Trials and Command: A Retelling of The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea

Protecting a prince’s sister-in-law seems simple until a queen tries to match him up with her daughter.

Keenan left home to watch out for a young woman searching for her friend. But when bandits attack, leaving them separated, Keenan is left lost and wounded, stumbling through the woods in search of help.

Princess Sakura needs a titled husband to inherit the throne. Since a prophecy declared her the future bride of a common soldier, she only has a few months until her brother is named heir in her place. But it’s hard to find a husband at all in an isolated castle.

When an injured young man staggers up to their door, the queen offers him the chance to prove he is a “true prince” and so marry her daughter. Sakura believes their guest has enchanted the queen…until her mother confides a plot that will guarantee Sakura the throne. All she has to do is make Keenan fall in love with her.

But he doesn’t trust her or her mother – and the key to her crown might be too powerful to give up.

Trials and Command is a clean, no-spice retelling of The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea. It is book five in The Roumaterra Chronicles, a series of interconnected, standalone fairy tale retellings perfect for readers of Brittany Fichter and Annette K. Larsen.

© 2025 Independently Published (Audiobook): 9798295346354

Release date

Audiobook: October 25, 2025