused, promising characters and intrigue-laced history suggest more to come. Ages 10--up. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House. (June)