Deadly Ever After
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Two dead princesses must find true love's kiss to be brought back to life in this heart-stopping romantic fantasy debut.
“A captivating blend of suspense, romance, and fantasy.” —Kalynn Bayron, New York Times bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead
Amala has spent her whole life trying to be the perfect princess: delicate, quiet, obedient. But when she’s murdered on the night of her wedding, her story is cut short before it begins.
Kha’dasia has been told her whole life that she is too rough, too loud, too much. She’s no ordinary princess but a ruthless warrior on a quest to fulfill her late brother’s dying wish. Except she dies before reaching her destination.
When both girls wake up in a cursed forest, the gods offer them a second chance at life—if they can find true love’s kiss. But there’s a catch, the gods warn. While the right kiss will save you, the wrong kiss will kill you.
On their journey, the princesses must overcome challenges that force them to face the truth of their lives…and their deaths. And as Amala and Kha’dasia grow closer, they can’t help but wonder if true love has been standing right in front of them all along.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Johnson's complex and insightful romantasy debut, two dead teens seek the reviving power of true love's kiss. When 18-year-old Princess Amala of Rosewyn is murdered shortly after her marriage to Prince Vincent of Iman, she wakes up in an otherworldly forest realm called the Garden. There, the Elders of the Garden inform her that she's been afforded a second chance at life, which she resolves to use to both learn who killed her and reunite with Vincent. She soon encounters prickly warrior girl Kha'dasia, similarly granted a reprieve from death, who takes an instant dislike to Amala. The Elders then set both teens on a quest: if they can survive the Garden's many dangers, they may return to the mortal world. As the pair venture, however, they must also seek true love's kiss, told that "the right kiss will save you. The wrong kiss will kill you." Throughout their journey, the unlikely companions divulge their darkest secrets, hidden traumas, and deepest wishes, and rely on each other to survive. Amala and Kha'dasia's percolating chemistry—portrayed via the duo's distinctly rendered alternating first-person perspectives—is magnetic, and the novel's traditional fantasy setting teems with timeless-feeling dreamlike elements as the Garden manifests challenges to test their fears. Characters cue as Black. Ages 12–up.
