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.

Trials and Command is a clean, no-spice retelling of The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea. It is book five in The Roumaterra Chronicles, a series of interconnected, standalone fairy tale retellings perfect for readers of Brittany Fichter and Annette K. Larsen.

Book 5 of the The Roumaterra Chronicles series.