Deadly Games, Forbidden Proximity, and Crackling Tension

After the horrors of Tenebris, Elana believes she has weathered the worst. Yet waking in the royal palace proves the opposite. Where once cold stone walls stood, marble now gleams. Where iron bars marked captivity, she is now surrounded by silk-soft lies. Freedom remains an illusion, only its form has changed.
Once again Elana is imprisoned — this time in a golden cage whose beauty is deadlier than any darkness before. For at court, different rules apply: power is exercised in whispers, trust is deemed a weakness, and every smile can spell ruin. The palace is not a sanctuary, but a battlefield with no visible weapons.
It falls to Riven Thornevale to oversee Elana — the man she once entrusted her life to. The man who betrayed her. Between unspoken truths, guilt, and old wounds, loyalty and enmity blur. Nothing is clear, and any closeness brings new danger.
The royal house pursues its own aims. Elana must take part in the Crown Trials, a game that outcruels even the Blood Games. Intrigues replace blades, words become weapons, decisions become traps. Those who fail to understand the palace’s rules in time lose more than just the game.

The Court Demands Adaptation, Obedience, and Sacrifice

Between power, manipulation, and empty promises, it isn’t only Elana’s freedom that is at stake. The court demands adaptation, obedience, and sacrifice—and with that calls into question everything Elana believed about herself and her place in this world.
“The Cursed Queen – Crown Trials” (Amazon Affiliate Link) is now available with page overlay, a reading ribbon, and a meticulously designed foreword and afterword as a hardcover edition for €24.90, as well as an e-book for €3.99 at Kampenwand Verlag.
Juliane Maibach, born in 1983, lives with her family near Freiburg in the Black Forest. Since childhood she has been writing stories — initially short prose and poems, later longer narratives and novels in which she creates her own imaginative worlds. After studying German studies and working as an administrative clerk, she has devoted herself entirely to writing for more than a decade. With more than thirty published books, she has established herself mainly in the romantic fantasy genre. (dd/pm)