Crown of Cinders

A Twisted Cinderella Retelling

By: Brandon Rohrbaugh

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A twisted Cinderella retelling where the palace doesn’t want a bride; it wants ownership.

Mara Greycourt was raised in soot and ledger ink, trapped under a stepmother’s debts in the kitchens beneath the royal halls. She learned early that the palace runs on rituals: bows, signatures, and quiet suffering that looks pretty from a distance.

Then the Cinder Masque is announced: a season of public pageants in which the prince chooses a queen through spectacle, law, and the sharp-eyed machinery of record-keepers and priests. Entry requires sponsorship. Proof. Binding. A name that will hold.

Mara should never make it past the service stairs.

But a witch in white lace offers a midnight bargain sealed in cinders and glass.

• One night in the ballroom.
• One gown spun from smoke.
• One slipper shaped for Mara alone.
• In exchange, the Crown of Cinders marks Mara as chosen and marks her family as protected.

The trouble is, the crown doesn’t bless. It brands.

Every dance becomes a test. Every mirror becomes a witness. Every public word grows weight, and midnight doesn’t free her; it tightens the collar. The prince hunts the mystery girl with a hunger that feels less like romance and more like possession, and Mara has to decide what she’s willing to burn to keep her life, her body, and her name from becoming palace property.

Crown of Cinders is an adult dark romantasy, first-person past tense, consequence-driven, with high heat that earns itself through danger, restraint, and choice.

If you like the spice, court pressure, and sharp-edged romance of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the brutal chemistry and high-stakes intensity of Fourth Wing, and the mythic, seductive bite of Neon Gods, you’ll feel right at home in Wicked Ever After.

Book 5 begins the Ash and Ember cycle. Each book stands alone with a new couple, new curse, and a new bargain.