**The Season Series Prequel (#0.5)** Isabelle de Haviland is hopelessly in love with Prince Leopold of Germania. Fortunately for her, the dashing foreign prince is her betrothed, thanks to a decade-old marriage treaty signed by her father, the Duke of Kentshire. But Kentshire is a rich and bountiful duchy, with Isabelle as its sole heiress. Whomever she marries will inherit her father's lands, which sit on the hotly contested border between Germania and Pretania. Refusing to be outwitted by his own duke, the King of Pretania summons Isabelle to Highcastle Palace as a debutante for his son, Graham, the temperamental crown prince. Determined to remain loyal to her husband-to-be, Isabelle is forced to navigate the tricky waters of the royal court all while keeping the meddlesome prince at an arm's length. But all is fair in love and war and Prince Graham is not one to lose at either...

Isabella, future queen of Gardia, unlike any lady of her time, is no damsel, but a fierce warrior. Though respected by men and shunned by women she fleetingly wonders what it would be like to fall in love. The Head Knight of Jaria, enemy nation of Gardia, Aiden has resented women for most of his life and relishes in the fact that his job keeps him out of their conniving clutches. What happens when war threatens and stoic Aiden meets the formidable Isabella? Sparks fly in more ways than one. Cover by DemeterLucy