Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

44 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'll admit I struggled a bit to get into this book for the first 100 pages or so, but once I was in, I was IN. The main couple had me kicking my feet rooting for them. I loved all the characters in this book and thought they were wonderfully developed. They could have made Tadek a villain or dreadfully boring, as the romance genre tends to do with exes, but they made him so fun while still giving him depth and complexity. I like his friendship with Kadou, and I can't wait to read his book! I want to be Commander Eozena when I grow up, and Zeliha was an awesome badass ruler. 

The romance in this was such a delicious, angsty, slow burn. Evemer was so stoic and reserved, which made it all the more fun to see him fall so hard for Kadou. I appreciated the anxiety representation with Kadou and that it didn't make him any less of a badass. He still defended Evemer whenever needed, and I loved seeing a prince also defend his bodyguard. A big theme in their relationship is reciprocity, and I love when couples feel like a real partnership. 

There was enough action to keep the plot fun and exciting, but I do wish the villain wasn't so obvious from the start. Also, while this was a fantasy, the fantasy elements are used very sparingly. The ending felt a little bit rushed, and I do wish we got to see a bit more of Kadou and Evemer together as a happy couple. My overwhelming love for the romance and the characters overrides any of these quibbles though, and I know this is a book I'll come back to for rereads.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Gore

Minor: Pregnancy, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Classism, and Death of parent

cinnamonandpancakes's review

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I am unsure if this book would rate higher if I'd read it as a physical book. I kept picking it up and putting it down, which I don't think helped. This book needs to be read all in one go.

I loved Kadou and Evemer, especially Evemer, and their romance. It was very sexy and compelling. And Tadek was a lot  of fun. But I found a lot of the other characters less interesting. Siranos, in particular, seemed to change personality depending on what the narrative needed him to be and that made his plotline quite unsatisfying in my opinion.

The world building was amazing, however, and I loved the focus on material culture. It felt very much like a world that people lived in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Drug use

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Death

heather667's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

eidal's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence

Minor: Alcohol and Pregnancy

ceruleanseas's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol and Drug use

Minor: Grief

after_i_finish_this_chapter's review

emotional funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

purely_romantic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Death of parent

Minor: Grief

Detailed descriptions of anxiety and intrusive thoughts sometimes leading to panic attacks

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Animal death

kimschouwenaar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Is the story plausible? Not exactly.

Is it historically accurate? Probably not.

Is it enjoyable? Yes, but I will not be re-reading, and this has not become one of my favourite reads.

Besides the fact that I just could not connect to the two main characters, the pacing is off. Some scattered moments were exciting, but overall I was a little bored. Then there is the wording and dialogue, which was a peculiar mix of historical and modern speech. For some it might work, but for me it was confusing. 

Additionally, I simply do not understand why in such a seemingly modern and advanced society, there is such an ignorance towards mental health issues. There are multiple characters using neo-pronouns (a fact I absolutely ADORE), they seem to have equal rights for men and women, and the sultan is a woman with a new-born (!!!!) (Zeliha and Eyne were an absolutely delightful addition to the story). Also, there was an aro-ace character that uses çe/çem/çir!

It could have been great, but to me it wasn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, and Grief

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was a beautiful story. I have such a soft spot for serious, measured, bodyguard-type love interests. And I’m not someone who suffers from panic attacks, but I thought the depictions of Kadou’s anxiety disorder were handled well. 

This is entirely personal preference, but I would’ve liked if the pacing of the romance was a bit quicker. I understand it’s a slow burn, but this was a SLOOWWWWW burn, lol. Again, totally personal preference. It was still a joy to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, and Kidnapping