When My Heart Was Wicked

"I used to be one of those girls. The kind who loved to deliver bad news . . . who'd flirt with your boyfriend. But now when I cast spells, they're always for good."

16-year-old Lacy believes that magic and science can work side by side. She's a botanist who knows how to harness the healing power of plants. So when her father dies, Lacy tries to stay with her step-mother in Chico, where her magic is good and healing. She fears the darkness that her real mother, Cheyenne, brings out, stripping away everything that is light and kind.Yet Cheyenne never stays away for long. Beautiful, bewitching, unstable Cheyenne who will stop at nothing, not even black magic, to keep control of her daughter's heart. She forces Lacy to accompany her to Sacramento, and before long, the "old" Lacy starts to resurface. But when Lacy survives a traumatic encounter, she finds herself faced with a choice. Will she use her powers to exact revenge and spiral into the darkness forever? Or will she find the strength to embrace the light?

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 family. WHEN MY HEART WAS WICKED is Tricia's first novel.