Fortune is an itinerant musician without a past who braids memories into her hair. Maud is a sheltered small-town girl and an unwitting heir to the notorious McBride family magic. The two young women meet when Fortune is commissioned to bring Maud to a rich man whose grandson she cursed. United by their love of music and their hunger for the road, Fortune and Maud form a friendship one that is threatened not only by Fortune's mission but also by their mutual desire for a man called Lightning.

''Sweet as vanishing dreams, tender to the touch as new memories, wise as nursery rhymes, tasty as blueberry pancakes, Holly Wade Matter's Damned Pretty Things is a wondrous redemption tale of the triumph of love and friendship over pain and difference.--Nisi Shawl, author of Everfair and Filter House

Damned Pretty Things is beautiful and wise, haunted and haunting. Sui generis. Brilliant. Enjoy.--Cynthia Ward, author of the Blood-Thirsty Agent series