Carolina Stanton never asked for a crown. A farmer’s daughter from the forgotten province of Braymoor, she’s dragged into the Ascension—a glittering blood sport disguised as a royal courtship—where thirty girls compete for a throne that could just as easily kill them as elevate them. She’s too blunt for palace politics, too wild for silk-and-lace cages, and far too honest for a court that worships masks. Prince Kael sees it instantly: Carolina isn’t a novelty. She’s a threat. The kind that doesn’t beg for power—she takes it. Between assassins in the ballroom, alliances forged in whispers, and the Queen herself sharpening tests into weapons, Carolina is forced to decide whether survival means bending, breaking… or burning everything down. But Kael can’t look away. And when a prince raised on duty collides with a girl who refuses to bow, the crown itself trembles. To win might mean love, to lose might mean death—but either way, Carolina Stanton will no longer be forgotten. In a palace where perception is power, one farm girl may prove more dangerous than any heir to the throne.