Author Website

Published by Candlewick Press

ISBN 0763666947 (ISBN13: 9780763666941)

SYNOPSIS:

On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches: brocade and satin and jewels, feasts of sugar fruit and sweet spiced wine. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion.

Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem — and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined with that of mad Queen Isabel. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susann Cokal grew up with a roomful of books and Barbies, with whom she acted out elaborate stories. For a while she lived on the edge of wild land covered in sagebrush and cactus, playing in a dry creek bed. But she was born in California and has lived most of her life by the crashing waves and barking sea lions: In San Diego, she used to write on the beach; in Berkeley, she earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature; on the Central Coast, she bought her first wetsuit and published her first novel.

She now lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she teaches creative writing and contemporary narrative at Virginia Commonwealth University. She breeds goldfish in a wee backyard pond that reminds her of the ocean and is working on a ghost story set in that very house in the 1920s.