The Beggar Prince: A King Thrushbeard Retelling
An unwilling suitor. A mocking princess. A marriage they both abhor.
Diplomacy and a demanding mother send Thorben of Hauke to a neighboring kingdom, there to present himself as candidate for marriage to their princess. Beautiful Leonie of Elisia is famous for insulting every suitor she receives, and Thorben banks on her dismissing him as well—which she does, with vicious aplomb.
This time, though, her ridicule proves her father’s breaking point. The King of Elisia vows that Leonie will marry a beggar, and Thorben departs inwardly applauding the punishment… until a terrible storm deposits him tattered and bedraggled at the castle’s kitchen door. Before he can weasel out of his mishap—or even pull rank—the marriage is done.
But what’s legal in Elisia might not be in Hauke. Disguised as a beggar, Thorben leads Leonie home to secure an annulment.
If he’s lucky, he’ll get it without revealing his true identity… and before losing his heart to his exquisite but sharp-tongued bride.
The Beggar Prince, a retelling of King Thrushbeard, is book 2 of Once Upon A Prince, a multi-author series of clean fairy tale retellings. Each standalone story features a swoony prince fighting for his happily ever after.
A level-headed young king meets his match in a contrary princess
Deathmark
Purple spur and silver thread, waste away until you’re dead.
Necromancers infest the land of Alderyth, fueling a dark plague that always kills its victims. For Nell, it’s more than a story told by travelers. The deathmark claimed her family and fated her to a life of servitude.
When a battered old hag collapses in her arms, suspicion swirls through her fear-governed town. Could Nell be a carrier of the plague? She decides to flee rather than submit to prying authorities, but not without trouble. The deathmark dogs her footsteps, and her best escape might lie with a reclusive man who knows far more than he should about the curse.
A headstrong heroine and her secretive ally confront a magical plague.
Maid and Minstrel
Sheltered and pampered, beautiful Rosalind of Lovana turns eighteen with fluttering excitement. Nobles and dignitaries across the land are to celebrate with her—including young King Philip of Mallinae, whom she secretly adores.
But instead of a party, she descends to an auction where she is the prize up for bid. Incensed, she ridicules the guests, slinging a willfully hurtful barb at Philip in their midst.
Her father, enraged to have his moneymaking schemes thus ruined, delivers a seething ultimatum: Rosalind must marry a beggar that very night, or she dies.
This novella is based on “King Thrushbeard” by the Brothers Grimm.
A moment’s anger casts a princess from riches into rags.
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Kingdom of Ruses
by Kate Stradling
Ruses of Lenore, Book 1
Viola Moreland’s life is a well-orchestrated lie. For generations, her family has fabricated the existence of the Eternal Prince, a mysterious and powerful ruler who watches over the small kingdom of Lenore.
This practiced deception cracks when a nameless stranger stumbles across the truth and promptly assumes the Prince’s identity. Unable to produce the genuine figurehead, the Moreland family—and Viola in particular—must cater to the imposter’s whims or risk their web of carefully constructed ruses crumbling to pieces.
But as with any good lie, nothing is what it seems. Contrary to Viola’s desires, this false Prince with his cryptic agenda may well be the only thing that stands between the true magic of Lenore and certain destruction.
This edition also includes “Prince of Ruses,” a Ruses of Lenore short story.
Tournament of Ruses
by Kate Stradling
Ruses of Lenore, Book 2
Flora Dalton wants nothing more than a quiet life in the countryside of Lenore, but her father’s promotion to the Parliament of Lords has uprooted her and planted her smack in the middle of a mess. Not only must she adjust to a new home, a new city, and a new circle of friends, but she also gets to endure a whole country gone mad with excitement: the Eternal Prince of Lenore—their famed and fabled protector—has decided at long last to take a consort!
Rumor says he’s going to marry the Prime Minister’s daughter, Viola Moreland, but the lords have petitioned him to consider each of their daughters in turn, and that includes poor Flora. Against her wishes she must navigate a sea of scheming females in a laughable tournament of feminine graces, even as deathly shadows encroach upon her doorstep.
For while most everyone is fixated on the Eternal Prince’s love life, something much more sinister is afoot in Lenore, and Flora happens to be at the very heart of it.
Guardian of Ruses
by Kate Stradling
Ruses of Lenore, Book 3
Rosia Domitius has lived her whole life in Melanthos, in the palace of Emperor Petronius Drusus and his heirs. She loves her homeland, but the magic that once infused it is vanishing, siphoned by Lenore, a small, defiant country to the west. When magical attacks begin along that border, the emperor dispatches an investigative party with Rosia in its midst—as a fledgling assassin. His expectations are clear: she can end her people’s suffering if she kills Lenore’s ruler, a mysterious figure known only as the Eternal Prince.
As soon as her party crosses the border, they encounter a nameless young man with a mischievous smile. Although he acts harmless, the creatures of the woods obey his whims. Rosia’s survival quickly depends on his goodwill, and perhaps on uncovering the secrets he guards with his pleasant façade.
For, according to this stranger, her homeland’s woes come not from Lenore but from within, from rituals lost and bonds betrayed. If she follows her original plan, she might save the dying empire. Or, she might destroy its only hope.
The Heir and the Spare
by Kate Stradling
An evil princess, a ruthless persecutor, a wretched match.
Tormented at home and bullied during her studies abroad, second-born Iona of Wessett hides in the quiet corners of her father’s castle. Her art and music provide refuge, but her cruel sister Lisenn ever lurks like a monster stalking its prey.
Such has been her life for twenty years.
However, a promise of reprieve and retribution arrives when the neighboring kingdom of Capria proposes an alliance between their new crown prince and Wessett’s heir to the throne. The treaty will rid Iona of the toxic Lisenn, and the potential groom is none other than her erstwhile bully, Jaoven of Deraval. The marriage could not be more poetic: each deserves the misery the other might inflict.
Except that Jaoven, humbled by the war that elevated his rank, appears to have reformed, and the fate of both kingdoms now hinges on the disastrous union he’s about to make.
The Legendary Inge
by Kate Stradling
Plagued by misfortune, Ingrid Norling treks into the woods to clear her head. She emerges a monster-slayer, the shaken executioner of a creature so ferocious that even the king’s strongest warriors could not destroy it. In a land that reveres swords and worships strength, this accidental heroism earns Inge an audience at court and an ill-fated prize: King Halvard impulsively adopts her and names her as his heir.
Under constant guard to prevent her escape, Inge confronts the ignoble underbelly of the royal court: a despotic king, a clueless princess, a proud warrior, and a dangerous intrigue. As secrets unravel and the castle threatens to become an elaborate deathtrap, Inge must keep her wits close and her weapons closer.
The monster in the woods was only the beginning.
Goldmayne: A Fairy Tale
by Kate Stradling
Evil witches, cursed royalty, heroes by happenstance, and happily ever after.
Duncan does not believe in fairy tales, but when he runs away from his father’s farm, he tumbles headlong into one. Old Dame Groach recruits him as caretaker of her crumbling estate, where he must tend her poisonous garden, beat her white horse daily, and keep far away from the mysterious closet beneath the stairs… and that’s only the start of his fantastical troubles.
A retelling and shameless embellishment of the French-Canadian folk tales, “Scurvyhead” and “Sir Goldenhair.”
A Boy Called Hawk
by Kate Stradling
Annals of Altair, Book 1
Dreamer, Machinist, Sweet-talker, Enigma.
When four gifted children escape from the government-run Prometheus Institute, it’s up to their classmate, 10-year-old Oliver Dunn, to bring them back. Unfortunately for him, Hawk, Hummer, Honey, and Happy West did not leave on a whim, and they have no intention of returning quietly.
With the help of the powerful Government-Civilian Alliance, Oliver and his handler Emily must track down the truants before they can wreak havoc across the southwestern United States.
Submit now, dear children. The state demands it.
A Rumor of Real Irish Tea
by Kate Stradling
Annals of Altair, Book 2
Ten years old and in disgrace.
A twist in fortune has landed Oliver Dunn and his handler Emily at the Prometheus Institute’s F Campus, where aspiring delinquents and bureaucratic red tape abound. Meanwhile, Oliver’s sworn enemies, Hawk, Hummer, Honey, and Happy West, continue to chase rumors of the mysterious Altair, much to the ire of the government.
When a stringent military general decides to end the Wests’ mischief once and for all, Oliver is again enlisted to help. Together with a disgruntled classmate, a charming news reporter, and a know-it-all administrative assistant, Oliver must outsmart the Wests to restore order and his tarnished reputation in this follow-up adventure to A Boy Called Hawk.
Oliver
Invictus
by Kate Stradling
Annals of Altair, Book 3
Dead at Fifteen.
Oliver Dunn’s life is officially over. Pulled from his bed in the black of night, he’s headed for the Prometheus Institute’s mysterious shadow campus, where anomalies like him vanish forever.
But no sooner does he leave Prom-F than the school descends into chaos. The student body revolts, classmates make a break for freedom, and one silent, powerful projector among them corrals the adults into a hive-minded collective of slaves.
Yanked back from his impending doom, Oliver’s mere presence restores order. The Prometheus heads demand that he ferret out the rogue projector, but he’d rather die than cooperate.
His life is already over. They can’t threaten him with any fate worse than his own. But they can threaten the one person in the world he actually cares about: his former handler, Emily Brent.
Soot and Slipper
by Kate Stradling
Eugenie lives in isolation on her father’s estate, with only her elegant stepmother and two stepsisters for company. When the crown of Jacondria announces a series of royal masquerades, she yearns to go. However, her stepsisters’ fortunes hinge on them finding wealthy husbands, and Eugenie doesn’t want to interfere with their odds.
Enter a mischievous fairy who has other plans.
Brine and Bone
by Kate Stradling
When Magdalena discovers the crown prince of Corenden washed ashore after a shipwreck, her rescue-by-happenstance draws her back to the glittering palace and its stifling rules.
But Prince Finnian’s miraculous return attracts more than the nobility of the court. The eerie creature that spared his life would gladly reclaim it, even if staking that claim requires a sacrifice of flesh and endless torment.
Namesake
by Kate Stradling
Anjeni Sigourna bears the name of a legendary goddess, but her resemblance to that honored figure ends there. Eighteen and jaded, she has cultivated sarcasm instead of the elusive magic everyone expects her to possess.