Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy, and set off to save my family from impending ruin.

I made it almost to the end of my front garden.

(Excerpted from the opening of A Most Improper Magick. Click to read the first three chapters.)

Kat's mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her stepmama is determined to sell Kat's oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off - so what can Kat do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune!

When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers - and Kat is her heir.

Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé.

And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.

A Most Improper Magick is the first in The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson trilogy. It was published by Templar Books in the UK on August 1, 2010, and will be published by Atheneum Books in the US in Spring 2011 (as Kat, Incorrigible). You can buy it in the UK from Amazon.co.uk, The Book Depository, Templar Books, or Waterstones; pre-order it in the US from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders.com, Chapters.indigo.ca, or IndieBound (to order from your local independent bookstore); or pre-order it elsewhere from The Book Depository or any of the international branches of Amazon.