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A review by breabooks
Iron & Embers by Helen Scheuerer
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Oh boy, what a freaking whirlwind of a book. I’ve been told that it is beneficial to read The Legends of Thezzmar series first. It’s clearly not necessary to read that first as the author did an excellent job of threading what background knowledge was needed to understand the world throughout this story. I do feel like I’m ruined for the first series as this story basically spoiled how the previous series ends.
With that out of the way, this was a very epic fantasy romance. Elwren was a princess of a destroyed land. Wren was also an alchemist and poisoner. She exacted deadly revenge on those that fought on the wrong side of the war. In the process of killing off the ilk, Wren thwarted Torj’s plan to be stationed as far away as possible. Torj is a Warsword (basically a general with power from the gods). The ultimate irony was that he must become Wren’s bodyguard in order to get another chance to be stationed far away. The characters are all very layered. The banter between Torj and Wren is fantastic. The side characters, while not super complex, have very distinct personalities that add to the story.
This book had the right amount of magic, yearning, and world building. Tough subjects such as sibling loss, post-traumatic stress, and war were tackled. There was tons of heartbreak. The romance was top notch.
The reason this isn’t a 5 star from me is that it was wonderfully steady for 400 pages then suddenly it was all rushed. The last 100ish pages were crammed with so much story that I had whiplash. The abrupt disruption in pacing just didn’t sit right with me. I also was able to guess a lot of the twists before they happened.
I’m interested to see how the rest of Wren and Torj’s story plays out in the next book. Thank you BOMM for the gifted egalley.
With that out of the way, this was a very epic fantasy romance. Elwren was a princess of a destroyed land. Wren was also an alchemist and poisoner. She exacted deadly revenge on those that fought on the wrong side of the war. In the process of killing off the ilk, Wren thwarted Torj’s plan to be stationed as far away as possible. Torj is a Warsword (basically a general with power from the gods). The ultimate irony was that he must become Wren’s bodyguard in order to get another chance to be stationed far away. The characters are all very layered. The banter between Torj and Wren is fantastic. The side characters, while not super complex, have very distinct personalities that add to the story.
This book had the right amount of magic, yearning, and world building. Tough subjects such as sibling loss, post-traumatic stress, and war were tackled. There was tons of heartbreak. The romance was top notch.
The reason this isn’t a 5 star from me is that it was wonderfully steady for 400 pages then suddenly it was all rushed. The last 100ish pages were crammed with so much story that I had whiplash. The abrupt disruption in pacing just didn’t sit right with me. I also was able to guess a lot of the twists before they happened.
I’m interested to see how the rest of Wren and Torj’s story plays out in the next book. Thank you BOMM for the gifted egalley.