At twenty-four and out of work, Caitlin Parker is back in her childhood bedroom and her old lady-in-waiting costume, helping a rotating cast of substitute queens at the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire.
She was eighteen when her first real heartbreak drove her away from the magic she once loved there.
The last person she wants on that stage is Alexander Wright, the Shakespeare-spouting swordsman who won her teenage heart and then broke it.
Alex had believed he was only ending a summer fling, until losing her showed him how much he cared and how badly he had damaged her faith in love and in the Faire.
His attempt to make that right pulls them together again as the season closes and ordinary responsibilities close in.
Caitlin thinks growing up means setting whimsy aside, while Alex’s life is built on stage combat, songs, and sonnets, and neither can tell whether those two futures can share the same ground.
