The Etiquette of Extinction

Synopsis

In the glittering nation of Almavere, the Capitol — known as the Gilded Court — rules over twelve impoverished Provinces with an iron fist concealed inside a white silk glove. Each year, to commemorate the failed Provincial Uprising of a century past, every Province must offer up two tributes: one young man, one young woman between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, to compete in the Grand Ascension — a series of elaborately staged debutante balls, dinner parties, and social trials broadcast across the nation. The last tribute standing at the final Presentation Ball wins prestige, freedom, and a life of comfort. The rest are quietly eliminated — through duels disguised as dances, poison poured into crystal flutes, and public disgrace engineered to look like accident. It is, the Court insists, the most civilised spectacle in the world. Honoria Vane, nineteen, sharp-tongued and sharper-eyed, hails from Province Twelve — a grey, fog-soaked region known for its coal and its silence. When her gentle younger sister is drawn at the Selection Lottery, Honoria steps forward in her place, armed with nothing but a ferocious wit, a dangerous capacity for observation, and a complete contempt for polished society. Paired with Callum Ashby, the mild-mannered son of a Province baker who possesses an unnerving gift for being universally liked, Honoria must navigate powdered wigs, poisoned compliments, and a ballroom that doubles as a battlefield. Her greatest obstacle is not the other tributes — it is Lord Aldric Cavendish, the Court's most celebrated arbiter of taste, whose disdain for Province girls is matched only by his inexplicable, inconvenient interest in Honoria herself. As alliances form over dessert courses and enemies smile behind painted fans, Honoria begins to suspect that the deadliest weapon in the Grand Ascension is not a blade — it is a well-timed sentence.