Young Adult Fantasy

A mashup of Zelda: Breath of The Wild and Sleeping Beauty, this high-stakes YA fantasy explores self-acceptance and what it means to follow your head vs. your heart. It features an adorable grumpy vs sunshine trope, a dual timeline, and the magic of true love’s kiss.

​

Princess Zia knows she comes across as cold and distant, but she’s got bigger problems: her magic is all that stands between her kingdom of Hanai and the demon bent on conquering it. However, when she falls under an ancient sleeping curse broken only by true love’s kiss, she must confront her unemotional mindset if she wants to save her people.

 

Stuck in an uncanny, alternate version of Hanai with Raiden, the irritatingly empathetic knight who also fell under the curse, Zia strives to keep both of them safe long enough to find true love. The alternate world is full of dangers—some external, like the monsters that lurk around every corner—and some internal—like the stolen memories that return in fragments and paint a confusing picture of Zia and Raiden’s past relationship.

 

As the demon’s influence in the alternate world grows, the pair’s hopes of escaping the curse diminish even as their feelings for each other become more muddled. And when Raiden's life is threatened, Zia must decide whether trusting her head or her heart will save him. If she miscalculates, she dooms not only Raiden but all of Hanai.