In the Light Of Her Shadow

Diane Laurent has always dreamed of falling in love.

But love has little place within the walls of noble society.

After moving north with her family, Diane finds herself swept into the glittering and dangerous world of court politics, where whispers travel faster than truth and every noble daughter is expected to secure a future worthy of her name. For Diane, that future may lie with the duke's son, a kind and charming heir whose attention could elevate her family and offer the romance she has always longed for.

Elena Valerius wants something entirely different.

Beautiful, sharp-witted, and heir to one of the most powerful families in the north, Elena has no interest in love. To her, marriage is power, freedom, and the only chance she has to escape the suffocating control of her father. Winning the future dukedom is not simply a desire. It is survival.

Forced into rivalry as they compete for the same man, Diane and Elena become entangled in a dangerous game of courtship, ambition, and growing obsession. Every dance becomes a challenge. Every glance feels like a confession neither of them is ready to understand.

Because while Diane searches for the kind of love she has always imagined, Elena begins to awaken something far more complicated within her. Something terrifying. Something impossible to ignore.

And beneath the glittering candlelight of noble courts and winter ballrooms, Diane is forced to confront a truth far more dangerous than losing the competition itself:

The person most capable of ruining her heart may never have been her rival at all.