Three wedding events. Three magical dresses. Three tests to prove a future queen.

Prince Marcos returns to Senatin with a bride no one expected: Zuleika, a commoner from the distant Outer Isles. But before she can be crowned beside him, the royal family demands that she prove herself worthy through a series of tests hidden within their wedding festivities.

Far from home and unfamiliar with courtly customs, Zuleika must navigate the expectations of a kingdom that doubts she belongs. With three muse-blessed dresses and Marcos’s unwavering faith in her, can she prove that she has what it takes to become queen?

The Princess Test began as a Cinderella-inspired tale—but instead of focusing on the romance with the prince, I wondered what might happen afterward. How would a royal family react when their prince returned home with a commoner from another land as his bride? That question became a story about prejudice, belonging, and what truly makes someone worthy to rule.

Unlike my earlier tales, this isn’t a direct retelling of a single fairy tale. It combines Cinderella’s commoner bride with the question at the heart of The Princess and the Pea: how do you prove someone is a “real” princess?

The three magical dresses came from Allerleirauh, with gowns as golden as the sun, silver as the moon, and shining as the stars. Their unusual hiding place—a nutshell—also appears in both Allerleirauh and The Iron Stove. Woven together with the familiar fairy-tale tradition of bridal tests, those elements became Zuleika’s three chances to demonstrate that a queen’s worth lies in far more than her birth.

A very enjoyable reading experience that leaves me excited to see what’s coming next with the Tales of Tessagonia.

— Elizabeth Wilcox

Good stories about good people are my favorite. This one has a loving, biracial marriage, family acceptance and a quick, matter-of-fact LGBTQ mention.

— Erin Robinson