Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar, a very long running series, got its start with Arrows of the Queen. Which opens on 13 year old Talia,living on the border with her people, the Holderkin, who have bigamist marriages in their holdings, and the men have the authority. Talia, who loves reading adventures, much to the amusement of the older women of the hold, dreams of being one of the heroes of the tales she reads. However, as she turns 13, she's informed that it's time for her to either be married off, or sent to the Convent. This causes Talia to rebel and run away from the council of wives.
As she sits in her hiding place among some ruins, one of the white horses of Valdemar, a Companion greets her, and she rides him back to Haven, not really grasping that she has just been Chosen, let alone being Chosen as Queen's Own. (Since it gets explained in this trilogy more than anywhere else in the series, the position is advisor to the Monarch, Chosen by a Grove Born Companion, always a Stallion. It's heavily implied the Herald Gifts work towards that advice, as well as divine guidance on how to advise.) Talia is taking over after her predecessor was murdered, and as the queen is dealing with the current Heir, who can't become monarch due to not being Chosen.
Most of the book is set up to give us a look at the current governance of the Kingdom, as well as players in what is the Modern Setting of the series. (Books written later in the series tend to tell tales from much earlier in the time line, or continue the story in the modern timeline after this series ends. The modern timeline seems to have ended, in terms of new stories, after Darien's Tale, since the next few series were all set several centuries earlier, and the newest one, set to start later this summer, involves the founding.)
Anyway, this means we meet later players, like Skif (who started life as a thief) and Dirk, as well as Albrecht, who we eventually find out was Chosen from longtime enemy nation Karse due to his gifts.We mostly see Talia as she trains and blossoms into a young woman. (I read these last a long time ago. As I recall, the next book concerns Talia getting promoted to Full Herald and learning to control her Empathy gift, while the final book sets up the War with Hardorn that gets the Mage Winds trilogy rolling.)
As a starting point, it's not quite what the series becomes as it evolves and gets fleshed out, however, it does show the core of the series was there at the beginning. Worth reading, and a good place to start.
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