"Nikki hasn't seen her grandmother in years, due to a mysterious estrangement inherited from her mother. When the elder calls out of the blue with a request for Nikki to visit her in North Carolina, Nikki hesitates for a moment. Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on the mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen. It sounds like a fairy tale, but the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family's secrets are warpped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be upp to her to protect it before it is stolen away."--from back cover.