Anya Balanchine is out of juvenile detention and wants to get her life back to normal and finish out her senior year of high school. But there’s no escaping her heritage as the future leader of the Balanchine chocolate mafia, much as she wishes she could. Assassination attempts, family secrets and scandals, conspiracies and corruption all make it impossible for Anya to stay in New York, so she escapes to Mexico to learn about cacao production among longtime family allies. When she finally returns to the city, it’s with a new understanding of the process and a new resolve to change the way the Balanchines do business. Set in the latter part of the twenty-first century, Gabrielle Zevin’s saga, which began with All These Things I’ve Done (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011), casts Anya as a smart, sympathetic anti-hero. Confined by the illegalization of chocolate that transformed a once respectable family business into an international crime syndicate, she now seeks new alliances in the hope of turning things around. All of which seriously complicates Anya’s romance with Win, son of the New York City district attorney. Zevin skillfully manages the action and the intensity of feeling in a unique and compelling story populated by fascinating characters, and that promises to be continued. (Age 12 and older)

From the New York Times best-selling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, this is the second stunning novel in Gabrielle Zevin's Birthright series. In this thrilling novel about a reluctant mobster, Anya tries to shatter the ties that bind--with deadly consequences.

"Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in."- Michael Corleone, The Godfather

Since her release from Liberty Children's Facility, Anya Balanchine is determined to follow the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, her criminal record is making it hard for her to do that. No high school wants her with a gun possession charge on her rap sheet. Plus, all the people in her life have moved on: Natty has skipped two grades at Holy Trinity, Scarlet and Gable seem closer than ever, and even Win is in a new relationship.

But when old friends return demanding that certain debts be paid, Anya is thrown right back into the criminal world that she had been determined to escape. It's a journey that will take her across the ocean and straight into the heart of the birthplace of chocolate where her resolve--and her heart--will be tested as never before.