LOWIES COULD HAVE HELD HER TONGUE. INSTEAD, SHE SPOKE HER OWN DEATH SENTENCE. The Netherlands, 1868. In a world defined by rigid class divides, eighteen-year-old castle servant Lowies van Haeften is too clever for her station and far too proud to obey. Her sharp wit is her only weapon, but within the walls of Vijlenertooren Castle, that weapon is turned mercilessly against her. Especially when she crosses paths with the ominous castle lord, Einarr Ragnorsson. As she navigates her path to womanhood, Lowies is confronted with untameable emotions: a surge of jealousy and a dangerous, burgeoning lust. While the crushing weight of social expectations threatens to break her from both sides, she discovers a far greater peril lurking in the castle's shadows. Someone has marked her for death. In a world where powerful men dictate the rules and secrets are a death sentence, Lowies must find her own strength to survive. Because in the lion's lair, you don't survive by staying silent. You survive by biting back. Living in the south of the Netherlands, Linda Leeijen finds her inspiration among her loyal pack of rescue animals. Their presence threads through this dark, atmospheric narrative-a Gothic reimagining that subverts the tropes of the genre and reaches far beyond the castle walls.