I found this handsome hardcover in this Little Free Library in Nashua NH while dropping off some books of my own. It's a fantasy novel about an all-female society of silver-skinned, cerulean-haired people who live above the clouds and whose blood is magical. Their lives seem perfect - until it's time to send one of their number to the planet below as a sacrifice, allowing the City in the Sky to move to a different location and absorb new and different energies.

Our heroine Sera is (surprise!) chosen as the one to be sacrificed, and is very much surprised at what she finds when she reaches the ground. The people and social structures are so very different - and her own looks and abilities make her an instant stranger and target; how will she survive? And is this how the sacrifice is supposed to work?

The book's a hefty one and is the start of a series, with lots going on. The other main characters - including a young woman and a young man from the ground-dwelling cultures - get their own viewpoint chapters alternating with those of Sera, so we get to see how each culture looks to the characters inside it and those outside. (It did seem to fall into info-dump mode at times, but there's a lot going on here.)

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in this roomy Little Free Library (which doubles as a pantry, hence the loaves of bread perched on top!); hope someone enjoys the book!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2021 September Sapphire challenge. ***