The Rose with a Heart of Wood

For three hundred years, Rose Blackwood has lived with a heart of wood.Once the daughter of an ancient bloodline, she was sealed inside a sanctuary of ironwood by the Briar Witch, protected from illness, age, pain, and death. The price was her humanity. Rose cannot feel warmth, fear, hunger, or love. She survives perfectly, untouched by the mortal world she once belonged to.Then Prince Jasper Kingsley finds her.Jasper believes Rose is not a monster or a relic, but a woman whose stolen heart can be restored. He swears to break the curse, even if it means defying the Sanctorum Tribunal, his own bloodline, and an ancient prophecy that warns he may one day be forced to kill her.But the truth is stranger than either of them expects.The heartwood cannot be destroyed from outside. It can only be surrendered. Rose must willingly choose love, knowing that love will make her vulnerable to pain, mortality, and even death. Safety has protected her for three centuries, but it has also imprisoned her inside a life without feeling.As war closes around them and the eclipse approaches, Jasper must learn that he cannot save Rose by choosing for her. Rose must decide whether a long, painless existence is worth more than one fragile human heart.If she opens the sanctuary, she may finally live.And if she chooses Jasper, she will finally have something worth dying for.The final choice belongs to Rose. She must accept love with its dangers: pain, mortality, desire, and the possibility of loss. Jasper cannot choose for her. She must decide whether living is worth the risk at last.