Adrianne Harris was only a computer trainer with a normal life -- until the plane she was in crash-landed and she ended up the only survivor. The FBI was suspicious that she was a terrorist, and the news media clamored for her story. While trying to escape from these annoyances, Adri and her best friend, Nikki, run into a pack of scary dogs which look like the hounds of Hell and seem bent on tracking them down. And then, Adri is psychically contacted by a gorgeous man named Navarre, who calls her his Queen.

It turns out that Adrianne is the last Queen of the Dragoon, a shape-shifting race who are able to switch from a humanoid form to that of a dragon. The warriors who contact Adrianne are the last members of the Dragoon race, which has largely been exterminated by a creature called the Hunter, who with his pack of hounds, is on their trail again.

Wow! Just -- Wow! Every once in a while I find a book that is so well-written that it keeps me engaged for hours. This is one of those books. I sat down to read it yesterday afternoon and couldn’t put it down until I’d finished -- in spite of the fact that my air conditioning is out, and I was sitting in 90-degree heat!

The plot of this adventure story is direct, not meandering, and moves quickly to answer the reader’s questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how. McKay quickly establishes a personal connection for us with the characters, especially Adrianne and Navarre, which brings the reader into the action. Even the secondary characters become real to us. In The Last Queen, the characters are smart and alert, and for the most part, don’t do overtly stupid things. The only mistake they make is to underestimate the evilness of the bad guys; but then, what good guy can really estimate how bad a bad guy can be? Though eroticism is interwoven into the story, it is not overpowering, nor is it graphic.

What else can I say? Read this book! You won’t be disappointed.

Reviewed by: Jean