Hi, I’m Erin Halbmaier, and I’m baking up some treats for you today! Well…sort of…I can’t reach through the web page to pass you a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie. I can’t even give you a slice of yummy fresh-baked bread!

I know. Rough. SUPER disappointing. Fresh bread is the best! (If you don’t believe me, just ask my husband and kids. 😂)

There are a surprising number of parallels between baking and writing. For instance, it takes me three hours to bake a batch of bread…and about twenty minutes for my family to demolish the first loaf. Or take sweets as an example. I love a sweet romance as much as the next person, but if I read too many in a row – even by one of my favorite authors! – I begin to feel like I have a toothache.

When I read my first fairytale retelling with heavier emotions, it was like I’d sunk my teeth into a warm piece of bread after far too many cookies. So naturally, when I started writing, I leaned toward the same style myself.
What you can expect from my books:

 Clean, no-spice swoony romance
Action/adventure
Quirky side characters & subtle humor
No traditional swears/cursing
Realistic relationships

My current series, The Roumaterra Chronicles is a collection of interconnected standalones. In theory, you can read them in any order and any or all, but there is one duology – you should read those two books IN order!

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Choose a dessert

Since I don’t have baked goods for you, I’ll have to whip up some bookish treats instead! Let’s start with a fun little game where you get to choose a (digital) baked good, and then I’ll tell you which FMC you picked, along with a bit about her and her book!

…in a little bit. Because I want to talk a little more about my writing style before I tell you who you got!

As I mentioned, I’m a fan of including more serious topics in my stories. That’s not to say none of my books are sweet; I absolutely adore Axel and Katy’s relationship in Songs and Spun Gold (because as one of my readers has said, Axel “is a gem”).

But I also have characters who foolishly keep secrets. Who are less than noble. Who run when maybe they should stand, stay silent when they should speak up (and eliminate some miscommunication in the process).

Who aren’t…perfect. And whose relationships, as a result, aren’t perfect either.

Ready to find out which one you got?

Aren’t the chibis adorable? 😍

I’m going to take my time telling you why each dessert matches the FMC, so we’ll take a couple breaks for our other two activities. After all, can I tell you about my characters without telling you about their stories?

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Chocolate chip cookie: Ella

First up is Ella, the chocolate chip cookie. She’s an all-around sweet person, but her life is…definitely NOT sweet. She has the hardest story of any of these ladies, and of my books, it has the most realistic issues. Most people don’t expect them in a fairytale retelling.

You see, she lived as a neglected servant in her own home for ten years, struggling to keep her chin up despite her stepmother’s verbal abuse. Then she met the prince, fell in love at first sight, and married him.

Two years later, the tingly, swoony feelings have worn off. The prince is duty-bound, which means he’s always busy. And since they didn’t have a solid foundation to their relationship, marriage isn’t as easy as they thought it would be.

She mutters something under her breath in anger. He hears it and thinks she means something she doesn’t. Her friendship with one of her guards stokes his jealousy. He lashes out in pain. They sort of start to work their way back toward each other, but it’s still rocky…

And then he accidentally wakes his childhood sweetheart that he thought was dead.

This book has my usual quirky side characters for a side of humor, but it’s messy. Some readers love it because it’s real. Others hate it for the same reason. If it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, the rest of the series will still make sense if you skip it. And I promise, the rest of the series is lighter!

Night of Dance (Book 0.5) is FREE through BookFunnel during the event! This Cinderella retelling is short and sweet.
Slippers and Thorns (Book 1) is also FREE during the event – this retelling of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty is the controversial one.

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Strawberry tart: Katy

Next is the strawberry tart. Katy is a miller’s daughter and a mix of sweetness and, well…tart. 🤣 Her sharp tongue makes the nobles in her court rather uncomfortable when the king’s unreasonable offer throws her into their midst, but she’s practical and clever. 

Unfortunately, she also has a secret – a deal she made when she was eleven years old that she thought was a joke. She’d forgotten all about it…until it turns into the only way to save her family’s home and keep her invalid mother from living in uncertain circumstances. 

Her only hope is that she hadn’t met the prince when she was eleven, so the mysterious stranger must be lying. The young noble she used to know couldn’t be the same person…right?

I majored in music, so I had a lot of fun bringing music into this Rumpelstiltskin/Phantom of the Opera retelling. And making Prince Axel just a tad overdramatic at times (“temperamental would-be actor”). 😇 

Katy’s story is the duology, so make sure to read Songs and Spun Gold (Book 2) first. It’s on sale for $.99 as part of the event!
Book 3 is Spirits and Pacts, and it is part TWO of the duology. Don’t read it if you haven’t read Songs and Spun Gold!

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Find your fairytale

All right, we’ve talked about two FMCs and four books – you deserve a break from my chatting! 

If you were in a fairytale, which would it be? Actually, I’m not going to make you choose unless you want to – this is a super simple game. All you need is the battery percentage on your device!

My phone is at 63% right now, so I got The Snow Queen. How about you?

All right, grab a glass of water, a mug of tea, or your favorite beverage to accompany your sweets. Let’s dive back in!

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Banana bread – Daphne

This down-to-earth dessert is Princess Daphne, frustrated recipient of a magical handkerchief that lets her change her appearance.

The problem? She’s supposed to use it to keep her kingdom safe, but she has no idea how to be a spy. To make matters worse, her older brother vanished after being accused of their father’s murder, and she has no idea how to prove his innocence. And that was before her mother sent her to the neighboring kingdom to (hopefully) marry one of their princes. And before a meddling kitchen maid stole it and swapped their appearances.

Now, she has to figure out how to tell someone who she really is when she can’t talk or write. But will even her best friend be able to understand?

Daphne’s story is a retelling of The Goose Girl, and it’s a bit shorter and lighter, with a faithful dog instead of a horse. I…may like realism in relationships, but I’m not good at killing off characters, so don’t worry – the dog DOESN’T die!! 

Curse of Silence is Book 3.5, and it’s a great entry point into the series – none of the characters appear in the earlier books. 

Your treat for Daphne is Best of Friends, a short story prequel from the MMC’s POV that you can grab for free during our party!

Mmm, but I wish I had some actual banana bread…🤤 Or maybe banana cake. I haven’t made any in a while, and it’s soo yummy.

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Gingerbread: Helena

I should probably focus…🤪 Gingerbread is next. It’s not one of my favorite foods, but Princess Helena might be one of my favorite FMCs to write so far. This “spicy” dessert fits her in the personality variety, not the type we avoid in our books! 

Helena’s father sent her to a country castle after her christening to protect the capital from her curse. Despite his good intentions, Helena grew up feeling unwanted and alone. When she fell asleep at thirteen, she spent the next twelve years dreaming about her sweetheart…only to discover when he accidentally woke her up that he’s married now. And even though his marriage wasn’t in the best shape, he refused to give up on it to be with her.

To add insult to injury, the kingdom’s council gives her a deadline to choose a husband before they choose one for her. So what does this willful, thirteen-year-old in a twenty-six-year-old’s body do?

Flee to the neighboring kingdom to join a bandit. I mean…isn’t that what anyone would do? 🤣

In case it isn’t obvious, this book has a redemption arc. Helena is the villain in Ella’s story (beyond the dumb things Ella and her prince do to cause themselves grief and make their relationship susceptible to the trouble that Helena brought), but she grows up and figures a few things out in this one. And who doesn’t love a Robin Hood retelling?

Arrows and Gems is book 4 in the series. But like I said when telling you about Ella, you do NOT have to read Ella’s story to understand/enjoy Helena’s if you don’t want to watch her mistakes play out.

Your treat for Helena is Arrows and Assumptions, an alternate POV of her meet-cute. You can also grab the audio version of this short if you want it 😊

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Coloring page

We need another little pause, so I’m going to give you your next treat early: a coloring page you can download and work on while you read about the FMC in it!

Someday, I need to get the color version of this from the artist – it’s one of my favorite scenes in the book, and I LOVE this artwork.😍  But you get the line art to color yourself!

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Snickerdoodle: Sakura

All right, now that you have the coloring page for her book…the snickerdoodle is Princess Sakura, a perfect princess with a crisp exterior but a softer inside. She has to marry a titled man to inherit the throne, but she’s suffering under a prophecy that she’ll marry a common soldier.

Fortunately – or unfortunately? – for her, her mother has a plan to solve her problems. Making a foreign commoner fall in love with her should be easy – right?

Might be easier if he trusted her…and if her mother weren’t forcing him to undertake a quest in return for the help he needs to find his lost friends.

Trials and Command is book 5, and it also has a baby dragon! This book is a retelling of The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea, and it’s probably more plot-focused compared to romance than some of my books.

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Thanks so much for hanging out with me today! If you want bonus content and the latest news on my books (regardless of the social media gremlins’ decisions), you can:

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Have fun with the next author!

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