Cornerstone

Princess Liesel’s older sister, Verena, hasn’t smiled in years. Desperate to improve her low spirits, the king declares that the man who can make Verena laugh will earn her hand in marriage. But his plan seems doomed to failure from the start. Each unsuccessful attempt only makes Verena more despondent, and a set of mysterious masked suitors raises suspicions about a plot by an enemy prince.

For three long years after losing her home in the Crylmar attacks, twenty-two-year-old Annette Beaumont has worked hard to keep her family together. But when her papa's debt to the crown is called into question, and she and her sister are sent to serve at the castle until it's paid, she's drawn into a plot that threatens everything she's worked for. Shunned and hated, Prince Laurent Villeneuve is running out of time to find a bride before he forfeits his right to the throne.

Madelena isn't in love with her friend Armando, but his marriage proposal offers the security she needs. She sympathizes with him—his father insists Armando must either find a bride or join the army. Armando would rather become a husband than a soldier, but his ugly face has scared away all other eligible ladies despite his family's wealth.

When their father the king is assassinated in the palace courtyard, Frederick Belvare can do nothing to stop his older brother Matthias from plunging into the Blackwald forest after their father's assassins to bring justice and to retrieve his stolen crown. Only the Crown Prince does not return, and Prince Frederick must go to the Blackwald to bring his brother back. He enlists the help of his father's knights and sets off into the Blackwald, but rumors lurk of strange men and monstrous bear tracks in the snow.