The Scarlet Star

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>He's a beast trapped in a palace and she's a beauty tangled in his web...</em></strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Nineteen-year-old Ryn Electus is captured and brought to the palace for a twelve-week trial period along with three of the fairest maidens in the kingdom to try and 'steal the heart' of a young tormented King with a deadly secret. Unfortunately the King appears to have no interest in the maidens and keeps getting himself into trouble.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But the King isn't the only one with a dangerous secret. Ryn has been living in hiding all these years until she's dragged from her home and put on a public stage where she finds herself in the crosshairs of the Intelligentsia; a council of sages who serve the seven Celestial Divinities and conspire to destroy people like her. If the sages discover who Ryn really is she'll be dead by morning.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Things get even more complicated when Ryn learns what Xerxes is fighting against the internal wars he's waging on his own and why he keeps getting himself into trouble.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>However shortly after Ryn arrives at the palace an old priestess opens Ryn's eyes to see the workings of false gods at war who are influencing the kingdom of Per-Siana at every turn dragging the people into destruction and causing chaos. Ryn is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the gods until she unexpectedly gains the favour of an ancient god who's been silent for decades; the God Original the first God enemy of the Celestial Divinities who beckons Ryn to shake up the very foundations of the domain.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Thus begins a battle fought in the shadows alongside a war of gowns and politics waged in the spotlight.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Ryn must do everything she can to hide that she's a descendant of King Xerxes's enemies and she and Xerxes were born as rivals destined to hate and destroy each other.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>She has only weeks to decide which side she's on.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Inspired by the fairytale </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Beauty and the Beast </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>and the Biblical story of </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Queen Esther</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> this mashup of high stakes forbidden romance and dangerous secrets isn't the fairytale you know.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>This book includes gorgeous character illustrations by artist Kyannah Durocher.</em></p><p></p>