A review by dinipandareads
A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.5

I don’t quite know where to begin with my thoughts on this because my reading experience swung rapidly between total absorption to mild boredom and confusion throughout. All I know is that by the end, I was fully invested in these characters, the “solving of the mystery”, and most importantly, the romance. This might be another instance of “I loved this but can’t properly explain why” and maybe that’s okay because this book is a bit hard to describe! 
 
There’s political subterfuge, diplomatic manoeuvering, reconnaissance missions, assassination attempts, and a tension-filled romance overflowing with angst and mutual pining (and oh, the pining… *chef’s kiss!*) and all of it is set against the backdrop of a richly imagined world. I loved learning about the cultural customs, the way royalty is revered, and how important the Khalayar are in running this country beyond caring for and serving the royals. Queerness is normalized in this society and two other things I loved were how women held the highest positions of power and the interesting concept of ‘body-fathers’. Women have the right to decide if the man they fathered children with can claim the child as theirs and be part of their life in a bigger way. I also liked how open this society was to sexual exploration and relationships. Sex isn’t taboo or looked down upon and women didn’t have to be married to have children—it felt empowering! 
 
This is also a world where magic exists although it plays a surprisingly minor role in a book that’s named after an individual’s ability to taste material elements when they touch it. I thought this was unique and wanted to learn more and see it used more as the story continued. For the most part, I liked what we got of the world building but as a whole, I desperately wanted more! Much of what we learn is in scattered patches through various info dumps about random aspects—economics, trade ports, shipping, etc.—that admittedly felt a bit tedious to read at times. Ngl, as keen as Evemer was about listening to Kadou harp on about the value of their currency, I was more keen on watching how enraptured Evemer became and how this was essentially step one on their way to falling in love, lol. 😂 I think the biggest issue I had with the world-building is that the author introduces most of it as if we should already be familiar with it. It was a little frustrating at first and initially, my inability to properly grasp this world almost led me to DNF for now. I’m very glad that I pushed through though because I ended up loving it! 
 
The further we go into the story, the more the plot feels like an afterthought. Yes, there was a very loose plot but as the interpersonal relationships grew more complex and the romance bloomed, it simply existed to push the narrative along. I’m notoriously bad at guessing whodunit but the author set this up in a way that was very obvious and required little second guessing. I was suspicious from the first and that suspicion never wavered until the satisfying last where justice is served (albeit, again, almost like an afterthought). Still, it wasn’t bad but it could’ve been better! 
 
What made this most enjoyable to me were the characters and their relationships. It was easy to tell how passionate the author was about these characters and how much they cared for them. The story is told through two perspectives but there are a host of supporting characters that play just as important a role in enriching the story. The side characters I loved most were Eozena and very surprisingly, Tadek. I couldn’t stand him at first but the guy grew on me and several times he had me wickedly cackling with this unrelenting flirtatious banter! 🤣 I loved him and I’d honestly love to read more about him. Commander Eozena was this highly respected and mildly terrifying badass and I adored her! She has such a great almost motherly relationship with Kadou but her scheming and fierceness are also legendary. Of course, my favourites overall were Prince Kadou and Evemer. 
 
While I have to say that initially, Kadou wasn’t particularly likeable, I knew almost immediately that I would love Evemer. That said, both of them are so well characterized with well-developed arcs and they felt like real people! Prince Kadou was a full-on hot mess at the start but the more we learn about him and the immense weight of responsibility that he puts on his shoulders, the easier it is to empathize with him. He has debilitating anxiety which he identifies as cowardice and although that view doesn’t get directly challenged for most of the story, Evemer does address it in the end. I think the author did a great job representing his anxiety—it was so sharply depicted that whenever he’d get an attack, I eventually started to feel anxious myself. 😅 Kadou seemed flighty, restless, and directionless but that slowly changed the more time he spent in Evemer's ever-steady and grounding presence. Evemer was Kadou's opposite in almost every way and no one takes his role as khalayar more seriously than he does. He is this grumpy, judgemental, immovable rule follower on the surface but he slowly lets down his defences the more he's around the prince and the other khalayar, which reveals his inner cinnamon roll energy that was adorable. He just wants to be seen, valued and cherished for who he is, much in the same way that Kadou needs someone to be that pillar of strength while also telling it to him straight.

Both of them needed to learn that vulnerability, asking for help, and imperfections are not weaknesses, but also that they are both deserving of the love that they need and want. It was meltingly sweet to see Kadou and Evemer learn to accept that from each other. If you love a romance that's angsty, mutually pine for each other and deeply yearn for the other's affection and attention, then look no further than Kadou and Evemer. My gosh, the yearning was so intense from both ends that it had me feeling like my heart was about to jump out of my chest and I was going to faint. It was honestly so good! 😂 The sexual tension was *chef's kiss!* and this was one of the slowest yet the most satisfying slow burns I've read in a while. It was undoubtedly worth every moment of angst leading up to their getting together and ugh, I could read about their adorable flirting and banter for ages!

Overall, I'm not sure if I properly explained what made me love this book as much as I did but apparently, I still wrote an essay-length review about it, lol. This needed time to grow on me and I'm so glad that I gave it a chance to because I know Evemer and Kadou will live in my head rent free for a while to come. Plus, I'm also happy that I can finally tick this off my TBR!

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