Forced out by the demands of her pregnant stepmother, Empress Anastasia Brokenoff is sent to Nochten, the homeland of vampires, under the promise she will have a better life amongst her mother's kin. But Ana only finds things cold and hostile. She is mocked for being half a vampire, her relatives ignore her, and the maids keep quitting. Unable to do anything until she is old enough and has her first blood, Ana chooses to hide behind books or wander her late Mother's Rose garden, living in isolated obscurity.
That is until the arrival of a new maid, who may be in on more than she lets on and is determined to rekindle the strained relationship with her father. Such a simple act sparks a chain of events that throws Ana into a new world of people. People like Prince Nicoli, her half-brother, who invokes strange feelings while handling her overbearing cousin, Mykhol, who seems to be oddly focused on getting close to her.
Book 1 of The Nocthen trilogy.
