When three local bullies pick on Iron Hills dwarf Eiravel (Val) Stonehold, she naturally defends herself.
Why is she the only one who gets thrown out of the tavern after the brawl?
On her way home, two bumbling dragons in human form, Axl and Livius, accost her and hand her a letter.
What can the new Eternal Queen Julie possibly want with her?
As it turns out, the queen wants her body.
Rather, she wants her fighting skills. Diplomats often need bodyguards, and Julie thinks Val fits the bill. One Val knows little about the world beyond the Iron Hills.
She has to learn more about the outside world to be effective.
If she learns fast enough, she might save her employer’s daughter from being abducted.
Well, this is one of those fairly light and easy to read urban fantasy series where I had to read more than one book before I felt I was ready to give a verdict.
I quite like the overall story and the main protagonist. Well most of the time at least.
Val is decidedly kick-ass and mostly a nice person. Sometimes she can also be a bit stupid, rash and judgmental. Especially in the third book.
As oftentimes with urban fantasy series there is a bit of underlying mystery surrounding the main protagonist suggesting some magical development in her future.
Also, as in many urban fantasy series there’s a bar involved where Val spends quite a bit of her time. It feels a bit unimaginative actually but what the hell? It works.
Val herself is also a dwarf… that suffers from gigantism. That is a twist I have not seen before. A giant dwarf.
As a dwarf she is, not too surprisingly, a blacksmith with a knack for magical items. As the story evolves so does her magical blacksmithing skills. This is were the authors hints of greatness in the future for Val. Not to spoil things but Excalibur is mentioned.
As I wrote, Val is kick-ass. Enough kick-ass that she takes on, or rather is ordered to but you have to read the book if you want to know more about that, jobs as a bodyguard.
She also gets saddled with a rebellious faerie also not by her choice. It is also not exactly the faerie’s choice. Just to add to the fun the arrangement is somewhat “binding”. I quite liked that part of the story although this is also the part where Val becomes somewhat stupid, rash and judgmental.
Overall it is a pretty solid urban fantasy story. As I wrote, not bad but not great either. All three books earned themselves a three star rating from me.
PG's Ramblings 
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