Gilded Rose

Gilded Rose opens Emma Hamm's Celestials series with Amicia, a humble tinker's daughter, forced into terrible choices as the monstrous Dread overrun the kingdom's last stronghold. Held hostage in a chateau by Alexandre, the Dread's king, she discovers he isn't the mindless destroyer he appears to be, but one of the Celestials meant to protect humanity, now trapped under a curse he barely remembers taking on. As alchemists scheme behind the scenes and the Dread's threat grows, Amicia's only real hope of survival, and Alexandre's only hope of redemption, is breaking the curse before it's too late.