#Top5 Bucket List Castles with Juliette Cross

Top 5 Bucket List Castles with Juliette Cross

As a lover of history and Gothic romance, I adore castles. Perfect setting for dark stories and romantic liaisons. So I’ve put together my bucket list of the Top 5 castles I must visit and see with my own eyes one of these days.

1. The Neuschwanstein Castle—Bavaria, Germany—I just love this one because it looks like the “Disney World” castle. So pretty! Cool fact: The name of the castle derives from one of Wagner’s opera’s character, the Swan Knight.

2.Blarney Castle—Blarney, Ireland—First, it’s in Ireland, where my ancestors are from. And second, I want to kiss the Blarney stone and be blessed with eloquence! :D

3.Eilean Donan Castle—Highlands, Scotland—I want to go here solely because the photos are so beautiful. Cool fact: They have a sword wielded in the Battle of Culloden. And it’s freaking Scotland, people.

4.Bran Castle—Bran, Romania—Of course, I want to see “Dracula’s castle.” Duh. Though there is no evidence the infamous Vlad the Impaler once lived here, he is tied to the fascinating history surrounding it, and it’s rumored to be inspiration for the famous novel by Bram Stoker.

5.Tower of London—London, England—SO much cool history here, including the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Guy Fawkes, and Lady Jane Grey. Cool fact: Superstition says if all the ravens leave the tower, London will fall, so they clip one of each ravens’ wings to keep them from straying too far. (I’m totally using this in a future novel.)

On a side note, the Palace at Versailles didn’t make my list but only because I’ve been fortunate enough to visit that one. Gorgeous! So, do you have any MUST-SEE castles on your dream vacation list?

**Be sure to check out Juliette’s newest release, The While Lily!**

To the north of the Varis empire, a mysterious faction spreads propaganda against the vampire monarchy. Friedrich Volya, the Duke of Winter Hill, seeks to discover who they are before his uncle finds them first. King Dominik will punish the traitors with brutal force.

Local schoolteacher, the raven-haired Brennalyn, is on her own mission—to spy on the duke and discover what she can for the Black Lily. She longs to help the commonwealth and bring justice to the many orphans left behind from the ravages of the blood madness, like the children she lovingly keeps in her care. What she doesn’t plan for is the heart-pounding attraction she feels for the duke, enemy to the Black Lily.

But when Brennalyn’s secret puts her life and the life of her children in danger, Friedrich steps in as her protector, she finds out there’s more to the duke than she thought.

Juliette calls lush, moss-laden Louisiana home where the landscape curls into her imagination, creating mystical settings for her stories. She has a B.A. in creative writing from Louisiana State University, a M.Ed. in gifted education, and was privileged to study under the award-winning author Ernest J. Gaines in grad school. Her love of mythology, legends, and art serve as constant inspiration for her works. From the moment she read JANE EYRE as a teenager, she fell in love with the Gothic romance–brooding characters, mysterious settings, persevering heroines, and dark, sexy heroes. Even then, she not only longed to read more novels set in Gothic worlds, she wanted to create her own.