The Royal Arrangement

The Royal Arrangement 
By H. D. Maren

 

Isabella Clarke never thought her life would fall apart in the space of a single envelope.

One minute, she's making lattes and locking up her small-town London café. The next, she's being spirited away to the glittering, ancient Kingdom of Arvenia—related by blood to the royal family she never knew she had. Her mission? To honor an age-old treaty that stipulates she marry a stranger in the name of tradition, diplomacy, and the salvation of a crown that doesn't belong to her.

The man in question is Crown Prince Alexander: handsome, ruthless, and completely disinterested in anything except power. With a reputation as a calculating ice prince who never deviates from his plan, Alexander approaches their marital contract as he would a battle strategy. To him, Isabella is another chess piece to be manipulated. To her, he's a prince with a throne and no heart.

But Isabella is never one to obey orders.

Before she can catch her breath, her marriage to the Crown Prince of Arvenia devolves into a game of wills. She tests boundaries. He erects walls. Every look is heated. Every smile is a disaster. And behind the palace walls—where the flowers are toxic and tradition is king—a dangerous thing starts to grow. Secrets. Trust. A kiss neither of them were supposed to share…and a desire that neither can ignore.

As scandal runs through the palace like wildfire and talk of treason blurs the line between friends and enemies, Isabella must make a choice: does she stand her ground as a woman with the freedom to leave…or as a queen who stays to fight? Because while politics may have brought them together, love may just tear them apart.

Between tradition and transgression, family and forbidden romance, Isabella and Alexander have to face their worst fears. Not just of who they once were, but of who they want to become…or risk losing everything.