Author Note: Listen: when I say that no two subjects interest me LESS than politics and war, I kid you not. (Maybe math.) But if you had told me I would be writing books about a queen and a warlord who want to conquer the world, I would not have believed it.
So believe me when I also say that this book series is not all that involved in court politics, nor is it that involved in war strategy. It’s more about the other things that are happening while these events occur, and the affect they have on the characters: mostly our leading lady.
The story belongs to her.
In The Hollow Queen, kingdoms fall, banners burn, and war drums echo across blood-stained coastlines—but that is not the heart of the story.
The heart is Leila Morana.
Yes, there are politics. Yes, there is war. But this is not a book about diplomacy or strategy. This is a book about a woman becoming more than the world expected. It is about power—but not the kind that sits comfortably at a council table. It is the kind of power that is taken. Claimed. Made sharp in the hands of a woman who was never meant to rule.
A Kingdom at the Edge
When the story begins, Leila enters a world already shaped by conquest. Drazan Virel, the warlord she’s been forced to marry, holds dominion over the Hollow Coast—a brutal, storm-torn region he claimed by fire and steel. The politics of other houses, of rival lords, of fading alliances… they swirl in the background like smoke.
Leila was not sent to command. She was sent to kneel.
But she doesn’t.
War as a Mirror, Not a Destination
Battles are fought. Keeps are taken. Armies rise beneath banners stitched with blood and shadow. But war is never the destination—it is the mirror in which Leila begins to see herself clearly. It is the place where her resolve is tested, where loyalty is broken and rebuilt, and where love becomes tangled with violence, ambition, and desire.
The battlefield matters—but only because it’s where she learns what kind of queen she will become.
Power, Yes. But Also Passion.
At its core, The Hollow Queen is a story about emotional sovereignty as much as political rule. Leila’s journey is laced with passion, danger, and complicated, often intimate relationships. The men who stand beside her are not allies in the traditional sense. They are temptations. Mirrors. Weapons. Wounds. And sometimes… homes.
The politics matter. The war changes everything. But the true transformation happens in the spaces between the battles—in the stolen glances, the quiet betrayals, the whispered confessions of love and fear and power.
The Center Holds
If you’re looking for a story where every detail of a military campaign is mapped, where political intrigue takes up entire chapters… this might not be your book.
But if you’re looking for a story where a woman takes control of her fate, carves out her power in a brutal world, and dares to love while doing it—then The Hollow Queen is exactly where you belong.
War burns in the background.
But Leila is the fire.
Vows of Shadow does not have much to do with war – yet but there are some court games. Leila prefers to play by her own rules.
I’m thinking of November for a release date. But I’m also going to have a prequel novella as a sign-up bonus for a mailing list I’m going to start. More on that soon!
(Also, say what you will about AI, but I am very grateful for the art. It’s so difficult to promote something without art.)
The Hollow Queen Series 
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