This true account of the life of Selma, the grand-daughter of a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, has been written by her journalist daughter, who is now a special correspondent in the Middle East and India.

Desi Bascomb is a princess substitute prodigy—she's the fastest employee ever to advance to level three in the Facade Agency, and the youngest to ever be a full-time sub. But now with all eyes on Desi, the only thing she wants is a moment alone to talk to Reed, who's a Façade legacy and secretly a sub for princes! As Desi trains for her new role, she spies more than a few cracks in Façade’s perfect appearance. But uncovering the agency’s dark past might require more than a princess sub can handle by herself. Desi is no damsel in distress, but sometimes a girl needs a knight in shining armor.

When Desi Bascomb gets discovered by the elite Façade Agency--royalty surrogates extraordinaire--her life goes from glamour-starved to spectacular in a blink. As her new agent Meredith explains, Desi has a rare magical ability: when she applies the ancient formula Royal Rouge, she can temporarily transform into the exact lookalike of any princess who needs her subbing services.

A princess lointaine or princesse lointaine, (in French, "distant princess") is a stock character of an unattainable loved figure. The name comes from the play La Princesse Lointaine by Edmond Rostand (1895), and draws on medieval romances. The romantic interest of many knights errant, she was usually a woman of much higher birth, often far distant from the knight, and usually wealthier than he was, beautiful, and of admirable character. Some knights had, indeed, fallen in love with the princess owing to hearing descriptions of her, without seeing her, as tales said Jaufré Rudel had fallen in love with Hodierna of Tripoli. Amour de loin ("Love from long away") is a term used in romances and their study.