Publisher's Synopsis
Imagine Huck Finn was a girl...with an obnoxious talking sword.
The Civil War's ragin', magick's real, my only friend's been kidnapped by monsters, and my goofy sword's tellin' me dumb jokes. My name's Verity and people call me a tomboy (though Ma calls me her little huckleberry) because I wear overalls, run around barefoot, and whup all the boys. But skirts're useless fer swordfightin' at Ford's Theater and corsets make me itch. Good thing, too, 'cause the other night I found an honest-fer-real magick sword named Jasper. No foolin'. It can take any shape and powers me to do impossible stuff. Five minutes later a demon showed up to steal it...over my literal dead body. Turns out I'm 'the chosen one' or some such malarkey. There's a darned fool prophecy, even. I also found out the theater mouse can talk (and is 250 years old) and our hired hand used to be a guard dog for Emperor Hadrian. Anyways, we're on the run from every manner o' monsters, sorcerers, renegade soldier gangs, and what not, because a bunch called the Merchantry think me and Jasper are all that can stop 'em from takin' over the world. Since they already magick-spelled it so every country lives in a different time in history, not 1862 like here, I reckon they ought not be allowed to do that. So now we have to find a way through the Union and Confederate armies durin' a huge battle to rescue my only friend, Tommy. They took him prisoner back to Shakespeare's London to make me chase 'em. They've been ambushin' us the whole way. And just to make things even peachier, my poor ma's gone missin'. But my biggest problem is really Jasper, 'cause besides his so-called sense of humor, he won't do magick fer me without I do him 'favors' like smokin' cigars and drinkin' whiskey. Ick! Filled with allusions to classic literature and real historical events, Brimstone and Lily: A Blade of Dubious Glory pokes gentle fun at the whole young adult 'you're the chosen one and here's your quest' genre.
