The Crimson Crown

Heather Walter

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the wickedest of them all? Snow White's Dark Queen tells her side of the story in this whimsical and enchanting reimagining of the classic fairy tale from the author of "Malice."

Legends tell of a witch who became queen—the heartless villain in the story of Snow White. But now the Evil Queen is stepping out of Snow White's shadow to become the heroine of her own legend. Her story began "once upon a time" when Ailith, a young witch living in the forest with her coven, secretly practiced her magic and hid from the White King's brutal war against magic. Ailith, however, faces a war of her own. Her magical gifts have yet to reveal themselves, and with the threat of royal hunters growing, she fears she'll never become the witch her coven needs. To prove herself, she embarks on a perilous quest that sends her to the White Palace, a decadent world filled with drama and deceit. There, she meets an unlikely figure from her past, Jacquetta—the witch who captured Ailith's heart—and then betrayed her. As events in the palace escalate, Ailith finds herself caught in the White King's web, whose dark pull is just as dangerous as the evil force that seems to haunt the palace. As the threat of exposure looms, Ailith and Jacquetta must put aside the wounds of their past and work together to survive. But to do so, Ailith must find the strength to transform into someone she never imagined: a powerful witch, the fiercest of them all.