Book excerpt: A Princess in servitude. Rose Red, the younger sister of Snow White, lives with her stepmother the evil Queen. She works, cooks and cleans night and day without reward, but the evil Queen has a beautiful throne Rose Red greatly admires and on which longs to sitif only for a momentbut is forbidden to do so. The evil Queen also has a longing for majestic objects, including a beautiful royal red robe, which can only be stitched from Rose Reds heartstrings and dyed by the girls young rich blood at midnight on the night of the Blood-Moon after Rose Red has been poisoned by the thorn of the cursed rose. Rose Red escapes only to find seven curious elves living in a life-sized dollhouse. To her surprise and delight she finds out the elves, as slaves once themselves to the Queen, were the tiny craftsmen that constructed the throne. As young Rose Red and the seven elves run for their lives through the Dark Forest, she asks the elves to build her a similar throne. The elves gladly oblige, but instead build for her three other gifts that might just save her life. Will that be enough, or will the evil Queens lust for greed be Rose Reds downfall?