An excerpt of Hearts on the Table by Susan Metallo! On sale September 22nd, 2026 from Candlewick Press.
As World War I rages, a seventeen-year-old English feminist with a penchant for thrashing men at cards finds herself stranded on an enemy-controlled island and tangled in the last mess she’d ever expect: love.
Violet is used to winning—with her mathematical mind, no one stands a chance of beating her at cards, or much of anything else. So, when her wrathful father threatens to marry her and her trans twin brother Seb to the highest bidders, she’s certain they can escape England, even with a war on. But before they reach safety in Italy, a U-boat sinks their ship, and Violet washes up on a small island, on the wrong side of enemy lines, desperate to find her missing twin.
To earn passage to the mainland, where she hopes Seb has landed, Violet disguises herself as a man and accepts a job delivering love poetry for melancholy pacifist Teo, the island’s irritating golden boy. The object of his
