"No one speaks of the grace year. It's forbidden. In Garner County, girls are banished for their sixteenth year to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Tierney James dreams of a better life - but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that there's more to fear about the grace year than the brutal elements and the poachers in the woods. Their greatest threat may very well be each other. With sharp prose and gritty realism, Kim Liggett's The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in between." --Back cover.

A speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid's Tale and The Power. Optioned by Universal and Elizabeth Banks to be a major motion picture! "A visceral, darkly haunting fever dream of a novel and an absolute page-turner." - Libba Bray, New York Times bestselling authorNo one speaks of the grace year. It's forbidden. Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That's why they're banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life-a society that doesn't pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it's not just the brutal elements they must fear. It's not even the poac

Tierney James, sixteen, struggles to endure the year in which she and other young women are banished to the wild until, purified, the survivors are allowed to return home and marry.