A Taste of Gold and Iron

De: Alexandra Rowland

Narrado por: 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 🥰

Queer Romance with a political fantasy backdrop

The first quarter of this book is slow - but if you can delight in Evemer's funny, biting sarcasm, and sympathize with Kadou's chronic anxiety attacks, then this book offers a delightful slow-burn romance between a lord and his vassel.

The narrators voice is smooth as butter, sweet as honey, wonderful to listen to, and great at emphasizing emotion or humor when the story calls for it.

The political intrigue in this book is fun, with enough depth to be interesting, but not particularly twisty. It serves the function to put our heroes into interesting situations and built romantic tension more often than it serves to interest you in the politics themselves.

Wowowowow

Damn this was good. I had so much substance and the characters kept getting funnier.

Loved it

I normally don’t listen to long novels due to how the pacing can be slow. But the pacing was perfect with their romance and the drama of the evil plot that set them to both clash and come together as one. The culture that the author made is incredible and put on display naturally without long drawn out explanations or winded history lessons. Though it is incredibly lbgta friendly it doesn’t set itself in opposition with more conservative views as many lbgta literature seems prone to do. It is again displayed naturally without needing to point out how right they are compared how wrong others are. In all I loved the world the author created and hope for more later within this place they had created.

Beautiful

The world Alexandra Rowland had come up with is wonderfully beautiful - I was a bit skeptical at first since the description of the book is a little lackluster (and in hindsight, not entirely accurate). Don't let it discourage your interest - this book had me totally enraptured.

The slow build between Kadou and Evemer is wonderful, but if you aren't a fan of slow burn, you'll find it extremely frustrating. Personally I prefer a longer, drawn out approach to romance and attraction so I found it very much my speed.

What wasn't really my speed was the ending. While everything was wrapped up neatly, it all seemed to happen a little too fast at the end. It definitely came off as a HFN ending, with an off screen impending threat - after basically 18.5hrs of story, I wished there was more closure for Kadou and Evemer's future, especially since I think (as of writing this review) that this is a stand-alone book.

I don't think I've seen other reviews mention it, but it's SO refreshing to see a world with a trinary gender system that is presented without fanfare. I was confused at first since Rowland uses unique pronouns but once I caught on I was so delighted! There was one spot where I had some doubt about something that was mentioned-- without giving anything away, having a binder on or anything that compresses the chest while also potentially having broken ribs would be a very, very bad thing. It wouldn't "hold everything in place" so to speak.

A Divine Romance with a Compelling Plot

I tend to be a bit picky when it comes to romance books even though I love them, (especially LGBTQ as a queer person) as they can corny and predictable.

I absolutely LOVED this book! The writing was detailed to the perfect amount, never bordering on too much or too little, and the characters were easy to get attached to.

The performance was beautiful! Characters were easy to distinguish even just based off of voice and they were perfectly matched for the characters.

I really hope this author makes a sequel, loved this! I finished this in the span of 4 days after working from 4am-7pm each day, if that gives you an accurate idea for how much I enjoyed this.

Great story. Great narration.

Loved this book. Wish there were 10 sequels. I will miss these characters now that it is over.