The Golden Queen - Book 1 of the Golden Queen Series [Kindle Edition]

Gallen O'Day is a seasoned fighter, a guide, and a guard. He longs for adventure and for excitement. He has a widely known reputation for being a very efficient guard, robbers know his name and fear him.

Maggie Flynn works in an alehouse and thinks Gallen is handsome and the best guard/guide around. She and Gallen have an odd sort of relationship. They have an attraction to each other but Gallen doesn't make any of the moves, thinking Maggie is too young.

The adventure for Gallen starts when two strangers come to the alehouse. A man who wears two swords, walks and looks like he knows how to fight and it appears he's the bodyguard of the second stranger.

The second stranger is young, beautiful, petite, and ... perfect. And to top it all off the stranger is female. Immediately Gallen feels the urge to protect her and thinks he's fallen in love. But what are two strangers who obviously are different doing here? The strangers reveal that they want to travel to the ancient arch called Geata na Chruinne. They need someone to take them there and it can't be a boy, it has to be a soldier, or someone who knows how to fight.

Gallen is the only one who knows the way and who can fight. So they make a deal that they would travel there later. That night Gallen has another job to deal with. He guides and guards a man but unfortunately they meet robbers on the road. Gallen is awestruck when a sidhe helps him but is puzzled when the sidhe tells him that he will hold Gallen accountable for any oaths he makes this day. When Gallen finally returns he finds himself making an oath that he will help whoever his heart is hot to aid. And his heart is hot to aid ... the strangers.

A creature, a monster that no one has ever seen the likes of before comes into town and is killed. But the strangers have seen that kind of monster before, they aren't shocked as the townspeople are. Orick knows (Gallen's bear friend) because he saw their faces and he decided to follow the two strangers and take Maggie with him.

When Gallen goes to take the strangers (he finds the woman's name is Everynne and the bodyguard is Veriasse) to the arch he discovers that they have the monsters following them. When the arch appears Everynne takes a key and disappears along with Veriasse. The monsters have a key too and are about to follow them when Gallen pops out of hiding and takes the key ... going through the arch taking Maggie and Orick along. They find that they have been transported to a different world.

When they manage to find Maggie and Veriasse again things become more clear. Everynne is going to challenge the Golden Queen for her position. She is the last person of a certain race called Tharrins and if she suceeds she will be the Golden Queen. The present Queen will have to step down ... Everynne hopes to save the worlds that are being destroyed by the Queen's people (vanquishers).

But the one who does the fighting is her companion, guard, and friend Veriasse. He has to battle the Lord Protector and the Lord Protector is not human but something else that can easily cut a person in half.

Who will win in the end and what about Gallen? Gallen is a seasoned fighter ... is it possible that he could learn to defeat the monster before it's too late? Or will they all die and more worlds will be destroyed?

What about Maggie and Gallen? Gallen and Maggie have something special ... all they have to do is respond to their inner hearts before their feelings of love turn into feelings of hate ...

This book is great!!! It's full of adventure and around every corner lurks danger and death ... flashes of romance spark, and this book interwines different ways of thinking and ways of power (both good and bad) as well as showing peoples good sides as well as their bad sides ... A fantastic book and the pages seem to magically fit the story together. A book to read again and again.