If Mary Jane was motivated by faith, a spirit of independence and the quest for truth in the first novel of the trilogy, Madeleine and Esmeralda are driven by purposes quite different in the second. For both girls it is the embracing of hope - of salvation for Madeleine, and illumination for Esmeralda - that propels them along their parallel paths. Madeleine, a daughter of the Magian line, is bequeathed CALINDA AL EMERIS MAGUS - the rare "gift of the Fourth king" - which enables her to perceive what others cannot. But, as with many gifts, there are prices for such things. The bloom of a rose,...

On the changing checkerboard of Christmasville, buildings and homes are rearranged annually. The calendar consists of only two pages: December and January. But no one gets any older. And the worst of ailments is poison ivy, and color blindness, and signs of that most harrowing of afflictions: partial blindness. No one knows where the trains go or what lies beyond the mountains and forests. They've never seen grass or walnut trees, but they do discover how tomatoes are named. And roses and violets and orchids. In a town nestled between magic and miracle, dream and deja vu, Mary Jane Higgins...