Saving a Queen

Journey to the country of Jaiya, in a world not quite like ours. Here the humans wield magical powers and fight against an Empire which seeks to enslave them, but they share their world with insect people and trollfolk, and stranger things lurk in the shadows…

Queen Prasa escapes from her city as it falls to the Empire. Her only hope of survival lies in traveling with Nirav, a smuggler who pilots a type of balloon called a skyboat. Caught between her sense of duty and her attraction to the smuggler, Prasa must listen to her heart in order to find the best way to save her people. But what is the secret cargo that Nirav carries…and why is a flying monster out of the old stories hunting his skyboat?

Note: Queen is meant as a standalone with a "happily ever after" ending. However, the heroes in the later books in this series are descended from Prasa and Nirav, who are also the ancestors of some of the characters in the original Jaiya series. The romance is on the sweet side, but there are some references to the horrors of war, more implied than shown, and violent fights with the flying monster.