The Roumaterra Chronicles · #5
Trials and Command
A Retelling of The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea
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.
The series
Familiar fairy tales take unexpected paths in The Roumaterra Chronicles, a collection of interconnected fantasy romance stories set across the kingdoms of Roumaterra. Cinderella crosses paths with Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin shares a story with The Phantom of the Opera, and Robin Hood becomes entwined with Snow White and Rose Red, reshaping well-known tales into something distinctly their own.
Read full series description
Erin Halbmaier's retellings focus as much on relationships as magic and adventure. Princes and princesses are allowed to make mistakes, marriages can be tested after the expected happy ending, and secrets, difficult choices, and old promises have consequences. Each story explores a different corner of Roumaterra while connections between characters and kingdoms gradually give the series a wider sense of place.
Written as clean, no-spice fantasy romance, the series combines fairy-tale magic with flawed characters, emotional conflicts, adventure, and hard-earned happy endings. Most of the books can be enjoyed as standalone stories, while reading them together reveals the threads connecting their reimagined fairy tales.
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