The Hollow Queen Series

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  • Not Your Average Romantasy

    Why The Hollow Queen Isn’t Your Average Romantasy

    You’ve read the tropes.
    You know the drill.
    A feisty heroine. A morally gray man. Banter. Blushing. A vaguely medieval world where no one seems to know how to use a sword—or speak like they didn’t just leave a Starbucks.

    Romantasy is everywhere now. And while the surge of magic and romance has opened doors, it’s also left a lot of readers hungry for something deeper.

    If you’ve ever wished for a romantasy that feels more like gothic scripture than gossip…
    Welcome to The Hollow Queen.

    Author’s note: This image cracks me up. Leila giving the side-eye to a stereotypical romantasy heroine. Not hating…but I think Leila is.

    🖤 The Writing is Dark, Elegant, and Sharp

    This series does not read like a group chat.
    There’s no quirky inner monologue about snacks.
    There are no sudden nicknames, no spontaneous girlboss lectures.

    Instead, there is prose that drips like candle wax—slow, sensual, and meant to make you feel dangerous for loving the characters as much as you do.

    The language doesn’t flinch.
    It trusts you to keep up.
    And it’s beautiful even when it bleeds.

    👑 The Heroine is Not Your Friend

    Leila Morana isn’t here to be relatable.
    She isn’t soft, awkward, or fumbling through her destiny.

    She’s sharp. Appraising. Vicious when she needs to be.
    She was born cruel—and power only made her worse.
    Or better.

    You don’t root for her because she’s nice.
    You root for her because she knows what she is—and dares the world to kneel.

    🔥 The Romance is Complex—and Obsessive

    Yes, there are love interests. Multiple.
    Yes, there is sex. Intense, sacred, ruthless sex.

    But these are not simple happily-ever-afters. These are men with teeth—who worship, possess, betray, and break. And Leila is not passive in any of it. She chooses them. Uses them. Marks them. Loves them, maybe. Destroys them, possibly.

    Desire is a weapon in this world. And no one is safe from it.

    🩸 The Story is Character-Driven, Not Trope-Dependent

    You will not find a checklist here.

    There is no one-note “chosen one.”
    No enemies-to-lovers that wraps up with a neat bow.
    No forced proximity that reads like a rom-com in a dungeon.

    Instead, you’ll find slow evolution.
    Dangerous transformation.
    A queen who becomes divine, and the men who burn for her—or because of her.

    In Short:

    The Hollow Queen is for you if:

    • You want a story that reads like dark prophecy and poetic ruin.
    • You crave multiple love interests who are each dangerous in different ways.
    • You’re tired of fantasy that sounds like it was written for TikTok.
    • You believe power and love aren’t opposites—but mirrors.
    • You want a heroine who takes what she wants and never apologizes for it.

    If that’s the story you’ve been waiting for…
    You’re not alone.

    You’ve just been waiting to kneel.

    For a release date, I’m looking at early December. I actually have the preorder set up an Amazon currently, if you’re already sold. 🙂

    Also, don’t forget to sign up for the mailing list and get your FREE prequel novella!

  • The Rise of an Evil Queen – Leila Morana’s Ascent

    We’ve all met her before: the Evil Queen.

    She wears black. She rules with a razor smile. She’s feared, hated, and rarely understood. She poisons apples, turns love into war, and will burn down a kingdom to keep her crown. But in The Hollow Queen, Leila Morana does something the others never do:

    She makes you love her for it.

    🖤 So what makes her an “Evil Queen”?

    Leila isn’t interested in being good.
    She does not forgive easily. She doesn’t flinch from blood. She takes what she wants—whether it’s a throne, a lover, or a god.

    She manipulates perception, marks people and places as hers, and weaponizes intimacy as deftly as she wields power. She becomes a symbol of dread to her enemies, a sovereign to her chosen, and something closer to a myth than a woman.

    From the beginning, she saw through people. Their weakness. Their flattery. Their small, trembling ambitions. She was judgmental. Spiteful. Brilliant. And bound—by lineage, by gender, by a world that told her she could advise a throne, but never sit on one.

    So she smiled, waited, and learned how to survive.

    Then the crown came.

    And suddenly, the cruelty that once made others flinch became something else: command.

    Leila makes choices that hurt people.
    She destroys. She walks willingly into the dark—and asks it to make room for her.

    But the key difference?
    She does it not to escape herself, but to become fully who she is.

    That’s what makes her dangerous. That’s what makes her beautiful.
    And that’s what makes her story unforgettable.

    In another story, she would be the villain.
    In this one, she’s the center.

    There is a hollow in her.

    There’s something in her—an ache she refuses to name.
    It’s not softness. It’s not regret. It’s something older, deeper. Something she can’t conquer.

    Call it loneliness.
    Call it grief.
    Call it the cost of knowing she was always meant for more.

    It is the part of her that hungers even after victory.
    The part that makes her hold her lovers too tightly—or push them away.
    The part that made her powerful… but never whole.

    She hides it well. Most people never see it.
    But some do.
    And those who touch the hollow inside her never forget it.

    Leila Morana has never wept over cruelty.

    She does not wring her hands when someone breaks beneath her will. She does not lose sleep over blood spilled in her name. There has always been a hollow inside her—not pain, not grief, just absence.

    Emotion never came easily.
    Compassion? Conditional.
    Guilt? Foreign.

    She wants what she wants, and she does not ask if she is allowed. She takes it.

    And for a long time, she believed that was all she was.

    But something changes.

    Slowly. Unwillingly.
    Somewhere between violence and victory—she begins to feel.

    Not softness. Not purity.
    But a flicker of something sharp and sickening and beautiful.

    Want, not for power—but for someone.
    Fear, not of death—but of losing what had never been hers to begin with.
    Longing, that made her crueler, not kinder.

    It doesn’t weaken her.
    It ruins her.

    She was born cruel. She became a queen.
    But it is the hollow inside her that makes her dangerous.
    Because one day, she might fill it.
    And then there will be nothing left to stop her.

    🔥 When She Loves

    Her love is not warm. It is hungry.
    It’s not a healing balm—it’s a brand.

    She does not love often.
    But when she does, it is fierce, obsessive, and unforgettable.

    She will not kneel.
    She will not chase.
    But if she chooses someone, truly—she will mark them, body and soul.

    And no matter how far they run,
    no matter how hard they fight it—
    they will never be the same.

    Leila Morana was not made to be merciful.
    But when love slips past the hollow—
    it does not save her.

    It makes her sovereign.

    But what sets her apart?

    She loves deeply—and dangerously.
    Evil queens rarely love at all. Leila does.
    And when she does, it’s with everything: her body, her mind, her magic. Her lovers are not safe from her—they are shaped by her. And some of them… shape her back.

    She changes.
    Not softer. Not broken. But more.
    More aware. More powerful. More herself.
    Leila doesn’t spiral into madness—she ascends. She becomes what she was always meant to be, and that’s something beyond queen, beyond lover, beyond mortal.

    Not a Queen. A Force.

    Leila is not a tragedy.
    She does not fall.
    She rises.

    Her cruelty is not a mask—it is clarity.

    But the hollow… that’s the shadow that lingers. The thing that makes her story more than just blood and conquest. It’s the thing that reminds us she is still human—just barely.

    And sometimes, that hollow flares open.
    When someone says her name like a vow.
    When someone bleeds for her.
    When someone stays.

    So… is she evil?

    Only if you believe that women must be kind to be worthy.

    Only if you believe that power can’t coexist with love.

    Only if you think the throne belongs to anyone else.

    Don’t forget that you can get The Shadowed Bride novella for free if you sign up for the mailing list!! (click the image)

  • The Shadowed Bride – A FREE Prequel Novella in The Hollow Queen universe!

    So excited to announce this one! I’m giving away a free novella ebook when you sign up to The Hollow Queen mailing list!

    It’s called The Shadowed Bride, and details the events that run directly into the beginning of Vows of Shadow, when Leila stands before Drazan for the first time. But this novella focuses on Drazan’s side of this beginning, and gives insight into what he already thinks of Leila before she arrives at Ravaryn to become his bride.

    Their joining is not a typical arrangement. How does it come to be? And how much does he already want her, based only on a name and a dream – and perhaps something older, darker.

    The novella ALSO features the Prologue and first 2 chapters of Vows of Shadow, culminating in the moment when The Shadowed Bride ends and Vows of Shadow begins. Plus a few unrevealed pieces of art that go with the story.

    The cover reveal is below. If you know my work, you can see that this series is not my usual, but it’s meant to be dark fantasy romance. And while there is a lot of character development and plot, let’s face it: there is also a lot of sex. (shhhh!)

    Join the mailing list and get your copy now!

    The Shadowed Bride
    A Hollow Queen Novella

    They say Warlord Drazan Virel conquered the south with fire and blood. That he sleeps beneath a fortress carved from the bones of gods. That his last bride vanished without a trace.

    Only he knows which of the whispers are true.

    The fall of House Morana was swift—its banners burned, its bloodlines buried. All but one. A girl. A shadow. A promise he did not finish.

    He never saw her face. Never heard her voice. But still… she comes to him in dreams. A woman forged from smoke and hunger. A challenge. A match. A curse.

    Now, as Drazan prepares to marry for power, she appears at his gates—filthy from the road, eyes like shattered emerald, spine unbroken. She does not bow. She does not yield.

    And Ravaryn begins to stir.

    Darkness calls her name.

    The Shadowed Bride is a sensual, atmospheric novella set in the world of The Hollow Queen—a tale of war, prophecy, and the pull of something far older than love.

  • 🖤 The World of The Hollow Queen: Ravaryn & the Hollow Coast

    She was called to marry a warlord. They did not know she would become his equal.

    Before the thrones, before the blood and the black crown, there was a journey—a girl called to wed a man the world feared. At the edge of the known kingdoms lies a broken and storm-bitten region known as the Hollow Coast. Its seat is Ravaryn, a keep carved from obsidian and shadow, where war banners never fall and silence is more dangerous than song.

    This is the world Leila Morana enters. And it is already ruled by a man named Drazan Virel.

    Ravaryn Hold — The Warlord’s Keep

    Ravaryn is no cradle of peace. It was seized in blood and held by fire—claimed by Drazan during his brutal rise to power. Built atop ancient stone and deeper secrets still, the keep became a symbol of dread and dominion, a stronghold from which the warlord cast his gaze over the Hollow Coast and made it his.

    The people do not whisper his name with affection. They speak it with fear. And yet it is into this keep that Leila is brought—not as a prisoner, but as a bride.

    She arrives knowing nothing of the forces that sleep beneath the stone. Nothing of the godless altars, the waiting armies, or the man who does not believe in softness. Only that this is her future.

    The Hollow Coast — Drazan’s Kingdom, Not Yet Hers

    Spanning jagged cliffs and coastal ruins, the Hollow Coast is a land once lost to infighting and neglect. It was Drazan who unified it—by blade, by conquest, by sheer force of will. His law is the only one that holds here. From salt-bitten villages to forgotten shrines, the people survive because he demands it. He made a kingdom of ruin.

    But kingdoms can change. And Leila is not content to watch.

    She begins as a wife. She becomes something else. And soon, the coast will learn that the warlord’s bride is no gentle thing.

    A World at the Edge of Becoming

    This is the beginning of The Hollow Queen. Not of a reign—but of a transformation. Ravaryn may belong to Drazan, and the Hollow Coast may kneel to his rule, but Leila does not come to kneel. She comes to understand, to unravel, and to rise.

    And when she does, even the stones of Ravaryn will bear her mark.

    NEWS

    I’m working on preparing a mailing list and hope to get the sign-up form on here soon. Then we’ll talk more about the freebie with will go along with that.

    I did FINALLY add a button to subscribe to this blog, and you’ll probably see that…just about everywhere.

    I’m working with a release date for Vows of Shadow around November or December 2025, but I haven’t set a definite date yet.

    Make sure to follow the blog for more news!

  • Politics and War in The Hollow Queen Series

    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.)

  • Sensuality in the Hollow Queen Universe

    While I usually place some degree of romance or sensuality into my books, this is the first where I have explored a character who loves and desires freely (though this advances in increments, and is not always without jealousy.) It is the first where I have explored polyamory, though there is a definite hierarchy. As well, these romantic relationships take place between Leila and another partner, not polyamory in groups.

    Leila is not bound by one romance alone, and the sexual content in Vows of Shadow is nearly equal with the plot material. But there is a lot of character and relationship building that happens during these scenes, and each lover that Leila takes on brings out something different in her.

    What Makes Sensuality Sacred in The Hollow Queen?

    In the world of The Hollow Queen, sensuality is never just about skin. It’s not titillation for its own sake, nor romance in the soft, conventional sense. Here, sensuality is a kind of power, a language older than loyalty and sharper than steel. It’s a form of knowing, claiming, and commanding—one that plays out not only in bedsheets and bare skin, but in the spaces between violence, vulnerability, and will.

    This is a universe where gods awaken, kings bleed, and queens do not ask for love—they are worshipped in it. And the sensual is bound tightly to that worship.

    Sensuality as Sovereignty

    For Leila Morana, the central figure in the series, sensuality is intimately tied to her sovereignty. When she chooses to touch, to take, or to be taken, it is an act of dominion. Every glance, every kiss, every whispered command is a claim—not only over another, but over herself. Her body becomes not a tool for seduction, but a realm to be entered only with reverence or ruin.

    Unlike many fantasy heroines, Leila is not awakening to her desires as if discovering a forbidden garden. She already understands them. She simply chooses when—and whom—to invite in.

    Lovers as Mirrors and Monsters

    The Hollow Queen’s lovers are never mere consorts. Each is a mirror, a weapon, a shadow, or a storm. Sensuality in this world is not safe—it’s often a challenge, a test of whether one can survive desire without being consumed by it.

    • Drazan, her warlord husband, is all molten judgment and brutal tenderness. His desire for Leila is not to soften her—but to sharpen her further.
    • Calrix, the assassin, offers intimacy like a blade offered hilt-first—an invitation to wield him or wound him.
    • Others bring their own distinct textures of devotion, obsession, or otherworldly hunger.

    These are not romances. These are reckonings. Leila does not fall in love—she chooses it. And each time, it remakes her.

    Divinity and Desire

    Desire in The Hollow Queen is often divine in scope. When Leila is touched by gods, or becomes one herself, sensuality transcends the physical. It becomes a means of communion, of creation, of claiming space within and beyond the mortal world. Some of her most intimate encounters are also acts of transformation—where something ancient and dark stirs awake not just in her, but in the world itself.

    This is what sets the series apart: it treats sensuality as a cosmic force. Not just bodies meeting, but souls testing the weight of fate. And when it’s done right, kingdoms shift.

    Sensuality as a Weapon, Not a Weakness

    Perhaps most powerfully, The Hollow Queen treats sensuality as a weapon. Leila uses it with precision—not as manipulation, but as understanding. She knows what her gaze does. She knows the difference between desire and control. And she knows that when someone is bare before her—physically or emotionally—they are most vulnerable to the truth.

    And sometimes? That truth is love. But more often, it’s something stranger: reverence, surrender, or fear.

    Sensuality in The Hollow Queen is not about softness. It’s about surrender—with teeth. It’s about power offered, taken, broken, and reforged. Whether through godblood, shadow, or whispered promises in the dark, Leila Morana’s world reminds us that intimacy is never simple. It is sacred. It is dangerous.

    And it is always hers.

    What this means for different mediums:

    While the printed books and audiobooks will explore all the content of the series, I am also planning to produce the story as a Youtube series and possibly a podcast.

    The Youtube version of the audio will be free to listen to, yes, but it will be abridged – it will not include all the more graphic or explicit sexual material, but it will gloss over it, while still including important content and conversations that happen during.

    I am also considering releasing an abridged edition of the book in order to match that, though whether anyone would be interested in that, I’m not sure. It’s like releasing an edited version of an album without explicit language…

    So! If that’s something you’re going to skip over anyway, maybe you can find the right version for you. 🙂

    I do not have a date settled yet, though I am considering September. The text for Vows of Shadow is complete at 232k words, though I still need to make sure everything is ready to go around the same time.

    Any questions? Feel free to ask!

  • Announcing the Hollow Queen Book Series!

    Power is not inherited. It is taken—body, soul, and crown.

    Leila Morana thought she was meant to be a bride, nothing more. But within the bloodstained halls of Ravaryn Hold, she seized a darker fate. Bound to a warlord feared by all, Leila does not kneel—she marks, she commands, and she learns to conquer with mind, with shadow, and with desire.

    Her lovers are many, but one name echoes deepest: Drazan Virel, the fire-forged tyrant who becomes her match in war and ruin. Together they do not build peace—they build dominion. And those who dare approach her—assassin, prince, vessel, or traitor—learn that to love a queen like Leila is to surrender to something far more consuming than passion.

    As kingdoms fall and ancient gods stir, Leila rises—not as a consort, not as a victim, but as a sovereign shaped by intimacy, wrath, and the hunger for something eternal.

    This is not a tale of one great love, but of many hungers—and a woman who turns them all into power.

    Step into a world where shadow reigns, desire is a weapon, and queens are crowned in blood.

    The Hollow Queen is a dark fantasy romance series with erotic elements, charting the rise of a powerful and ruthless sovereign. At its heart is Leila Morana—a young noblewoman promised to a warlord, who does not bend as expected. Instead, she takes the throne, the darkness beneath it, and the men who thought to wield her.

    Spanning multiple books and companion works, the series blends gothic romance, political intrigue, and supernatural power, following Leila’s transformation from scheming bride to ascending goddess. Along the way, she forges dangerous alliances, marks chosen lovers, and unleashes divine judgment on those who would claim her crown.

    It is a tale of love and cruelty, of becoming not the heroine—but the legend whispered about in fear and reverence.

    If you’re drawn to stories of dark queens, morally complex lovers, and the thrill of watching a woman claim power on her own terms, The Hollow Queen awaits.

    A warlord demanded a bride.
    A girl arrived—crowned not in silk, but in silence.
    And the shadows remembered her name.

    Vows of Shadow begins the dark, intoxicating journey of The Hollow Queen. In a land ruled by force and ancient gods, Leila Morana is sent to marry the fearsome warlord Drazan Virel, a man whose legend is carved in blood. But she is no docile offering. Beneath her quiet obedience stirs something far older—and far more dangerous—than anyone expects.

    Bound by ritual, drawn to power, Leila steps into a world of smoke and steel where desire is never innocent, and vows are never free. As political alliances shift and enemies rise from the dark, Leila learns to bend the forces around her—not just to survive, but to rule.

    This is not the tale of a queen made by love.
    This is the tale of a queen forged by fire, shadow, and want.

    The return of an author:

    After years of silence, Lani Lenore returns from the shadows.

    Known for haunting reimaginings and gothic fairytales like The Hallowed, The Needle’s Eye, and the Nevermor Trilogy, she now emerges with her most ambitious work yet: The Hollow Queen series.

    A dark fantasy romance drenched in power, desire, and divine reckoning, The Hollow Queen marks the rebirth of a storyteller who never feared the dark—only waited to reshape it.

    The queen has returned. And she is not merciful.

    The release date TBD 2025.

    Vows of Shadow will be released in late 2025, marking the first book in the series, and will be released in multiple formats including ebook, print book, and audiobook – along with an accompanying audio series on Youtube. Follow the blog to stay up to date on details!