Reforged

By: Seth Haddon

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Since time immemorial the warriors of the Paladin Order have harnessed arcane powers to protect their rulers. For Balen, who has given up his chance at love and fought his way to the top of the Paladin Order, there can be no greater honor than to serve his king. But when assassins annihilate the royal family, Balen suddenly finds himself sworn to serve the very man he abandoned.

Now with their nation threatened by enemies both within and outside the kingdom, Balen must fight hidden traitors and unnatural assassins, while also contending with the biting wit and dangerous charm of young King Zavrius. To save themselves and their nation they will have to put aside their past and reforge that trust they lost so long ago.

Contains mature themes.

©2022 Seth Haddon (P)2023 Tantor

Looking forward to more from this author

I'm surprised that this doesn't have more ratings and reviews, honestly, but I see that the audiobook is relatively recent, so I must contribute.
I really enjoyed this book and the narration, and I hope to read more from this author and the voice actor. Zavrius in particular was such a fun character to hear, though I did wish for Balen to get his head out of his ass because he seemed to be dreadfully clueless in several respects, despite supposedly being such a powerful and "well-trained" warrior. Also, one other note: I absolutely love the cover art, and I hope that artist was very well compensated since the gorgeous combination of passion and softness really catches the eye in a sea of very much less appealing (i.e. boring) m/m fiction covers.
I see that there's another book coming out following Oren on a mission in the neighboring country, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

A great book with a fantastic narrator.

I really loved this book. It has everything I want in a fantasy romance - a good magic system, an intriguing plot line, and a relationship that MAKES SENSE. I found it refreshing the two main characters gayness was never really questioned and presented as totally normal - sometimes LGBT books get really caught up in the coming out stories so I really liked that it wasn't like that.

I found the plot interesting, but it did give the feel of kind of point A to point B. I also felt like Balin needed a bit more agency in the Paladin order to really make sense - I would have loved if he had a little band of paladins to help him and back his king politically. I also loved the magic system and how it was nearly religious, loved the extra politics outside of the domestic sphere too. The romance was great, gave me some good butterflies. This book is also rather explicit, for those who are unsure.

I am excited to see what else this author has to offer! I was looking for some other works and was disappointed to see this was the only other one. I hope he has some stuff planned for us!

An absolute joy to read!

I was online looking for another title by Seth the minute I finished. Hoping there will be many more to come!

Gem of an lgbtq fantasy

I'm a big fan of fantasy. I'm also a fan of mm romance. Rarely do a find a really well written combination of both. The character building and world building were well done, with an innovative approach to the magic using. The romance aspect was also excellent, not too spicy, not non existent, and not the overall focus of the book. Narration was excellent. I look forward to more books by this author!

Good Story

This wasn't my absolute favorite, but I did enjoy it and don't regret purchasing it. The story was intriguing, but I did have a hard time connecting with Zav.

Excellent

The narrator of this story was so good. He made the characters come alive. This story also has fantastic world building and detailed fight seems. The author did a good job of building up the tension between our two main characters. They even fit the "comic relief" characters into the story and made them feel more genuine. I would listen again.

Absolutely Loved!

Gave me Dragon Age vibes! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book I was genuinely excited about! Narrator was amazing! He added so much emotions and depth (especially with winded, worn, or dying characters).

This was such an enjoyable story!

Beautiful prose and worldbuilding, with interesting characters and a great balance between humor and emotionally charged exchanges. I was surprised to discover this is the author's first (and currently, only) book, the whole thing is really well executed. The narrator is phenomenal and really brought it to life, I hope he narrates for the next one, too!

Well written but with terrible pacing

I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. The book is decently well written in terms of prose and vivid descriptions. There are certainly some interesting ideas here, but they don't feel very well fleshed out. There was never enough detailed world building to make it feel real or believable to me. None of the characters had much depth, and sadly, the least interesting of the lot was the main character, Balen. Most of the time, I found myself wishing that Zavruis was the main character because he, at least, had some depth and character development. It would have been nice to see more than just the glimpses of Zavruis's true self beneath the kingly mask that we get through Balen's somewhat uninspired perspective. I also got very annoyed with the way Balen and Zavruis acted towards each other for a considerable chunk of the book. Their petty arguments, unwillingness to communicate, and just the general attitude of petulant adolescents pining over lost love got old pretty fast. My main problem, however, was with the book's pacing. Most of the story seems to drag between brief points of action and doesn't appear to have much direction until close to the end. It took a long time for the main antagonist to even show up, and once he did, it felt almost like an afterthought. By the end, I was just so ready for the book to be over so that I could move on to something else. I really wish that I had more nice things to say about it because I hate just being a negative critic, but this one really felt like a slog for me to get through.

As for the narration, I found that part to be excellent. I really like Gary Furlong's voice, and he does a good job with adding distinctive voices for each character. I have actually listened to several of his narrations in the past. He definitely made this story more pleasant to listen to.

Idk how to put this

The writing is fine. The story is good. I just couldn’t quite get the feel of Zav’s character. I’m certain that was intentional. Keeping a secret, being distant… however… the longing and distance we experienced was what we were introduced to. We don’t have a frame of reference for how he was and what we should be missing. I do think a flashback or two would’ve helped drive the nail in at the climax for the relationship aspect. The magic system is great. The political aspect was decent. Zav is complex and the best part of the whole book, easily.