For the Love of a Queen
Could a man allow the woman he loves to die in order to save everyone she loves?
This romance is set slightly in the future in a war-devastated world. NAYDA JANAK is a woman of unusual talents. She was recruited as a teenager by a secret government agency and trained as a spy. Now she uses her various skills to help people who can’t help themselves, traveling the countryside with her small group of companions. She comes across a village and changes the lives of the desperate people living there. For her trouble, she is crowned queen, a warrior queen who trains her men to be soldiers.
JEFF LAWRENCE’S entire family is wiped out in the war, and he hits the road as a teenager with a bag of food and his sword. One day he is stopped by CURN, the cruelest warlord roaming the streets. Curn raises his sword to Jeff, and Jeff puts up a valiant fight. Curn then discovers that Jeff is the nephew of a world-famous sword-fighter and was trained by him. Jeff then has no choice but to accept this warrior’s offer and become initiated into his army of thugs.
Years pass. Some of Nayda’s soldiers battle some of Curn’s and her people kill his. For this, Curn seeks to execute her. He sends in Jeff, his top general, as a spy to get information and bring back the queen for harsh punishment. Jeff goes to her camp and asks to join her side, pretending to be a deflector from Curn’s army. She accepts him with hesitation.
Spending time with her brings Jeff to the realization that he has met his match. He falls deeply in love with Nayda. They get married, but Jeff is inwardly tormented, the threat of Curn constantly on his mind.
He doesn’t want to bring her back for execution, but if he doesn’t, her people will be slaughtered. For love, he chooses to save those she cherishes.
He watches while she’s taken captive, not lifting his sword in her defense; watches her suffer punishment and in agony can do nothing about it. This queen and her warrior will battle evil, but will the price be their love or their lives?
***
Hello, Laura Hogg here. Thanks Nita, for letting me be on your blog! I write a variety of romance and some paranormal. For the Love of a Queen-think of the Middle Ages superimposed on the near future, and my time-travel, Romeo vs. Juliet-a wife chases her husband through different eras of history to stop him from killing people-are out with The Wild Rose Press, as well as a couple of vintage pieces set in the 1920s and an inspirational. Oh, Wings ePress has my historical romance, The 12th Kiss, set in the year 1820, and Aspen Mountain Press has my paranormal, Double Vision. With that one, I asked myself what exotic setting could I place a romance in, and thought of it-the astral plane. J I have a Western coming out with Eirelander Publishing next year.
Excerpt from For the Love of a Queen:
Curn’s arms crossed over his chest. “It’s been awhile. Too long.”
Jeff didn’t move. Angry skies rumbled in warning.
“Come back with me now.”
“I’m staying with my wife,” Jeff stated.
Curn lowered his arms, and fury darkened his features, but he seemed to get a grip on his stormy emotions. “Why do you defy me? You know what I’ll do if you don’t follow orders.”
Jeff touched the hilt of the sword strapped at his side. The first drops of rain moistened his face and hands.
“Uh, uh, uh!” Curn wagged his finger.
Jeff’s hand hovered over his weapon. “Fight me, Curn, no armies involved. There’s no need to bring the others into this.”
Wallace and Gromit in A Close Shave divx Laughter burst from Curn’s gut, harsh and disbelieving. “I don’t think so!”
Curn stepped close, and Jeff inched his weapon out of its scabbard. Curn dropped his hand on top of Jeff’s and squeezed it.
He spoke in a whispered hiss against Jeff’s ear. “I have three hundred men circling her village from a distance, unseen. Cooperate with me, or I’ll send a man to give the word to kill them all. I warn you, do not tell your wife when she’s captured that you didn’t know about this. Never, never! Defy me again.”
Curn moved back and whistled, and several large warriors stepped out of the trees and stood behind him, glaring. Rain pelted down.
“Jeff, I…” Nayda’s voice dropped off as she turned the corner around the boulder. She froze on the spot.
***
Click here to purchase For the Love of a Queen.
Watching the Detectives trailer Blog for time-travel fiction:
Thank you so much for your post today, Laura. I love the excerpt!
Thanks for having me. I love your blog. It’s very nice.
I just purchased “For the Love of a Queen” this week. I look forward to reading it. I’m sure I will enjoy it just as I have her other books. Thank you Laura and good luck with your writing.
Babylee
Hi Laura,
I hope you get this.
Babylee