Polk, C L / The Midnight Bargain

In a world in which married women’s magic is taken from them to protect the lives of their unborn children, a young woman must balance her desire to become the first great female magician against her duty to secure a rich husband who can discharge her family’s debts.

Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress practicing her magic in secret, terrified of the day she will marry and be locked into a warding collar that will cut off her magic to protect her unborn children from spirit possession. She dreams of becoming a full-fledged Magus, permitted to join the Chapterhouse and pursue magic as her calling just as men do. But her family has traveled to the city for Bargaining Season, when young men and women of means socialize and negotiate to secure the best marriages. The Clayborn family is in severe debt, and she is expected to save them all by making an advantageous match.

In a stroke of luck, Beatrice finds a grimoire that would allow her to summon a Greater Spirit, a dangerous feat which—if successful—would make her a Magus. But before she can purchase it, a rival sorceress swindles the book right out of her hands. Beatrice summons a minor spirit to help her get it back, but the spirit’s price is Beatrice’s first kiss—with the rival sorceress’s brother, the handsome and understanding Ianthe Lavan. As Beatrice becomes more entangled with the Lavans, the choices that once seemed clear become harder: if she attempts the spell to become a Magus, she will devastate her family and destroy her chance to be with the man she loves; but if she marries, even for love, she will lose her magic, her dreams, and everything that makes her who she is. Beatrice must choose one—and regret the other forever.