Protecting a prince’s sister-in-law seems simple until a queen tries to match him up with her daughter.

Keenan left home to watch out for a young woman searching for her friend. But when bandits attack, leaving them separated, Keenan is left lost and wounded, stumbling through the woods in search of help.

Princess Sakura needs a titled husband to inherit the throne. Since a prophecy declared her the future bride of a common soldier, she only has a few months until her brother is named heir in her place. But it’s hard to find a husband at all in an isolated castle.

When an injured young man staggers up to their door, the queen offers him the chance to prove he is a “true prince” and so marry her daughter. Sakura believes their guest has enchanted the queen…until her mother confides a plot that will guarantee Sakura the throne. All she has to do is make Keenan fall in love with her.

But he doesn’t trust her or her mother – and the key to her crown might be too powerful to give up.

Published
October 31, 2025
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Author

Erin Halbmaier

Erin Halbmaier is an author of clean fantasy romance and fairy-tale retellings, best known for The Roumaterra Chronicles. Her stories return to familiar tales such as Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, and The Goose Girl, then weave them into a shared fantasy world where magic and adventure are closely tied to complicated relationships. Halbmaier's fiction favors flawed characters and hard-earned happy endings. Romance plays an important role in her books, but her stories are written without explicit sexual content and with minimal violence. Rather than making love effortless, she often explores separation,…