The Lotus Between Worlds: Book One: The Stone Lotus (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798245215143)

She touched her mother's pendant and fell 800 years into the past. Now she's trapped in a body that isn't hers, a marriage she didn't choose, and a love that will get her killed.

Phalla Chen has spent her life making herself small-quiet at work, disconnected from her Cambodian heritage, haunted by her mother's recent death and a lifetime of silences she'll never understand. When she touches her mother's antique lotus pendant while gazing at a painting of 12th-century Angkor Wat, the world tilts and she falls through time into the body of Devi, a royal apsara dancer performing for the Khmer Empire. Trapped in a gilded cage of perfect movements and prescribed beauty, Phalla fights for control of her own body while navigating the dangerous politics of King Jayavarman VII's court. And then she meets Kheang-a stone carver whose hands shape sacred art in the temple galleries. In his presence, she can finally think clearly, speak freely, be herself. But their connection defies every rule: apsaras belong to the gods and the king. Artisans are forbidden. And when Phalla is forced to marry General Virak, a kind man she can never love, the walls close in.

As their friendship deepens into something neither dares name, Phalla must choose between survival and self, between the safety of invisibility and the danger of being truly seen. She watched her mother survive by staying silent, by making herself small, by never claiming space. But in the shadow of Angkor's soaring temples, Phalla discovers a different truth: that being visible-even when it costs everything-is its own form of power. A lush historical romance about forbidden love, cultural identity, and one woman's journey to understand her mother's choices by living an impossible life of her own. Perfect for readers who crave sweeping historical settings, slow-burn romance, and heroines who refuse to disappear-no matter the cost.