The Queen

Before America Singer's Selection, another girl arrived at the Illéan palace to compete for a prince's hand. Told from the perspective of Amberly, this prequel novella follows her own turbulent Selection and the courtship that made her queen — and shaped the country America later inherits.

The story stays inside the palace's rivalries and protocols, tracing how an ordinary girl from a lower caste navigated the same competition, pressures, and family politics that America will later face a generation on.