Slippers and Thorns by Erin Halbmaier

A duty-focused prince. A lonely princess.

Michael, crown prince of Daraigh, and Arabella, merchant’s daughter and one-time servant of her stepfamily, had a whirlwind romance that was the stuff of fairy tales. Love at first sight, true love, rags to riches, happily ever after…they had it all.
At first.
Two years after their wedding, life isn’t quite so rosy. Michael is buried in his responsibilities, and Ella feels like a useless ornament taking up space in Hartford Castle. They haven’t fallen out of love, exactly, but an objective observer would hard-pressed to call them in love.
It’s hard to love someone who is never around, after all.
When their friends Prince Axel of Ralnor and his wife Katy take them to an abandoned castle on the border between their two kingdoms, Ella hopes that repairing it can provide the spark their relationship needs to return to the glowing rapture it was at the beginning. There is something off about the castle, though, that Ella can’t quite put her finger on. Katy says it’s magic.
But magic isn’t real.
Ella and Michael must contend with his jealousy and her pain before they can finally test the ability of an old castle to help them reignite the flame of their love, but when they do, they discover that magic is, in fact, very, very real.
And Ella wishes she could have remained ignorant forever.