Magical Competitions with (Fabulous?) Prizes

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt, enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Ning enters a cutthroat magical competition to find the kingdom’s greatest master of the art of brewing tea, but political schemes and secrets make her goal of gaining access to royal physicians to cure her dying sister far more dangerous than she imagined.

Named in the will of a wealthy man as potential beneficiaries, a group of teenagers must solve a murder to win the magical inheritance.

Sparks fly when eighteen-year-old Nigel meets Ori during the Culling, a competition that determines whether a magician is stripped of their powers or joins the magical society known as the Guild. But soon, they realize the connection growing between them threatens their future, the Guild, and all of humanity.

Entering a contest to redesign late author Emrys Myrddin’s estate, aspiring architect Effy Sayre arrives at Hiraeth Manor where she meets a stodgy young literature scholar who draws her into a battle against dark forces–both mortal and magical–that threatens to consume them both.

Transgender demigod Teo is unexpectedly selected for the sunbearer trials, a fierce competition among demigod heroes where the winner sacrifices the loser to Sol, their blood fueling the sun stones that protect Reino del Sol.

Mikira, a seventeen-year-old daughter of a famous horse breeder, takes part in a magical horserace to save her family, and enlists the help of Arielle, a talented, black-market enchanter, and Damien, a young lord involved in a succession battle, who both have their own motives for helping her.

Branwen, Gwydion, and Pryderi, a huntress, a trickster, and a prince, band together in the dangerous tournament, the Wild Hunt, to win a magical wish granted by the Otherking, but unbeknownst to them, winning may cost them more than losing.