A Taste of Gold and Iron

By: Alexandra Rowland

Narrated by: Casey Jones

The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century"—a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

“A delicious tangle of romance, fealty, and dangerous politics.” (Tasha Suri)

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court - the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation that results in his humiliation. To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

©2022 Alexandra Rowland (P)2022 Recorded Books

Oh wow. I've just finished this & I have FEELINGS!

Let's start with the good stuff.

The world building is amazing. It's own thing, but reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire only better, with the patriarchy thrown out and neo pronouns thrown in. Love these choices.

The characters are deeply engaging, especially Kadou, who suffers severe panic attacks which are handled extremely well by this author. Kadou calls this anxiety/panic his fear creature and thinks he's a coward because of it, but his actions couldn't be more heroic, which love interest, Evermer, has to point out more than once.

I was rooting for these two almost right away. Their romance is charming in every way, and the slow reveal of it is DELICIOUS. Rowland's talent at communicating her character's feelings, their inner turmoil, is on another level. I really enjoyed the beautiful writing. And the action scenes are intensely nail biting. Lots of angst. Pining. A hard book to put down.

But, the ending really snuck up on me. After 450 some pages of yearning for these two to get together, I wanted more closure. This is a romance, and while it does include the sort of ending the genre demands, it's rushed. I wanted at least a moment to roll around the text of Kadou and Evermer's HEA. I listened to this book, and when the narrator said, "The end" it was so abrupt I was stunned. I thought my CD skipped, except this isn't 1995 and audible doesn't skip, but I literally checked to be sure it wasn't a mistake. I felt deeply swindled by the lack of seeing the HEA for myself. So while this book was amazing and I loved it, I was also hugely disappointed by the sudden stop. Perhaps it won't feel as sudden to readers with an ebook as opposed to an audiobook?

Good story. bad ending.

Really love the world, the characters are well written but static. the end is unsatisfying be warned. but the economics and politics are intriguing and the romance has good tension. the end just kinda ruins it for me. still giving it a good rating CBS the main body of work is still very good.

Delicious slowburn

I was hesitant about this at first because it seemed to want to dump a lot of info in the first chapter but I stuck with it and boy am I glad. I’m a sucker for a good slowburn and this really delivered. I’ve become rather attached to both Kadou and Evemer their romance really built into something sweet without feeling rushed. The world Rowland created is one I would gladly visit again. Casey Jones made this an enjoyable listen with his husky Evemer voice and his ability to easily pronounce all of the words that would have caused me to make up their pronunciations if I were actually reading it. I’m already planning a repeat listen!

Lovely

I knew I would love this just reading the synopsis. It was such a journey and joy getting to know Kadou and Evemer, and the way their romance blossomed! It was lovely 🥰

Lovely story

The story was good. The world well build and wonderful main characters.
I also really loved the person narrating this story. Nice voice and well read