Before last summer, I was just a normal grad student from California, but then I went to Europe to track down my grandmother's family and my life changed forever.

Mistaken for Ruli, a runaway princess who, it turned out, was actually my cousin, I was drugged, abducted, and taken to Dobrenica, a tiny and very unusual little kingdom in Eastern Europe.

The handsome man who kidnapped me was Alec, Ruli's fiance, the man who was slated to rule Dobrenica. Like so many things in this odd little kingdom, their marriage would have a magical component―for when certain members of two royal lines married at a particular point in time, Dobrenica...vanished.

The solution should have been simple, right? Find Ruli and bring her home. Except Ruli didn't want to come home. Alec and Ruli disliked each other, and to complicate matters further, Alec and I...well, I've always been a romantic at heart.

In the end we all did the "right thing." Brokenhearted yet resolute, I returned to America, but I just couldn't seem to forget Alec or Dobrenica.

But then I learned that though Ruli and Alec had married, Dobrenica was still in our world. Still in my world. The magic had failed, and no one knew why.

So back I went, but my trip became even more dangerous than it was the first time. I expected personal conflict and politics, even sword fighting. I was also prepared for Dobrenica's ever-present specters. But I was not prepared for murder, mystery, or the chillingly real presence of the undead.