【Media Reports】
Kommersant (Коммерсантъ): A commercial success and a rare phenomenon of "pre-publication overseas rights blockbuster sales"! Buyers include HarperCollins (English), Penguin Random House (Spanish), Droemer Knaur (German), Editis (French), and others. A rare case in the past 15–20 years of "large-scale overseas rights sales completed before the book is officially published."

God Literatury (Год Литературы): A major visual literary phenomenon of the BookTok era! "Everyone has heard of it, but no one has read it yet," because the book has not yet been published.

Business Vector (Бизнес-вектор): The illustrations of this work were the key to attracting international publishers! Related videos have accumulated over 100 million views, attracting major publishers in the United States, Spain, Brazil, and other countries.

Bolshoy Gorod (Большой город): Illustration videos by artist Каролина Приходько on Instagram and TikTok reached a single-video high of approximately 74.8 million to 100 million+ views!

University Book (Университетская книга): One of the "largest deals" in the Russian book market!

★ English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese rights sold! English rights acquired by HarperCollins! Spanish rights purchased by Penguin Random House! Rights in seven other markets under negotiation!
★For the first time in 15–20 years, the Russian book market has seen so many overseas publishers participating in a global bidding war for a Russian-language book before its official publication! Total rights deals have exceeded USD 250,000 — a record for the Russian book market!
★A phenomenal hit in the TikTok book community — a dark romance & court-intrigue fantasy! The work first appeared as viral illustrations, with over 400 million views on TikTok! It now has a complete story and plot, and the book edition is being launched for the first time!
★She is the resilient, cold-faced queen Astara; he is the caustic, sharp-tongued jester Kane. He wears a mask and is responsible for the comedy; she wears a crown and is responsible for the chill. When the jester stops being funny and the queen stops being cold, all of Nordland burns.
★Created by bestselling dark romance fantasy author Alisa Zhukich and popular illustrator Karolina Harit!
★The Russian edition is planned for spring 2027! The English edition is planned for spring 2028!

【Story Synopsis】
The story centers on the relationship between the young, aloof Queen Astara of Morvein and the court jester Kane in the castle of Nordland, a northern kingdom — one hides pain behind a mask, the other locks her true heart behind a crown, and around them lie intrigue, ancient secrets, and distrust. The more she builds walls with coldness, the more he closes in with jokes; every probing encounter is like a dance on the edge of a blade, impossible to tell whether it is calculation or attraction. Amid intrigue and secrets, the two test each other and tear at each other. The closer they get, the more dangerous it becomes; the more dangerous it becomes, the harder it is to pull away. The castle's ancient secrets gradually surface, and their respective disguises crumble inch by inch before each other. When the jester stops being funny and the queen stops being cold, this forbidden tug-of-war will finally drag all of Nordland to the brink of burning.

【Work Features】
Genre blend: fantasy as the foundation, woven with romance, intrigue, detective clues, and mystery elements.
Three-dimensional characters: everyone has secrets, inner conflict, and growth, and readers genuinely empathize.
Core tropes: enemies-to-lovers, secret identity, slow-burn romance, forbidden love.

【Famous Before Publication】
Illustrator Karolina posted artwork of the book's characters on social media and adapted the book's comics into TikTok short videos. Her illustrations have accumulated over 400 million views, setting off a powerful wave of "hype." Fans spontaneously do cosplay and make new videos, capturing potential readers before the book's text even exists — and it is precisely this audience interest that attracted overseas publishers.

In the dark world of Nordland, there is no room for light. The great northern kingdom is consumed by ancient intrigue, and its ruler is a beautiful young queen — Astara. Her once vibrant, emotionally rich inner self has long been devoured by coldness and exhaustion.

Despite the layers of intrigue hidden within the castle walls, an ordinary court jester named Kane intrudes uninvited into the life of this iron-hearted queen. His "jokes" are full of malice and pain; his amiable appearance is merely a carefully crafted mask covering the fate of others. He jokes on the surface, but hides pain and secrets within. His approach to the queen is both a taboo of "overstepping his station" and like a mirror, trying to reveal the true heart beneath the queen's icy shell. He is the one who laughs last, but she has long forgotten how to yield. Their meeting seems destined. Yet in Nordland, even love is a punishment.

They come from different worlds. They were never meant to be together. But if…
The mysterious jester and the unapproachable queen are the protagonists of this story, in which love is both impossible and inevitable. In this novel, you will explore the intrigues, ancient secrets, and layers of treachery of Nordland Castle, where every character hides their own secrets.

【Author】Alisa Zhukich
Russian bestselling author. She mainly writes dark romantic fantasy (dark romantasy/Gothic court romance), and is skilled at depicting court intrigue, forbidden love, and the conflict between power and emotion. Her works are often categorized as the "dark romantic fantasy" genre popular in Russian BookTok. The dark fantasy worlds and complex characters in her books have won readers' affection. Her major representative works include The Prince of Ice and Blood, The Princess of Wind and Revenge, The Shadow of Hell, The Poison of Night, and others. Her works have been nominated for the "LiveLib Readers' Choice" award! Total sales of her works exceed 100,000 copies! Currently, her most widely followed work is Sneaking in the Court as a Jester, which has sold rights in multiple countries before publication! The rights transaction amount set a record for the Russian book market in the past 15–20 years!

【Illustrator】Karolina Harit
Illustrator, digital artist, and animated short video creator. She is known for Gothic-style dark illustrations and excels at drawing dramatic character images. Her works have clear lines and a strong atmosphere, often combining a traditional hand-drawn feel with digital technology, and she personally produces short animations. Her Sneaking in the Court as a Jester series illustrations went viral on TikTok and Instagram, with related videos accumulating hundreds of millions of views (single-video highs reported at approximately 74 million–100 million+), directly driving the book's pre-publication hype and international rights sales. She insists on hand-drawing every frame and editing the animations herself, without relying on AI generation.