Saving Marilee

A sweet, clean romance. For all those who have suffered in silence, no matter the hardship. Everyone deserves a voice.

Marriage wasn't bliss-not for Marilee. Instead of finding contentment with the handsome son of a sovereign duke, she found betrayal, manipulation, and neglect. And fear. A fear that finally lifts when her husband dies, freeing her from his domineering hand. But freedom alone can't give her peace, and she must battle to regain her love for life, rebuild her happiness, and reclaim the ability to trust.

When her charming neighbor intrudes on her quiet life, she must determine whether his interest is genuine, and whether he deserves the fragile bit of trust she has managed to scrape together. However, trusting is a risk, and she has vowed never to put herself at the mercy of someone else's whims. Can Marilee take that chance, knowing how terribly she's chosen before? She doesn't know if she can survive being wrong again.

Her recovery is messy, but it's real. It's raw but full of hope. While this story might be a little much for a tween audience, teens, young adults, and new adults can all find a lot of value in it. It's a story about a woman who tells the truth about her situation and refuses to keep quiet about it. A woman who takes back her power and then somehow learns to trust again. It's about women banding together, believing one another, and becoming stronger.

And of course it's a love story. It's a sweet, clean romance that takes an honest look at emotional trauma and treats it with the care it deserves.

Saving Marilee is part of the Dalthia series, but each book has a different main character and can be read as a stand alone. Not quite historical, but not quite fantasy, this inspirational fairy-tale-without-the-fairies series gives a nod to the medieval, a wink to the renaissance and blows a kiss to teens, tweens, young adults and women who love stories set in kingdoms and castles.

Annette K. Larsen is one of the top sweet romance authors of recent years. Writing for teen and tween girls, young adults, and women alike, her books can be shared from mother to daughter to grandmother. Any book of hers would be a great gift idea for the book-loving women in your life. Whether she's writing a historical fantasy series about princesses, or a romantic suspense thriller full of action and adventure, all of her novels have a guaranteed happy ending and plenty of swoon-worthy kisses.