The Lanterns of Velkara oleh Vanessa Graham

In Velkara, a city sculpted by an intricate river delta, the annual Lantern Festival illuminates not just the night sky, but the destinies of its people. Each handcrafted lantern holds the hopes and dreams of its creator, their glow a reflection of their aspirations.  But for Sera, an orphaned scavenger haunting the city's shadowed alleys, the festival is a bitter reminder of everything she lacks.

One day, within the ruins of a forgotten temple, Sera discovers a tarnished lantern, its light long extinguished.  As her fingers brush the cold metal, a strange luminescence ignites, flooding her mind with fragmented memories and a destiny steeped in shadow.  The lantern awakens a dormant talent, transforming Sera into a sought-after artisan of intricate clockwork marvels.  She attracts the attention of Velkara's elite, including Logan Rivas, an enigmatic cartographer whose tales of lost civilizations ignite a spark of ambition within her.

But the lantern's light casts a long, dark shadow. It feeds on the dreams of others, leaving behind a trail of shattered hopes, a truth Sera witnesses firsthand as the vibrant tapestries of April Kent, a celebrated weaver, fade into lifeless cloth. Torn between her newfound purpose and the growing weight on her conscience, Sera delves into the city’s history, uncovering a web of corruption orchestrated by Brooke Hammond, a ruthless merchant who controls the lantern trade.

As the Lantern Festival approaches, Sera must choose: embrace the lantern’s power and reshape Velkara's corrupt hierarchy, or extinguish its flame and sacrifice her own ambitions.  With the city teetering on the brink of chaos, Sera ignites a rebellion, not of fire and steel, but of awakened dreams.  Joined by a disillusioned lantern maker, a conflicted cartographer, and a weaver whose art becomes a banner of hope, Sera confronts the darkness at the heart of Velkara, fighting to reclaim not just her own stolen dreams, but the aspirations of an entire city.  For the true magic of the lanterns may not lie in individual ambition, but in the collective power of shared hope.