ERIN HALBMAIER

Ella doesn’t need a prince. She just wants to be loved.

Trapped as a servant in her own home, Ella has four years until the law sets her free – four years of her stepmother’s cruelty and her stepsisters’ mockery. Marriage could free her sooner, but what man would want a penniless servant with nothing to offer?

When her stepmother sells her horse – the only friend she has left – Ella finally accepts her neighbor’s offer: one night at the prince’s ball. It’s a desperate plan, but the ball will be full of eligible men. Maybe, just maybe, one of them will see past her borrowed gown and give her a chance.

She doesn’t expect to meet Mike. A commoner who listens when she speaks. Who looks at her like she matters.

But does he see Ella – or just another girl at the ball?

A sweet, clean Cinderella retelling for fans of Melanie Cellier and K.M. Shea, where one night changes everything, being seen matters more than being rescued, and love happens when you least expect it.

The prequel novella to The Roumaterra Chronicles – a series of interconnected standalone fantasy romances.

Available to buy on Amazon…or get the e-book free with newsletter signup!

Two years after the ball, Ella’s fairytale marriage is crumbling

Ella is suffocating under royal expectations she was never trained for, isolated in a castle full of people. Michael is consumed by duty, unable to bridge the growing distance between them. When her only friend – a guard who actually listens – sparks Michael’s jealousy, a single misunderstanding detonates their fragile marriage.

Convinced Ella has betrayed him, Michael retaliates out of pain and anger by seeking attention from noblewomen who confirm every whisper Ella’s heard about not belonging in his world. By the time he acknowledges his mistake, the damage is done – and the fight to save their marriage has only just begun.

This isn’t a story about a perfect prince. It’s about two broken people learning that happily ever after doesn’t mean easy – and that sometimes love is a choice you make when your heart is breaking.

Fireproof meets K.M. Shea in this Cinderella x Sleeping Beauty retelling that strips off the rose-colored glasses as a young couple learns the importance of choice, sacrifice, and forgiveness in building true love. Grab Slippers and Thorns and delve into Erin Halbmaier’s heartbreaking but hopeful debut, book one in The Roumaterra Chronicles.

Available to buy or borrow on Amazon.

Noblemen don’t marry the poverty-stricken miller’s daughter. So when a stranger offered to make it happen, Katy never guessed the bargain was real – or magical.

Katy needs to move past her noble friend’s failure to say goodbye, but her fiery temper and lingering attachment to a boy she can’t fully remember tend to discourage potential suitors. When she meets an actor whose voice echoes in her memories, she expects another heartbreak. Instead, she gets the chance to live every girl’s dream – whether she wants it or not.

Sneaking out to meet a cloaked recluse for voice lessons isn’t ideal, but Prince Axel was born to sing…and the king doesn’t approve. Axel will gladly lie to protect his secrets – including the truth about the village girl he can’t forget. If her background doesn’t draw the unstable king’s ire, how they met will.

When a miracle offers hope for a relationship, Axel is overjoyed. But he doesn’t know the truth behind the miracle, and even Katy’s fierce love of honesty can’t compel her to admit her terrible mistake – because now her heart, her kingdom, and her family are locked in a contest they can’t all win.

Fans of K.M. Shea and Melanie Cellier will enjoy this fantasy romance retelling of Rumpelstiltskin x Phantom of the Opera, where clean but swoony romance, wit, and intrigue fill the pages. Pick up Songs and Spun Gold (part one of a duology) and lose yourself in the music and magic of the second book in The Roumaterra Chronicles, Erin Halbmaier’s debut series of interconnected standalone fairytales.

Available to buy or borrow on Amazon.

For five years, Katy’s barrenness has been her protection from a magical debt. Now she’s running out of time.

The bargain that promised her firstborn child to a stranger has haunted Katy’s marriage from the beginning. She’s clung to one fragile hope: that the magical bargain wasn’t about Prince Axel at all, but the childhood friend she barely remembers.

But when she finally becomes pregnant and long-suppressed memories surface, that hope shatters.

Axel deserves the painful truth – and when it finally comes out, the revelation becomes the missing piece in a conspiracy neither of them saw coming. The threats closing in around them, the council’s pressure, even the attempt on Axel’s life – it’s all connected to that single, impossible bargain.

Now Katy and Axel must work together to unravel a plot that reaches deeper than either imagined, before the enemies pulling the strings can claim their long-awaited child.

Don’t miss the exciting conclusion of this clean fantasy romance retelling of Rumpelstiltskin x Phantom of the Opera, where wit and intrigue fill the pages. Pick up Spirits and Pacts (part two of a duology) and lose yourself in the music and magic of the third book in The Roumaterra Chronicles, Erin Halbmaier’s debut series of interconnected standalone fairytales.

Available to buy or borrow on Amazon.

Princess Daphne’s face has been stolen—and her best friend is falling for a shepherdess.

After a kitchen maid uses Daphne’s magical handkerchief to swap their appearances, Daphne is stuck tending sheep while the imposter prances about the foreign court wearing her face. To make things worse, the curse won’t let her speak or write. The only way to break it is to tell someone who she is—but the magic makes that impossible.

Raoul knows something is wrong. The girl who looks like Daphne doesn’t feel like his best friend anymore. He thinks he ruined their friendship when his flirting turned serious.

But he’s looking at the wrong face.

If Daphne can’t break the curse and reclaim her identity, she’ll lose the one person who’s always seen her for who she truly is.

A clean, witty retelling of The Goose Girl with a best-friends-to-lovers romance and just enough magic to keep you turning pages.

Perfect for fans of Melanie Cellier, Deborah Grace White, and K.M. Shea.

Available to buy or borrow on Amazon

A runaway princess. An honorable outlaw. A crime that hasn’t been paid.

Princess Helena has always struggled to belong. When she wakes from her twelve-year enchanted sleep, she tries to adjust to the changes in her life. But her childhood sweetheart’s marriage and the council’s plan to choose her husband push her too far.

Cap just wants to protect the people suffering from the tyrannical regent’s rule. But his less-than-legal methods have put a target on his back.

He’s wary of the woman he believes has been sent to trap him, but she has a way of slipping past his defenses. And he’s afraid she might be another sign that he shouldn’t trust his own judgment.

Can Helena and Cap work together to bring down the regent? Or will their insecurities and secrets destroy everything they care about?

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.

Liesl is determined to find the man who broke her heart. Getting trapped in a cursed valley with a dangerous ogre isn’t part of the plan.

When Tobias gave Liesl a rose and then withdrew without explanation, she tried to let him go. But when she discovers he’s vanished without his beloved cat, concern overrides her hurt. Something is wrong, and she’ll track him down to ensure he’s safe…and to demand the answers she deserves.

She doesn’t expect to stumble into a cursed valley while fleeing bandits or to find a beast the villagers claim slaughtered their people.

Beast can’t remember his own name or the task he’s desperate to complete, and the valley’s magic won’t let him leave to finish it. When Liesl appears with a familiar cat at her heels, fragments of memory begin to surface—memories that make him wonder if he knows more about Tobias than he wants to admit.

The more time they spend together, the more truth surfaces. But Beast’s mission will cost him any future with Liesl. And if he tells her why, someone else will pay the price.

Some secrets demand silence. Even if that means losing the woman he loves.

Fans of K.M. Shea and Melanie Cellier will love this clean fantasy romance retelling of Puss in Boots x Beauty and the Beast, where quiet connection, magical mysteries, and impossible choices fill the pages. Pick up Boots and Roses and fall into a cursed valley where the truth can be dangerous—and love demands everything.