All gifts come with a price.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

The end of the year is one of my favorite times at BOTM. It’s always satisfying to look back at the previous twelve months and think about all the books that we loved. One tradition I’m particularly fond of, though, is our “Yearly Look-Back,” when our team gets the chance to select a book we read and loved from earlier in the year and recommend it to members in December. This year, I am thrilled to share The Thirteenth Child.

Our story begins with a girl named Hazel, who has the bad luck of being the thirteenth child in her family. Before she is even born, her parents promise her to a god—and not just any god, but the god of Death. When Hazel’s mysterious godfather finally arrives in her life, he takes her under his wing and trains her as a healer with a special gift: she can discover the cure for any illness in an instant. But this new gift comes at a heavy cost, and as Hazel navigates growing up with unimaginable powers, she must make difficult choices that will either save the ones she loves or leave them for dead.

I read The Thirteenth Child many months ago, and I’m still thinking about Hazel’s story after all this time. Erin A. Craig has created a splendid world filled with magic, gods, and a little darkness. It’s the perfect book to end your year of reading, so light a candle (or twenty), crack open the cover, and venture out in the footsteps of Death…if you dare.