The Queen Unmasked

If beauty is only skin deep then envy is rottenness to the bones, causing a slow decay of both mind and soul...IVY, IVY...After suffering an unforgivable betrayal at the hands of her sister, Ivy is taken against her will to a castle on a distant, isolated island, is forced into a loveless marriage to a king she knows nothing about, and has to endure sharing the castle with Scarlet, a stepdaughter she grows to fear. It's there, in those hidden corridors and winding stairwells, that Ivy...
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If beauty is only skin deep then envy is rottenness to the bones, causing a slow decay of both mind and soul...IVY, IVY...After suffering an unforgivable betrayal at the hands of her sister, Ivy is taken against her will to a castle on a distant, isolated island, is forced into a loveless marriage to a king she knows nothing about, and has to endure sharing the castle with Scarlet, a stepdaughter she grows to fear. It's there, in those hidden corridors and winding stairwells, that Ivy realizes there's much more about her new husband and home that she's yet to uncover.POISON IVY... It soon becomes clear that the king never got over the death of his first wife, Saphirra, and harbors an uncanny obsession with her. Worse yet, Ivy begins to fear for her life, when whispers seeming to hint at danger preoccupy both her waking and sleeping hours. The strained relationship between stepmother and stepdaughter deteriorates as the years pass. A mutual mistrust and fear develop between them as the two women are pitted against each other in a deadly game of deceit. Soon, they each suspect the other capable of murder.LOOK DEEPLY INTO THE MIRROR...All this, and much more, along with an unhealthy attachment to a certain mirrored room, becomes an obsession for Ivy. Her sister was right-the reflective surface of water really was like a mirror. This knowledge from early on in childhood is what sets off an aversion to anything resembling a mirror, and then the very object of her abhorrence gradually shifts into an almost manic need to peer time and again at her own hated reflection. The sometimes frightening and disturbing whispers and childhood memories that come back to haunt her, cause Ivy to spiral into further madness-madness that, if she's not careful, could cost her much more than just her sanity. What Ivy doesn't know is that the disturbing memories of a malevolent sister, and the strange occurrences that continue to plague her as an adult, are not what she needs to fear-but instead, what watches her from the darkness of her bedchamber, while she sleeps at night...WHAT SORT OF EVIL DOES APPEAR?Female servants, all of whom are beautiful, systematically vanish. It's not long before suspicion falls on Ivy herself, after whispered rumors get out about the insanity that possesses her. A masked predator lurks inside the cavernous rooms and forgotten halls of the castle, and is using the lush rainforest that surrounds the great stone dwelling as a personal hunting ground. When the killer is unmasked, will it reveal the queen to be a murderess-or a victim of her own insanity caught in an elaborate web of deception? As more unexplained events unfold, Ivy soon realizes that nothing is as it seems-least of all herself.