Red Gloves and her companion Bethral are mercenaries who are looking for work.  They have ventured from their homeland, to that of the Palins people and it appears they have ventured into a land fraught with danger and hopelessness.  But, when they stumble onto the falling down croft of a goat herder they are offered the lodging and kindness they have needed for a while.  But, when Josiah accidentally sees Red Gloves while she is bathing, he is stunned to see that she has a birthmark that marks her as one of the Chosen among his people.  She means more to his people than a simple mercenary would.  She is one of those who are supposed to lead his people back “into the light” and out of the darkness and hopelessness.  But, Red Gloves has other ideas.  That is until Bethral sidetracks them at a local slave auction.  Now things are different and after they return to Josiah he is able to contact others that might be able to better explain things to her.  But will she accept the fact she is one of the Chosen?  Will Josiah ever forgive himself, for what he believes was his role in sending his people into despair? More than that will the emotional journeys, along with the physical ones, heal them both and let them fall in love?

Dagger-Star is the much-awaited new series by Elizabeth Vaughan, after the super successful “War” series.  I again thoroughly enjoyed the alternate world that Ms. Vaughan has developed.  She is also very astute in developing real characters that you will laugh and cry with.  There are a number of twists and turns in this first story that I didn’t see coming.  While this story will not go on my keeper shelf with the War series (there was just some spark missing for me and I am not sure what was) it is a solid offering.  Dagger-Star is not light reading and does take on a number of tough subjects, though it was entertaining.  I will continue to look for the next offering by Ms. Vaughan.