The Amaranth Enchantment
Coming March 3, 2009 from Bloomsbury USA. NEW: Read an excerpt!

Available from your local independent bookstore, chain store, or online bookseller.       
ISBN-10: 1599903342
ISBN-13: 978-1599903347

Winner of the 2007 Vermont College Program Scholarship Prize
A Junior Library Guild selection

From Amazon.com -- When Lucinda Chapdelaine was a small child, her parents left for the royal ball and never returned. Ever since, Lucinda has been stuck in perpetual servitude at her evil aunt’s jewelry store. Then, on the very same day, a mysterious visitor and an even more bizarre piece of jewelry enter the shop, setting in motion a string of twists and turns that will forever alter Lucinda’s path. In this magical story filled with delightful surprises, Lucinda will dance at the royal ball, fall under the Amaranth Witch’s spell, avenge her parents’ death, and maybe—just maybe—capture the heart of a prince.

Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

Berry's enticing debut novel teems with romance, danger and suspense. Lucinda, a 15-year-old orphan, leads a miserable existence as a servant until she gains possession of an unusual stone belonging to Beryl, a reputed witch. As luck would have it, the gem is stolen and sold to a prince before Lucinda even realizes it is gone. Most of the plot centers on Lucinda's adventures trying to retrieve the stone from the prince, with whom she predictably falls in love. Fantasy buffs will delight in the author's playful use of fairy tale conventions—unlike Cinderella, Lucinda has the good sense to retrieve her lost slipper after attending a ball (“I considered leaving it there, but one footfall in my stocking feet on the cold granite changed my mind”). But the book's main appeal comes from the revelations of many secrets and unexpected twists, including the truth about Beryl. Lucinda has to work harder than most such heroines to acquire her happily-ever-after ending, but her efforts eventually pay off, while leaving readers with enough unanswered questions to set imaginations spinning. Ages 10–14.

Booklist
“Intriguing characters, fine plotting, and a richly worked narrative carry the reader into Lucinda’s vaguely medieval world. Orphaned as a small child when her wealthy parents were killed in a carriage accident, Lucinda has grown to the age of 15 as the maidservant in her goldsmith uncle’s home, suffering abuse at the hands of his wife. Life changes quickly for Lucinda after her uncle dies when she attempts to complete an errand to return a strange glowing stone to a woman locally known as the Amaranth Witch. A street thief, the local Prince Charming, a goat with the manners of a loving dog, and an evil chief justice are among the characters who complicate and enrich Lucinda’s life as she discovers her own past and the otherworldliness of Beryl, the amaranth lady. Tamora Pierce fans will particularly appreciate Berry’s smoothly rendered first novel, where magic and historically accurate courtly rites are balanced with Lucinda’s maturing sense of independence, fate, and self.”—Booklist

Kirkus Reviews
“A lively, quick, stylish, engaging first novel with some lovely, familiar fairy-tale elements. Lucinda lives with her uncle and step-aunt, her parents having been killed horribly in a coach accident after a royal ball. Her aunt is downright vicious, and when her uncle dies, Lucinda is on her own. Beryl, an otherworldly customer of her uncle’s jewel shop, leads her to the house that belonged to her parents. She needs to return the large, pale jewel Beryl had brought to be set, but finds it missing from her pocket. Beryl, the jewel, an outrageous young pickpocket known all too well to the prince of the kingdom and all the wild threads that connect them to one other and to Lucinda’s parents and past will enthrall young readers—who probably won’t care that some of the magic is a little wobbly or that the elysian flower of the title comes from Milton. There’s also a goat named Dog, who figures mightily in the action and may or may not have a few magicks himself.” –Kirkus Reviews

Brent Hartinger

"There are two kinds of great fantasy: the "important" kind, where you dutifully turn the pages in awe of the writer's talent and mastery of prose, and the "guilty pleasure" kind, where you breathlessly whip through the book, transported to some truly magical world and determined to find out what happens next. But every now and then, you come upon a story that does both. Amaranth is one such story, and its author, Julie Berry, is definitely one to watch. This won't be the last time we hear from this exceptional new talent."
                    -- Brent Hartinger, author of Dreamquest and Geography Club

From ShelfAwareness.com -- "Berry's talent for building credible connections between Lucinda and this orbit of characters carries the novel and creates some memorable moments. If a building could leak remorse, it would be the once-opulent and now decaying Palisades, with its empty flower pots and broken panes of glass where Beryl makes her home. By contrast, the streets pulse with a magnetic quality as the annual Festival gathers momentum, with the aroma of chicken turning on open fire pits, and prostitutes strolling as citizens dance the Gavotte ... What the author depicts well and confidently is the isolation that Lucinda--and all of the characters around her--experience and how that sense of alienation ultimately draws them all together. This is a writer to watch." -- Jennifer M. Brown