In “The Deadly Favour,” Hawise of Lothwold volunteers to be a hostage at Castle Malwarden to avoid the nunnery and find a new husband, while her friend Bessy yearns to be with her lover at a local convent. With dragons, plots, and treachery, the women soon get what they want, but not as they had imagined. A romantic fantasy adventure set in a quasi-medieval world, this book is the first in The Woldsheart Chronicles by Ruth Danes.