To Crack a Curse

To Crack A Curse: A Katie Crackernuts Retelling

She’s running away. He’s running out of time. Magic can save them… But at what cost?

Princess Katriyana has given up her crown, her kingdom, and her name to escape the gilded cage of royal life. Now working as an illegal kitchen maid in the forbidden kingdom of Faìla, Katie has one mission: find the magic that can break her sister’s curse before time runs out. But there are a few problems: magic is supposedly extinct, she’s risking execution if discovered, and the Crown Prince keeps demanding special meals.

Prince Ewan is dying. Cursed and weakening by the day, he’s running out of time to save his people from the shadows stealing them away each night. When a sharp-tongued kitchen maid with dangerous healing magic catches his attention, he realizes she might be his only chance at survival. But she’s hiding deadly secrets, and in a kingdom where magic is forbidden and trust is lethal, one wrong move could destroy them both.

Midnight rides through enchanted forests and stolen moments over simmering pots draw them together even as their worlds threaten to tear them apart. Katie craves freedom from the very life Ewan was born to lead. He needs her magic to stay alive. And when they discover the villain behind both their curses, one leading hundreds to their deaths, they’ll face an impossible choice: save themselves, or risk everything to save each other. Because breaking a curse is simple compared to cracking the walls around a guarded heart.

To Crack A Curse is the first book in the Heartcraft Chronicles, a series of interconnected standalone no-spice retellings featuring strong heroines, swoony romance, creative magic (literally!), and obscure tales combined with well-known fairytales perfect for readers who love their fairytales fresh, unique, and immersive.

What—or Who—is Katie Crackernuts?

I based this book on the obscure Scottish fairytale “Katie Crackernuts.” It’s a bit wacky, as most fairytales, but has elements of more classic fairytales—sisterly bond like Snow White and Rose Red, enchanted and mysterious nighttime dancing like The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

I also have to thank Amy Trent for inspiring me to write my own retelling of this fairytale in her note to her readers at the end of Clever, Cursed, and Storied (another Katie Crackernuts retelling—go read it!)

But, you ask, WHAT, OR WHO, IS KATIE CRACKERNUTS??!?

Read on.

Katie Crackernuts:

The Original Fairytale

There once was a kingdom with two princesses. The king had remarried a woman with a daughter the same age as his own, so the princesses were step-sisters …and both named Katie (some versions call the king’s daughter Anne to make it less confusing). The king’s daughter—we’ll stick with Anne—was beautiful and talented while the queen’s daughter—Katie—was plain. The step-sisters loved each other, not caring about their differences, but the queen wanted her daughter to be the more beautiful one. So she found a witch to make a soup to curse Anne.

After two failed attempts involving people or animals warning or distracting Anne away, the third time the queen got Anne to actually open the lid of the soup. A goat head jumped out and lodged itself on the princess’s head, and she couldn’t take it off. Katie was furious at what her mother had done and vowed to help her sister break the curse.

The princesses, Anne with her goat head wrapped in a sack, traveled to a distant kingdom with two princes. The older prince was slowly dying from a mysterious sickness, and the king had promised a large amount of silver to whoever could find out what was causing his son’s illness. Katie, hoping to gain money to pay a magician to break Anne’s curse, said she would try.

At night, Katie followed the prince who left the castle in a trance. She hopped on his horse behind him and gathered nuts from the trees as they rode past. They finally arrived at a fairy ball where the prince was forced to dance all night.

The next day, Katie told the king what had happened and offered to watch the prince again, this time for gold. This time when they arrived at the fairy ball, Katie hid near the ballroom door and overheard two fairies talking. “Did you know, the wand that that baby fairy is playing with will break the animal head curse with three taps?” Katie rolled the nuts she’d gathered towards the baby fairy to distract it so she could grab the wand.

The next day, Katie broke her sister’s curse with three waves of the wand. She offered to watch the prince again if the king would promise her his son’s hand in marriage. That night she heard the fairies at the ball talking again. “Did you know the bird that that baby fairy is playing with would break the prince’s dancing curse in three bites?” Again Katie rolled the nuts to distract the baby fairy and grab the bird.

When she and the enchanted prince returned to the castle in the morning, she cooked the bird and had him eat it. His illness was cured and they were married. Anne married the formerly ill prince’s brother, and they all lived happily ever after.

Map of the Heartcraft Kingdoms