Whimsy and Woe — Rebecca McRitchie

After being abandoned by their thespian parents one afternoon while playing their weekly family game of hide-and-seek, Whimsy and Woe Mordaunt are left in the care of their austere Aunt Apoline.

Forced to work in her boarding house year after year (looking after guests and smartly sharpening the thorns of every plant in the poisonous plant garden), Whimsy and Woe are losing hope their parents will return. Until one day, quite by accident, the siblings stumble upon a half-charred letter ... a clue of darker secrets Aunt Apoline has hidden in the walls of the boarding house.

Whimsy and Woe are launched on the first steps of a gripping journey―on trains, boats, hot-air balloons, and more―through ramshackle towns, sinister caves, and dark seas, searching for freedom and, with even greater hopes, for their parents.

Dark, funny, darkly funny and funnily dark, WHIMSY AND WOE takes readers on an adventure with two intrepid siblings in a tale of mischief, monocles, mice, and mist. Perfect for fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Name of This Book Is Secret.