In a world where the blood you're born with determines not only who you can be, but who you can love, a palace apprentice and her reluctant king risk cursing their entire kingdom as they fight for justice and find true love.

Cadette Beaurivoir knows what it means to be invisible. The hat maker's apprentice by day, she spends her nights roaming the palace and dreaming of a world in which her presence can truly make a difference.

But in a society stratified by class, and in a palace where women workers are silently disappearing, she resigns herself to a safe and quiet life working beneath the stairs.

Constant Kelly, the kingdom's newly crowned king, doesn’t think he can make a difference at all—the Crown's true power is concentrated in a small group of men called the High Elders, after all. And so, he resigns himself to being a resigned king—until he meets Cadette.

Their chemistry is instant, and their love burns brighter than the darkness that surrounds them.

But with only three weeks to oust the corruption in the kingdom and break the king's arranged marriage, they must both find the strength within themselves to stand for the only thing they know is right: true, effervescent love—even if it means cursing the entire kingdom.

It’s a risk they’ve got to take.

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Published November 2022