What do you think?
Rate this book
Swords & Tiaras #1
Lady's Steed
She never wanted to be queen.
Avera long ago came to terms with being the forgotten royal. As fourth in line, she was never expected to inherit the throne. All that changes when her entire family is assassinated and she barely escapes with her life.
Stepping into the role of queen takes her into a world she never could have imagined. One of plotting and intrigue. Hidden passageways. Magical and murderous statues. And traitors determined to steal her throne.
When the choice becomes flee or die, she embarks on a pilgrimage to an ancient place, one that holds a terrifying secret and sets her on an impossible and deadly quest.
Avera isn’t a champion or a fighter, however she’s also not a coward. Someone has to act. There is a dark force stirring, one that threatens not just her kingdom but the entire world.
From forgotten princess to ousted queen, and now the future’s only hope. Can Avera survive what’s to come?
Avera long ago came to terms with being the forgotten royal. As fourth in line, she was never expected to inherit the throne. All that changes when her entire family is assassinated and she barely escapes with her life.
Stepping into the role of queen takes her into a world she never could have imagined. One of plotting and intrigue. Hidden passageways. Magical and murderous statues. And traitors determined to steal her throne.
When the choice becomes flee or die, she embarks on a pilgrimage to an ancient place, one that holds a terrifying secret and sets her on an impossible and deadly quest.
Avera isn’t a champion or a fighter, however she’s also not a coward. Someone has to act. There is a dark force stirring, one that threatens not just her kingdom but the entire world.
From forgotten princess to ousted queen, and now the future’s only hope. Can Avera survive what’s to come?
396 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 2, 2025
50 people are currently reading
269 people want to read
About the author
Eve Langlais
358 books5,408 followers~ New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Hello, my name is Eve Langlais and I am an International Bestselling author who loves to write hot romance, usually with werewolves, cyborgs or aliens .
I should warn you, I have a twisted imagination and a sarcastic sense of humor something I like to let loose in my writing. While well known for my shifter stories, I am also extremely partial to aliens, the kind who like to abduct humans and then drive them insane...with pleasure. Or do you like something a little darker, more serious? Then check out my cyborgs whose battle with humanity have captivated readers worldwide.
If you'd like to know more, read some excerpts or find out what I’m working on, then please visit me at http://www.EveLanglais.com or sign up for my newsletter at http://www.evelanglais.com/newrelease .
I am also extremely active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eve.langlais.98
Hello, my name is Eve Langlais and I am an International Bestselling author who loves to write hot romance, usually with werewolves, cyborgs or aliens .
I should warn you, I have a twisted imagination and a sarcastic sense of humor something I like to let loose in my writing. While well known for my shifter stories, I am also extremely partial to aliens, the kind who like to abduct humans and then drive them insane...with pleasure. Or do you like something a little darker, more serious? Then check out my cyborgs whose battle with humanity have captivated readers worldwide.
If you'd like to know more, read some excerpts or find out what I’m working on, then please visit me at http://www.EveLanglais.com or sign up for my newsletter at http://www.evelanglais.com/newrelease .
I am also extremely active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eve.langlais.98
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 30, 2025
I only made it 80% of the way through this book, but I'm done with the sunk cost fallacy.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a book dive off a cliff so rapidly. Up until the halfway point, this was a decent enough novel about a new queen trying to solve the mystery of who killed her family while trying to stave off her assassination. Then, the head assassin was revealed and everything went downhill. The plot suddenly made next to no sense and there were little style problems everywhere. (I used to be very proud of myself for not using "said" when I was around fifteen-years-old and trying to write my first novel. A writing group quickly pointed out that words other than "said" should be used for emphasis, not every other dialogue mark. Clearly, Eve Langlais never got this advice, or her editor didn't pick up on it in the latter half of the novel.)
I'm baffled as to how this happened, but I'm not going to subject myself to more of it. I consider it read. The two stars are for the beginning assassination mystery.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a book dive off a cliff so rapidly. Up until the halfway point, this was a decent enough novel about a new queen trying to solve the mystery of who killed her family while trying to stave off her assassination. Then, the head assassin was revealed and everything went downhill. The plot suddenly made next to no sense and there were little style problems everywhere. (I used to be very proud of myself for not using "said" when I was around fifteen-years-old and trying to write my first novel. A writing group quickly pointed out that words other than "said" should be used for emphasis, not every other dialogue mark. Clearly, Eve Langlais never got this advice, or her editor didn't pick up on it in the latter half of the novel.)
I'm baffled as to how this happened, but I'm not going to subject myself to more of it. I consider it read. The two stars are for the beginning assassination mystery.
January 23, 2025
Okay, that was a great start to what is shaping up to be an epic quest! We have a big bad, which we know little about, a reluctant royal, who is determined, and sidekicks and side characters, some of who we can see are good, and others, well, some question marks. Now that the wheels are truly in motion, cannot wait to see what happens in the next book!
Read
July 24, 2025Putting it away for now. Nothing wrong with it per se, it’s more YA/Fantasy and was looking for something else.
did-not-finish
September 1, 2025DNF @ 15%
Didn’t like the writing. Also she’s a princess - her mother is Queen - yet somehow doesn’t know her own country’s politics?
Didn’t like the writing. Also she’s a princess - her mother is Queen - yet somehow doesn’t know her own country’s politics?
May 2, 2025
Lady's Steed
This book is well written and well paced. I found it very easy to read and really enjoyed the story. The characters have a lot of depth to them which makes them very interesting.
This book is well written and well paced. I found it very easy to read and really enjoyed the story. The characters have a lot of depth to them which makes them very interesting.
January 3, 2025
Another great adventure
Good book, I couldn't put it down
Can't wait to read what happened next
It's a good start to what promises to be a great adventure
Good book, I couldn't put it down
Can't wait to read what happened next
It's a good start to what promises to be a great adventure
January 30, 2025
Not. One. Breathe. Danger everywhere and every moment from start to end.
November 17, 2025
So far a "not like other girls" book, even with the MC being not just a bastard, but also a racial and "intelligent" (she likes to read, lmao) outcast because of her "father's sly wit". There are ways to do that of course; I love a melanin heroine, but it's written very purposeful to say everyone else in the kingdom with fair skin and blonde or auburn hair is lesser than MC. Also a moment of her judging internally that a FARMER was "cowardly" for running from the palace during the literal serial killing of royals and not so subtly "hinted" at bestiality of him because of rumors. To then, get this, turn around and be butt-hurt at other townspeople gossiping about her and making rude remarks. 😐 Weird racial tension by the author, calling white people animal fuckers, vain, shallow, stupid; and self-victimization at the apparently one brown person in the WHOLE kingdom being called ugly. Come on now. 🙄 Not to mention the writing itself is very basic; despite lots of descriptions being given, the word choice sounds very middle school coded and the MC being, again, "not like other girls/princesses" to sneak out in peasant clothes, sneak into the kitchen to grab a pastry for herself and carrots for her horse that follows her, this just feels like discount Jasmine from Aladdin and Wish.com version of Merida from Brave. Unoriginal, boring, racist undertones. Only picked this up because it was on sale for a single dollar, but it's not even worth that. Very bizarre and I think I'll pass. 20 pages of insufferable weirdness.
10 bucks says if I continued reading, the mysterious country of Verlora that "went dark" and produces advanced tech for the time period that no one else can seemingly do, is where MC's father is from and why she feels "pulled" to artifacts from there when they show up in shops. Little side note of just lazily making all her siblings bad people so that there isn't any impact of their deaths, almost cheering for it because MC is "better" than all of them. Even her own mom's just like "what a relief my son was killed". ☠️ What a cringey mess. So even dashes of Tinkerbell (right down to being intrigued at how a music box functions) and Cinderella. It's like the author was trying to fit all the tropes for what other strong female leads have done into one person, with zero character building or depth. And my last point is petty, but again I didn't make it past 20 pages and already spotted a typo. Conspiracy of this either being someone's unedited fanfic or AI slop.
Suitor Armor, Men of the Harem, and The Villainess Just Wants to Live in Peace (all free on Webtoon) do this type of story much better, especially the first one.
Edit: This "author" has over 300 books, many of which are published within the same year. There's definitely something fishy going on. Like genuinely either she just pumps out the cringiest bare minimum writing with no editing and slaps it up for sale (this book not even being released a year yet and I got it for very cheap) or outsources her work in some fashion, which would be easy to do these days by just letting ChatGPT or some other program use a prompt. Or possibly even worse, snatching fanfics and other stuff people haven't traditionally published for money, spliced it together for a half-baked novel, and marketed it as her own. It feels VERY off. I would highly suggest not buying anything from this person. Either way you slice it, it's clear to me she doesn't care about the books she's producing and just wants to make a quick buck. There are others more deserving of your time and money.
10 bucks says if I continued reading, the mysterious country of Verlora that "went dark" and produces advanced tech for the time period that no one else can seemingly do, is where MC's father is from and why she feels "pulled" to artifacts from there when they show up in shops. Little side note of just lazily making all her siblings bad people so that there isn't any impact of their deaths, almost cheering for it because MC is "better" than all of them. Even her own mom's just like "what a relief my son was killed". ☠️ What a cringey mess. So even dashes of Tinkerbell (right down to being intrigued at how a music box functions) and Cinderella. It's like the author was trying to fit all the tropes for what other strong female leads have done into one person, with zero character building or depth. And my last point is petty, but again I didn't make it past 20 pages and already spotted a typo. Conspiracy of this either being someone's unedited fanfic or AI slop.
Suitor Armor, Men of the Harem, and The Villainess Just Wants to Live in Peace (all free on Webtoon) do this type of story much better, especially the first one.
Edit: This "author" has over 300 books, many of which are published within the same year. There's definitely something fishy going on. Like genuinely either she just pumps out the cringiest bare minimum writing with no editing and slaps it up for sale (this book not even being released a year yet and I got it for very cheap) or outsources her work in some fashion, which would be easy to do these days by just letting ChatGPT or some other program use a prompt. Or possibly even worse, snatching fanfics and other stuff people haven't traditionally published for money, spliced it together for a half-baked novel, and marketed it as her own. It feels VERY off. I would highly suggest not buying anything from this person. Either way you slice it, it's clear to me she doesn't care about the books she's producing and just wants to make a quick buck. There are others more deserving of your time and money.
November 21, 2025
3.5 stars
The story starts off strong but for such smart people they made many silly mistakes or missed easy clues,just forgot to mention something they normally would have, or saw something they knew was out of place and then just ignored it even when the thought was there of the item being a possibility for leaked information etc.
those things bothered me but not enough to stop reading. The characters and world are interesting so I will continue with the series.
The story starts off strong but for such smart people they made many silly mistakes or missed easy clues,just forgot to mention something they normally would have, or saw something they knew was out of place and then just ignored it even when the thought was there of the item being a possibility for leaked information etc.
those things bothered me but not enough to stop reading. The characters and world are interesting so I will continue with the series.
January 14, 2025
4.5 stars
August 11, 2025
Fascinating
Very entertaining, and I look forward to subsequent books. There are exceptional characters, both primary and secondary, with an interesting plot and raving evil.
Very entertaining, and I look forward to subsequent books. There are exceptional characters, both primary and secondary, with an interesting plot and raving evil.
dnf
November 19, 2025The book was just "Meh" to me. I didn't really care for it. It didn't interest me at all so I dropped it.
August 14, 2025
Fantastic adventure begins. The book is great, full of action, great characters, strong female hero, and strong female sidekick. I look forward for next part of the story.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews