Usama Bajwa
To find her vanished sister, Mara must trust the man who took her.In the sea-walled city of Merrow, memories power the bells that keep the water at bay. Citizens surrender small experiences to keep their homes safe. But some people lose far more, until even those who love them forget they ever existed.Six weeks after her sister disappears, mapmaker Mara Venn refuses to let her name vanish. Then a message surfaces on a map: by the third dawn, the city’s rulers will be able to take whatever memories they need. June may still be alive, and time is running out.To reach her, Mara joins forces with Elias Rook, the royal warden who arrested June. Bound by an oath that punishes disobedience, he knows the secrets behind Merrow’s protection. He also knows more about her sister’s fate than he has admitted.Following forbidden routes through a city that rewrites its own past, Mara discovers that opening a sealed passage can cost a memory she can never recover. As reluctant cooperation deepens into attraction, Elias’s hidden part in the disappearances threatens the trust they are beginning to build.As the third dawn approaches, Mara must find a way to save the people Merrow has forgotten without sacrificing everything that makes them worth remembering.The Cartographer of Borrowed Hearts is a romantic fantasy for readers drawn to costly magic and an enemies-to-lovers relationship built on hard-won trust.
