The Weaver Bride by Lydia Gregovic

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Weaver Bride by Lydia Gregovic

Lovett Tamerlane is an 18-year-old silkwitch living in Balmoore. Her silkwitch powers are rare, but with that rare magic comes the responsibility of marrying a Weaver, someone who is a powerful magician that spins their magic from witch hair. In Balmoore, if a silkwitch fails to marry by a certain age, she faces banishment and is cut off from society. Lovett knows she won’t have that opportunity, as she lacks the status, sophistication, and wealth to find a spouse. Instead, she uses her unique ability of being able to open any locked door and steal from the rich.

During one of her thefts, Lovett is caught by Eliot Lear, the arrogant son of an influential Weaver family. He has been watching her for some time and makes her an offer she cannot refuse. Eliot wants her to enter the Vainglory, a high-stakes competition in which silkwitches compete for the chance to marry Noé Alaire, the heir to the Weaver King. However, there is a catch: last year’s Vainglory ended in tragedy when the winner died, and that winner was Eliot’s own sister, Ophelia. Eliot wants Lovett to investigate his sister’s death and find her killer. In exchange, he promises to secure her place in the Vainglory and ensure she has influence over her future suitor regardless of the outcome. Lovett, with little choice, agrees to the arrangement.

The next week is spent with Lovett learning proper etiquette and learning the other girls’ names. She soon finds out that the other nine girls competing are the same nine girls who were in the last competition—she will be the odd one out. But it will also make it easier for her to investigate Ophelia’s death, as one of those nine girls could easily be the suspect. Eliot trains her and warns her that he is part of the competition and can’t show any sort of favoritism, and that he will have to be quite mean to her once they start.

The time then comes, and Lovett moves into the castle. She is introduced to Noé Alaire, and she doesn’t make a great first impression, but Lovett doesn’t seem to think much of him either. Still, she feels like she at least passed the first test. Lovett spends her time looking around Ophelia’s old room for clues, and then decides it’s time to meet the other Weavers, who are not kind to her at all. They basically tell her to stay in her lane. To make matters worse, Eliot is true to his word and is very unkind to Lovett, making her look even worse amongst the other Weavers. Between meeting the girls and Eliot being mean, she realizes she wants to win the competition now.

The first trial is starting soon, and she meets up with Eliot. He gives her a coin so they can communicate with each other and meet up—it will light up when either one of them touches it, and they will need to meet. Lovett wants to fight with Eliot, though, because she knew he would be mean but didn’t realize how mean he would be. She wants to storm out, but before she does, Eliot gives her a piece of paper that has a secret on it that will supposedly help her with her first task.

During the first trial, she is led to Noé, where she is supposed to tell him a secret that he doesn’t know. She decides to tell the secret, but it turns out it was one he already knew, and it was a bit bold of her to even share it. Though he likes her courage for sharing the secret, Noé lets her pass. What Lovett didn’t realize was that since she used that secret in such a bold way, it made Eliot look bad, and now Noé is refusing to talk to Eliot. After the trial, Lovett is summoned by Eliot so he can yell at her about it. She doesn’t apologize, but they do once again start at square one and try to rebuild their tentative relationship.

Lovett continues to look for information about Ophelia and ends up finding a candle and parchment that she can communicate with, and that can communicate back. She starts questioning it, and the paper reminds her that questions are what got Ophelia killed, and that Lovett should be careful, then cuts off the communication.

Lovett then runs into Noé, who tells her she has done a great job thus far, even though it was very gutsy of her to share that secret. He then starts to talk to her about failure and games of chance, which Lovett finds a bit odd. Lovett then runs into Sybil, and she realizes that the two of them are both sneaking around the same areas and asking some of the same questions. Though she can’t ask Sybil about it because the two girls are brought in to see the King.

Lovett is brought in first, where he starts to probe into her mind with his magic. She then realizes that this is the next trial, and that perhaps Noé’s last cryptic message about games of chance was a clue. She asks the King to play her in a drinking game, which she ends up winning. The downside is that Lovett has never had that much strong drink before and becomes very sick. On her way out, she runs into Eliot, who helps her back to her rooms—but not before she says some very embarrassing and angry things to him.

Once she starts feeling better, Lovett goes to find Sybil, wanting to know more about what she is investigating in the tunnels. She finds out that they are both looking into the death of Ophelia, and it turns into a small fight. That night, Eliot comes to check on Lovett, and they end up sharing a kiss. The next morning, Noé comes to talk to the witches and announces that Sybil died that night. He gives all of them the option to leave the competition, but every girl decides to stay.

No one will tell Lovett how Sybil died, so she sneaks into Sybil’s room herself and finds a coin that looks just like hers and Eliot’s. She decides to activate it, and it lights up. She goes to the same spot where she meets Eliot, and sure enough, he is there. He hired two spies, and now one of them is dead. Lovett tries to lie and say that she has all sorts of blackmail on him and has told her brother about it, but Eliot laughs and says that her brother is the reason they were found together. Her brother came to him and basically sold her for a day’s worth of wages. Lovett feels betrayed by both Eliot and her brother. She vows to Eliot that she will win the competition just so he is forced to look at his friend and see her next to him, and just so that he will have to kneel to her. She then throws the coin at him and leaves.

The third trial takes place the next morning, and Lovett just manages to pass, but not very quickly. Noé believes that she has passed, but Eliot starts to make the case that she should be disqualified. Noé makes his final choice, and Lovett gets to move on. He invites her to dinner that night. The dinner goes well, and at the end of the night in her room, she gets a knock on her door. She assumes it is from one of the girls, but it is a guard saying the prince wants to see her. She goes with him, only to have the guard take her to Eliot. While still upset with her, he doesn’t want to see her harmed. He tells her that she should leave because the next trial is going to start soon, and the trial will require her to be paired with someone. She has been paired with Dorian, the man whose secret she shared in the first trial. Lovett doesn’t care and says she is going to stay and win the trial.

The next day, Lovett gets woken up by Dorian, who says it’s time for her third trial and that he is going to take her. He takes her to an alcove and starts to touch and attack her. In desperation, Lovett touches the coin to communicate with Eliot, hoping that he still has it. A few moments later, Noé is there and stops Dorian from hurting her any further. Before any more questions can be asked, Lovett forces herself to faint.

She wakes up and Eliot is there, and they decide to try to be friends again. As they keep talking, they talk about astrology, and Lovett realizes that Eliot knows a poem that was in Ophelia’s journal, and Lovett thinks she has made a connection because of it.

Once Lovett feels better, she and Eliot decide to go back down into the tunnels until they find a door. Lovett knows it is the right door, and she is right, but they are missing the key. On their way back, Lovett falls into an underground river, and Eliot jumps in and saves her. They have a small moment but don’t let it go any further. Eliot takes her to her room, and despite the growing tension, he leaves her. Lovett can’t sleep, so she leaves her room and goes to Eliot’s, where the two spend the night together. The next morning, Eliot asks Lovett what she will do when it comes down to Prince Noé’s final decision. She doesn’t answer and just walks out the door.

That morning, Lovett meets with Noé, and he tells her that he has feelings for her and plans on choosing her when the time comes. Noé also quotes a poem to her, and it makes her blood freeze because it’s the same poem that was in Ophelia’s journal. Lovett starts to piece things together, and she believes that the prince is behind everything, and that he is the one she has been corresponding with through the parchment and the candle. She decides that before the final trial starts, she is going to sneak into Noé’s room to find some answers. She confirms many of her theories, but while snooping, the King shows up and says what a pity it is that he found her, because he had such high hopes for her and his son liked her very much. She then feels her mind being invaded and blacks out.

Lovett wakes up in the tunnels with a dull knife and a small note. She realizes that she is in the final trial, and that it is only her and one other contestant—it is a fight to the death. Lovett believes it will be an unfair fight, as the other girl’s power allows her to track others, and she assumes the other girl will have a sharp knife. The two girls quickly run into each other, and Lovett plans on winning. The fight is quick, and Lovett manages to switch their knives, so when the other girl swipes for Lovett’s neck, it doesn’t do any damage. Lovett tries to give the other girl an advantage, but she doesn’t care, so Lovett knocks her out. She finds a key and decides she is going straight for the door.

Once in the room, Lovett sees her hair, as well as the other Weavers’ hair. They have all been tested and ranked. Lovett is in second, but she is apparently not the strongest nor the King’s favored. She doesn’t know what all of this means, so she decides to run before she is caught. She goes to Prince Noé to get answers.

He confirms that they were all tested and that it was his father’s plan, though he didn’t love it. It was also his father’s plan last year, and Ophelia was the one who won—or at least should have. Noé promises he did not kill Ophelia, but admits he was most likely the last one to see her. They had a fight in the tunnels where information was revealed, and Ophelia ran away. Prince Noé then reveals that the Weavers are the ones with all the power—he has none. Once the witches bond with the men, the power transfers, the Weavers’ powers are stunted, and they don’t grow as powerful. It was something the royals did generations ago to stop the Weavers from becoming too powerful. Noé tells her all of this sadly, and Lovett believes he is sincere. So when he proposes that the two of them get married and work together to stop the binding, she agrees—though she also feels like she doesn’t have much of a choice.