To Best The Boys (Hardcover)

Every year for the past fifty-four years, the residents of Pinsburry Port receive a mysterious letter inviting all gentlemen to compete for an esteemed scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. Every year, the poorer residents look to see what fancy parchment it’s printed on. The wealthier look to see how likely their sons are to survive the dangerous competition. And Rhen Tellur opens it to see if she can derive which substances the ink was created from, using her father’s microscope.

In the province of Caldon, where women are trained in wifely duties and men are encouraged into collegiate education, sixteen-year-old Rhen Tellur wants nothing more than to become a scientist. In fact, when the poor of her seaside town begin falling prey to a crippling disease, she and her discredited professor father are the ones who work desperately to find a cure. But when her mum succumbs to it as well, Rhen decides it’s time to pursue her future-not through the ordinary societal means but through the annual all-male scholarship competition.

With her cousin, Seleni, by her side, Rhen dons a disguise and enters Mr. Holm’s labyrinth to best the boys and claim the scholarship prize. Except not everyone survives these games, and Rhen must learn that her place in the world isn’t determined by not fitting in but rather by belonging to the one person she believes in. Herself. Only then can she change the tides of tradition.