The Dragon Choker: 2 (The Cracked Slipper)

Eleanor Brice Desmarais she of the cracked glass slipper and unladylike intellectual propensities has learned that happily-ever-after is as rare as a frozen dragon even for a happenstance princess. She survived a plot against her life but her marriage to the alcoholic womanizing Prince Gregory of Cartheigh remains at best a sham and at worse a potential noose around her neck. Gregory is increasingly suspicious of Eleanors unusually close relationship with his best friend Dorian Finley and with good reason. Ironically Gregory seems to be engaged in his own scandalous love affair-- with Eleanors scheming stepsister no less. Eleanor understands the harsh realities of womens lives in her kingdom so she turns her energies to a school for impoverished girls until an evil magicians deception destroys the school and unleashes a festering plague. From the Fire-iron walls of Eclatant Palace to the slums of Meggett Fringe no one magical or mundane is safe from the fever-induced delirium of the Great Burning. Not even Eleanors children. As Eleanors happily-ever-after morphs from circumspect to heartbreaking to mortally dangerous for both herself and Dorian she faces her greatest losses and her harshest reckoning. No matter what life hands her however she finds the strength to do what she must. She stares down her challenges protects her loved ones and fights to change the world. Just like women everywhere in her world and ours.