Defiant Heart

Steelforged Legacy, Book 3

By: M. Tress

Narrated by: Lewis Alexander, Rozelyn Rader

Racing against time and enemy pursuit, Casey, Maude, and Magnus the Gladewalker Elk have finally reached the lands of the Roaring Mountain.

The fact that they did so only after battling against yet another entitled idiot from the Bronze Fist should come as no surprise at this point.

Now, though, the real challenge begins. The Roaring Mountain clan is known as one the most powerful clans in the entire Nation. Drengr from dozens of other subordinate clans gather in hopes of joining their ranks and bonding with a spirit beast in lifelong companionship.

With a new friend in tow, Casey heads to the heart of the Roaring Mountain to both learn more about this path that might lead him to the strength he needs, and maybe a few old friends as well.

What new challenges lie along the Drengr’s Road for Casey and his companions? Only the gods know, and even then their vision is clouded.

Steelforged Legacy is a progression fantasy, men's romance, western cultivation story that takes heavy inspiration from classic cultivation and combines it with an alternate take on Norse mythology. Even the gods can't always see the future right, and the world it is set in takes advantage of the fact that sometimes, even the Fates can make mistakes.

©2025 M. Tress (P)2025 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Give the elk the love it deserves

love series so far and hoping the next book be equally good as this one. Everytime make me want more and more

boring

this one's pretty slow and boring with very little action. that is all, better luck next time

magnus is the greatest elk ever

loved everything about this series. If you love norse history and stories you HAVE to read these series!!!!!!

the mc would smile a cheer if his women told him he had to give her up give away all his money and things.

the mc has no drive no drive and does what everyone tells him too. multiple chapters are of him trying to get a women who likes him to sleep with other men while not putting his foot down and telling her she has no chance just creepy trying to push her into the arms of a another man. this story started cool but very quickly you find out he has no goals no back bone and claims he wants to earn his way turning down reasonable gifts then only progresses when other people make him AND when others tell him what to do. Don't buy.I can't stress how much nothing happened like why even have an mc if you spend all your time trying to make every extra else look better then the mc then the author remembers "oh right there is a mc in my book in the last second see he matters here he leveled up for no reason now let me get back to talking about everyone else because the mc having no opinions or options is the selling point!" To highlight how unaware of it it's own story the writing is at one point the goddess who bonded with him tells him to get his head out of the clouds because a dragon wouldn't bond with someone so lowly. THE GODDESS WHOS BONDED TO HIM. GODDESS > DRAGON WTF.

I like slow burn as much as the next guy but this is ridiculous

We are THREE whole books into this series and the MC is still having “I don’t need a harem, I only need you.” conversations. The excitement and wonder I had for this story and world are very quickly dying. Massive amounts of exposition and meaningless conversation have slowed the story down to a crawl and are making the series become dull. I’ll give the next one a shot because of the wonder and possibility the first book inspired but if it’s more of the same I’ll probably stop there.