A riches-to-rags girl, an arrogant war hero, and a curse to break.

World shattered.

Bellarose Bonnay's world shattered the day her father lost everything. Stripped of her aristocratic life in France, she arrives in New Orleans as an orphan with nothing but heartbreak and two precious books. When an old woman directs her to Rose Manor, Bella expects to beg for work as a servant. Instead, she discovers an impossible secret: the plantation exists under a powerful enchantress's curse.

Magical Solution.

Each twilight, magic transforms the abandoned manor into breathtaking elegance. Servants trapped as candlesticks, clocks, and furniture become human for mere hours. Most shocking of all, Antoine de la Rose—master of the estate and twin to the arrogant war hero Gerard—spends his days as a savage wolf. The enchantress Aerowyn gave him one chance: find unselfish love before his nineteenth birthday, or remain a beast forever. With only weeks remaining, everyone's fate hangs in the balance.

As Bella helps plan a grand ball to break the curse, she finds herself caught between worlds: the unlikely friendship she's forging with Gerard, her growing feelings for Quinn (a disfigured stable boy with a gentle heart), and her desperate hope to save the household from eternal enchantment. But when jealousy, magic, and misunderstanding collide on the night of the ball, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice. In this lush retelling where beauty lies beneath the surface and beasts wear many faces, true love demands a price no one expects to pay.

A cursed pirate, a book–loving girl, and a fae island where happily ever after comes with a price.

Bellarose Bonnay

In Bellarose and The Pirate, Bellarose Bonnay has always escaped into stories. Fairy tales, epic romances, and happily ever afters are easier than a messier real life. Her father gambles away their fortune and a voyage to New Orleans leaves Bella orphaned and penniless. Working as a maid at Rose Manor, she survives on quick wits, hidden kindness, and secret lessons in swordplay from Quinn, the shy blacksmith who would do anything to protect her. When whispers of pirates and cursed treasure swirl through the local taproom, they are just tales to tuck between book pages. That's when the most feared name on the Caribbean walks through the door.

Captain Jasper Falcon

The pirate captain has clawed his way from abused cabin boy to ruthless ruler of the Black Fear. He is done taking orders from anyone. His sights are set on Ageless Isle, a mythical place guarded by mermaids and fae that promises riches beyond imagination and a chance to never die. All he needs is a masterfully forged blade and a perfect distraction for the long, dangerous voyage. Bellarose, with her sharp tongue and stubborn courage is far too interesting to leave in port. One kidnapping, two forged letters, and a storm conjured by a vengeful sea witch later, Bella is trapped aboard a pirate ship with a captain who believes hearts are nothing more than things to plunder.

Ageless Isle

Yet the closer they sail to Ageless Isle, the less the stories behave. Mermaids are real and hungry. A mysterious fae king plays games with mortal destinies. A scarred enchantress named Aerowyn is determined to transform selfish souls before curses break the world. As leprechaun boys test pirates in a lagoon of jeweled waterfalls, Bella must decide who she is in her own tale. The girl who waits to be rescued by the gentle blacksmith who loved her first. Unless she will be the heroine who dares to face pirates, fae, and sea witches head on, even if it means offering forgiveness to the one man she vowed never to trust.

A cursed captain, a bookish girl, and a dragon-guarded destiny that could rewrite every fairy tale ever told.

Escaped into books

In Bellarose and the Captain, Bellarose has always escaped into books. Fairy tales are safer than real life, especially after the ship that carried her from France to America stole her parents. Now she’s alone in New Orleans. After Bellarose is kidnapped by a charming pirate and hunted by a vicious sea witch, she learns that magic is real. The dangerous fae involved in human lives impacted some stories to become twisted.

Rescued

Rescued from a storm-tossed ocean by the reserved and frustratingly proper Captain Modo, Bellarose finds herself aboard the enchanted brigantine Notre Dame. This is crewed by reformed pirates, disguised fae, and more secrets than she can shelve in her magical cabin library. The ocean is haunted by a kraken, and a dragon named Eira guards an island prison. The fae enchantress Aerowyn insists that Bellarose’s “happily ever after” is the only way to repair fairy tales that have been twisted into darker versions of themselves. Bellarose just wants a quiet life with good books again. The captain’s rare smiles, quiet kindness, and heroic bravery keep tugging at her heart.

Captain Modo

Yet Captain Modo is not the man he appears to be. Bound by a dangerous bargain with Aerowyn, he has been transformed into the handsome hero he never believed he could be. Captain Modo is cursed to lose any chance at love if Bellarose discovers who he truly is before falling in love with him. When the sea witch Callista tightens her net, demanding a terrible price, Bellarose and the captain are forced into an impossible choice. Do they let the curses stand and watch the stories of countless worlds stay broken, or trade one of their lives to save the other? Drawing on the courage she once only read about in books, Bellarose must decide how the story ends, and who gets to live happily ever after.