Tricia Stirling’s WHEN MY HEART WAS WICKED

has been selected by Kirkus as one of the

Top Teen Titles for This Month!

Click here to check it out!

When My Heart Was Wicked

Agent: Molly Ker Hawn

Genre: Young Adult

Scholastic, February 2015. World English.

Manuscript available.

Lacy's life with her mother Cheyenne was dark and unstable until the day Cheyenne disappeared without a trace. Now, after three years with her father and stepmother, Lacy's no longer an angry, self-destructive loner—and then Cheyenne comes back.

Forced to leave the home she loves, sixteen-year-old Lacy knows that living with her mother could revive the hard, unhappy girl she used to be. What she doesn't know is that her mother will do anything she can to keep control of Lacy's heart and soul. Between her erratic behavior and her boasts of dabbling in black magic, Cheyenne can't be the mother Lacy needs—but Lacy feels increasingly powerless to withstand her influence. Just what kind of hold does Cheyenne have on her? And can Lacy break that hold before her life spirals out of control?

When My Heart Was Wicked is a powerful young adult novel of a young woman's struggle for independence from her mother, with strong elements of magical realism—think Francesca Lia Block meets Glimpse.

“Cue the lightning and thunder as you enter a world of dark arts, where terrible tricks can be played on the mind and heart.  Every page of this taut thriller rings with emotional truth.”—Judy Blundell, National Book Award winning author of What I Saw and How I Lied

“Unexpected, uncanny, unforgettable.” —Kirkus

“Debut novelist Stirling has written a delightfully dark and twisty story for those who never quite outgrew fairytales…This enigmatic novel will keep readers guessing from the first page to the last. Are there supernatural forces at work or is Cheyenne delusional and psychotic? Does Lacy have the ability to cause the accident that put her would-be seducer in the hospital or was he just drinking too much that night? Was Lacy’s heartlessness actual or metaphysical? No clear answers will frustrate and delight readers. Stirling is an author to watch.” —School Library Journal

Tricia Stirling’s Bio:

Tricia Stirling earned her M.A. in creative writing and has been published in Literary Mama, The Angler, and Syntax. She lives in Sacramento, California, with her husband and their three children, and blogs at http://triciastirling.blogspot.com. When My Heart Was Wicked is Tricia's first novel.