Tessa Quill expected another night of bad ale, worse customers and the occasional wandering hand that deserved introducing to a tavern window. She did not expect a glowing mark on her backside, an ancient prophecy, or five dangerously complicated men announcing that destiny had apparently put them all in the same bed-shaped problem.
One magical awakening later, Tessa discovers she is the reluctant Chosen One at the centre of a prophecy capable of changing the realm. Her supposed protectors are hardly the heroic company she might have requested: an arrogant elf with enough pride for three kingdoms, a cursed werewolf whose affection can turn lethal, a battered knight with problems of his own, a half-demon empath who senses far too much, and an ancient king trapped inside a talking sword.
They are her Guardians.
They may also be something much more dangerous.
Bound together by old magic, Tessa and her unlikely companions must follow a trail of forgotten secrets towards the shattered Emberglass, an artefact powerful enough to tear apart the barriers between worlds. Someone else is already hunting its pieces, and Tessa may be the only person capable of stopping them.
Unfortunately, nobody bothered to explain how.
As curses tighten, secrets emerge and attraction becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, Tessa must work out who she can trust before destiny makes the choice for her. The magical bond joining the six of them is growing stronger, turning this reverse harem fantasy adventure into something far more personal than an ordinary quest.
Readers who love fated mates with multiple love interests will find five very different men drawn towards one woman for reasons none of them completely understand. Fans of cursed heroes slow burn romance can expect simmering attraction, reluctant vulnerability and more than one man carrying a past that refuses to stay buried.
With its fiercely independent heroine, this reluctant chosen one heroine fantasy mixes prophecy and peril with a woman who would rather argue with fate than obediently fulfil it. The protective guardians fantasy romance develops alongside dangerous magic, shifting loyalties and an enemy whose plans may reach closer than anyone suspects.
Yet somewhere between enchanted forests, disastrous campfires, magical battles and insults traded with suspicious enthusiasm, six strangers begin becoming something resembling a family. For readers drawn to found family fantasy romance, their growing loyalty matters just as much as the magic binding them together.
And despite the danger, destiny has apparently retained a sense of humour.
This is a funny fantasy romance with banter, reluctant attraction, magical mishaps, cursed companions and a heroine who refuses to behave like anyone's idea of a proper Chosen One.
Tessa may have been selected to save the realm, but the prophecy never said what would happen if the five men bound to her heart became the one part of destiny she wasn't willing to fight.
