Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil)

In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. A man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she cannot or will not love him, he remains masked forever. Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that binds men and women together, 17- year-old Noll is just done with it. She has lost all of her childhood friends as they’ve paired off, but the worst blow of all came when her closest companion, Jurij, finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who has the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of man. The stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is willing to lose.