Hardcover, 563 pages
English language
Published Oct. 8, 2013 by Candlewick Press.
Hardcover, 563 pages
English language
Published Oct. 8, 2013 by Candlewick Press.
On the eve of Princess Sophia's wedding the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne's heirs, and a courtier's wolfish hunger for the king's favors sets a devious plot in motion. In the palace at Skyggehave, things are seldom as they seem -- and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined.
A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid at the center of an epic power struggle navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power lust, and deception. The plot contains sexual situations, and graphic violence.