Dangerous Attraction

PART ONE • THE WINTER SEASON

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Isabelle Baudelaire's point of view

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THE LOVERS OF JUNE WAS THE TITLE of the most famous fantasy-romance series of books in the Dieulafoy Kingdom, which was written by a mysterious person called Florea Athanasian. No one knows who this person is; if it's a noble or a commoner. Or even a Royal.

They only know that this author is talented and was able to make all the readers in the Kingdom fall in love with his story.

Regarding the book itself, it was about a Queen and King from different Kingdoms who were destined to be enemies but were also childhood sweethearts. In the story, they were known as the Moon Queen and the Sun King. Natural opposite forces to each other, which caused lots of complications to their relationship overall.

The book series was huge, containing 9 books in total, and was supposed to end in the 10th volume. However, right when the 9th book was released, they announced that the last one was being written, which made all the avid fans wait anxiously for it. Until two years passed, and when the date set for the last book release came, it was suddenly canceled.

For some unknown reason, they announced that the author had decided not to publish the last book. News that caused a commotion even between the Royalty and Nobility of the Kingdom. But nothing could be done about it, after all, no one knew the identity of the writer.

Well, that's what's going around the entire Kingdom. Everybody has been talking about this nonstop. I genuinely feel bad for all the readers, but there was nothing I could do.

Oh, who am I?

Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. How unladylike. I'm Isabelle Delannoy Baudelaire, the only daughter and youngest child of Duke Florentin Baudelaire with his only wife, late Duchess Adelaide’s Delannoy-Baudelaire, ruler of the southern region of the Kingdom, and I also have the title of Countess.

As much as my middle brother has the title of Marquis, and our eldest sibling will inherit the title of Duke from our dad. Since he’s the firstborn.

Yes, I am the writer of The Lovers of June. Florea Athanasian is the pen-name I came up with. I began writing the series when I was around 14 years old, and now I'm 22.

No, I did not decide to just let my book series be unfinished like this. My dad made me stop writing. But that's a very complicated situation.

I began to have a passion for reading when I was four years old, and at five I was already able to write. My mom was still alive at that time, but she died when I was 10, because of an incurable disease called the Lahovary Thorns. A terrifying sickness that causes the victim's blood to get thicker and thicker until it's like cement inside their veins, and it ends up causing their death.

It's a fast death, though. My mother was dead within a week after the disease began to show its first signs, which is growing thorns in the person's skin. Horrible, isn't it?

I know. I still have nightmares with the image of my mother slowly dying in her bed, with those disgusting thorns growing all over her body until we couldn’t even touch her or both of us would be harmed. Completely hopeless.

When I lost her, I struggled to find a way to release all the feelings I was bottling up inside of me, and so, I began writing stories. But I only brainstormed the ideas for The Lovers of June after I dreamed of it when I was 13 years old. And I fell in love with it.

Then, I talked with my brothers. Adrien, who's 5 years older than me, and Mathis, who's 3 years older than me; and showed them the drafts of the story. They loved it, and Adrien suggested that I should publish it.

However, because our society is kind of against intelligent women writing books, or doing anything smart whatsoever, I asked Adrien to publish it for me as if it was him. He accepted but asked me to choose a pen-name for him because he wouldn't be able to publish it as himself, once he'll be the next Duke of our house. And that's how all of it began.

My brothers talked about the book everywhere and it began spreading. As people began loving the story, they began talking about it. Now everyone knows the books, although they have no idea it was written by me.