Rowland, A: Taste of Gold and Iron

At first it was a little hard getting into the story, beacuasenyou get thrown into another universe with very little explanation. But the story develops pretty quickly and its really, really well written. There is literally no point where the story gets boring and the romance is really fitting into the side storyline with the counterfeits.

Dafür, dass ich am Anfang Schwierigkeiten mit dem Englisch hatte, bin ich echt gut durch dieses Buch gekommen. Das Buch hat einfach perfekt meinen Nerv getroffen. Es handelt sich durch Slow Burn um eine nachvollziehbare Liebesgeschichte. Man konnte super gut nachvolmziehen, wie Evemer immer mehr hinter Kadous Fassade geblickt hat. Dazu war es auch sehr praktisch, dass das Buch in Dual Pov geschrieben ist. Kadou als Charakter war mir sehr sympathisch. Seine psychischen Probleme wurden meiner Meinung nach vernünftig dargestellt. Er wurde zudem nicht auf diese reduziert und Kadou und Evemer reflektieren regelmäßig über sich selbst. Außerdem sprechen die beiden vernünftig miteinander und für solche Szenen, wodurch wir Leser den Charakter besser verstehen, lässt sich die Autorin viel Zeit. Eine Prise Humor hatte das Buch auch, vor allem in Form von Tadek, wodurch ich des Öfteren lachen musste. Des Weiteren hat die Autorin eine Welt mit einer inklusiven Gesellschaft aufgebaut, was einfach immer schön zu lesen ist. Also meiner Meinung nach, ein wirklich toller Einzelband.

I´m going to be honest it took me two tries to get through this. I quit the first time after 30 pages but apparently I was just in the wrong mood back then because the second time that I picked up this book the pages flew by and I was swept up in the incredibly cute slow-burning romance of Evemer and Kadou. Though both sometimes are frustratingly unaware of the huge mutual crush they´re amazing characters and especially Kadous anxiety was incredibly well written. A Taste of Gold and Iron has a lot of mental health and lgbtqia+ rep and I was positively surprised when even an asexual character was introduced to us. Also, can we talk about the badass women on every corner? Zeliha, the Sultan, Eozena the commander and close relative of the Mahisti kids and of course Evemers mother is amazing as well. The Story focused on the romance and the fantasy as well as the world building was only a supporting aspect. But still the idea and the atmosphere of Arasht with the kahyalar corps, touch-tasting etc. were really nice and who knows, maybe we´ll get another chance to go back there. Because I personally could not get enough when I was done. Loved it!

Eine spannende, schöne, Extremsituation geschriebene Geschichte mit tollen Charaktere mit Facetten, Macken und vor allem Entwicklung und ein Einteiler, was bei Fantasy selten ist. Ich möchte niemanden Spoilern, desw Ich kann es nicht genug empfehlen!

So at first I was a little hesitant because I thought this will be another love triangle. BUT I was gladly mistaken! After the first 100 pages this story got progressively better. We focused more on the conflict in the realm and the plotting in the shadows AND the emotional change in both characters was very well made. Suddle, slow and convincing. In addition I also liked that the author addressed psychological issues. Despite the good middle, containing a lot of very funny moments, was the ending rather dull. After that build up I expected something way more dramatic but was sadly disappointed!