Tessa of Hundrfeld: Book 1 of The Shadow Queen

by A.L. Heard

As war looms, fates collide in a battle of prophecy, vengeance, and power.

Hjorrfold has known centuries of peace and prosperity, but all of that is threatened when a bloodthirsty prince discovers a book of ancient prophecy. With it, he sees a path to the throne. His ruthless ambition will stop at nothing to forge a legacy of blood and glory.

The key to his rise isn’t in magic or steel–it’s a woman.

Tessa must navigate the prince’s court and schemes, but her loyalty is a mask. She hasn’t come to be his she’s out for revenge. To unravel the prince’s prophecies, she must gather allies and play her part perfectly…or lose everything trying.

517 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2025

About the author

Ashley, pen name A.L. Heard, fandom name jhoom, is a 34 year old teacher, writer, and mother of two little boys. She’s been writing fanworks since she discovered ff.net back in her middle school days; the platform has changed and the writing’s improved, but Ashley ultimately still spends her free time writing about characters she adores in worlds she’d like to explore. Her first novel, Hockey Bois, was published in 2021. In between writing projects, she works as a language teacher in the Pittsburgh area, plays hockey, and plays trains with her sons.

Reviews

[Linnea Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. I finished it a few days ago, and I can't stop thinking about it! I don't read a lot of adult fantasy, so I'm not totally familiar with the conventions of the genre, particularly around pacing. The beginning felt slow, and it took me a while to get invested in the characters, but by about 20% of the way into the book, I was hooked, big time.

I love Tessa as a character. Sometimes I felt like she was too perfect, but the author seemed aware of that possible pitfall, and occasionally Tessa would do something that wasn't as skilled or dedicated as usual, like struggle to get into a boat or get really distracted while reading reports. This counterpoint was important in terms of feeling like Tessa was (probably) human.

Most of the POV characters are royal or noble, with the exception of Ove, and I really valued the way Ove's perspective was different from everyone else's. On the whole, the characters could have been a little more complex, but they managed to feel relatively well fleshed out despite in some ways being archetypes. Havardr was probably the most one-note of the characters, and getting inside his (disgusting) head was an important part of feeling like he was a real person and not just a straw man.

I forgot that this was the first book in a series while I was reading, and as I approached the ending, I got more and more confused about how everything would wrap up with just a few pages left. Without spoiling too much, I'll say that this is very much the first book in a series, NOT a "standalone with series potential." You will be left wanting more, to say the least. I'm looking forward to the next installment!