Dark Cinderella

Sofia's best friend has vanished, and the trail leads to the royal palace of the fictional kingdom of Skonien. She applies for a position on the palace staff undercover, determined to find out what happened — and finds herself face to face with Crown Prince Maximilian, a man who turns out to be less polished poster-boy and more someone genuinely weighed down by duty.

What looks at first like a Cinderella story becomes something darker: romance shot through with real danger, palace media logic, and a heroine who investigates rather than waits to be rescued. Anya Omah's "Dark Cinderella" opens the Northern Royals duology and ends on a deliberate cliffhanger.