Reviews

it’s crazy to me that the book description tries to sell this as a fantasy with politics and magic and conspiracies! when really it’s (1) a romance novel (2) an homage to a specific type of AU fanfiction and (3) tremendously goofy in the way both those things often are.

the fantasy setting doesn’t matter outside of setting up the prince/bodyguard dynamic. the conspiracy doesn’t matter outside of facilitating moments for the characters to comfort each other and worry about each other and get locked in cellars together. the leads don’t get much characterization outside of their fanfic archetypes (uwu sweet anxious guy x big strong stoic guy). there are endless conversations where characters wring their hands and apologize for failing in their duty and process their emotions like they’re in modern-day therapy.

and that’s fine if you’re on ao3 at 2am looking to scratch a specific itch (the book does read very quickly in the same way fanfic does) but a serious fantasy novel it is not.

whatyoutolkienabout's review against another edition

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5.0

I will preface this by saying this contains a homosexual romance. If this is something you do not like obviously this book is not for you. With that made clear let's start with the broad synopsis of the book.

A Taste of Gold and Iron is a fantasy romance set within an Ottoman Empire-inspired world. From the back of the book we learn that;

“One false coin could topple an empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, has no intention of wrestling for imperial control with his sister, the queen. Yet he remains at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court – the father of the queen’s new child. Then a hunting party goes terribly awry, and Kadou finds himself under suspicion of attempted murder.

To prove his loyalty to his sister and salvage his reputation, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds. He enlists the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. But what appears to be a straightforward crime spirals into a complex counterfeiting operation, with a powerful enemy at its heart.

In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy. The conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing – and bring about its ruin.”

Now I will be the first to say romance is not my favoured genre or rather I should say I prefer it being a subgenre within the novel as a whole. The synopsis however captivated me and I am so glad one that I was curious enough and two that I was kindly given permission by the publishers and netgalley. I adored this book. It has everything you could want from a good royal fantasy as it were. Espionage & plots , intrigue, an amazing array of characters. While there is no denying romance is at the core, and this book may have swayed me to get more into the genre, there is so much more to the plot and I honestly adored it.

As always I never want to spoil the plot of advance reader copies but I will do as much as I can. As is obvious from the synopsis our main characters are Kadou and arguably Evemer. Their chemistry and dynamic is wonderful to see grow and alter from basically putting up with each other due to society's expectations and orders from the sultan, to friends and ultimately lovers. (I feel like this isn’t a spoiler since it’s a fantasy romance, what did you expect?). The rest of the characters help flesh out the world, action and move the plot forward.

My only complaint, although it isn’t overly a strong one is I did find the enemy was a little bit obvious, for me at least. There were some good red herrings but ultimately I did call who and what was happening. This didn’t really take away from the novel for me since the rest more than makes up for that. I adored seeing the relationship develop between Kadou and Evemer and seeing the other characters notice their growing closeness. A certain Armsman was actually a favourite of mine, their antics and personality often brought some much needed light-heartedness in tension heavy scenes but also helped build the tension as well.

The intrigue and court politics was also something refreshing along side the crime solving. It had a taste of Machiavellian tactics (a love of mine) and I really felt Rowland captured the sense of court intrigue well. On top of that I think they dealt with the Ottoman inspiration well and fairly. It didn’t feel like it was done to tick a box but that it was thought out, researched and combined with their own worldbuilding to make a believable fantasy empire.

All in all I found A Taste of Gold and Iron a highly enjoyable read that I would recommend to any fantasy romance fan.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

rowancaskey's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

valpyre's review against another edition

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funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

2.25 stars rounded down

uhh i was pretty excited for this at the beginning -- a bodyguard romance!! hate that turns into love!! it all sounded fun to me, and my enthusiasm for the start of this is what gets it at least 2 stars.

i was definitely overwhelmed by the exposition at the start of the book, but i was willing to deal with its intricacies and get into the worldbuilding. unfortunately, i found the lore all over the place -- the two main deities that are revered in this world are constantly referenced, but we only got a vague story of their actual mythology close to the end, which was awkward. a lot of the worldbuilding was like that -- a mention of things and no further explanation. like this planet has two moons?? and vague mentions of rules about consummation but no clarity as to how that would actually affect a union? maybe that's supposed to be immersion, but it just left me without a foundation.

i also found kadou very inconsistent as a character, and evemer was very flat. i didn't feel that these two ever truly developed as people and the romance suffered as well because of it. once we got to around the 80% mark, i wasn't enthusiastic about this, but felt like i just needed to see it through to the end.

just not the vibe for me

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