A Taste of Gold and Iron - The Library of the Uncommons

Sally Strange reviewed A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

Adorable, romantic, gay fun

4 stars

A fairy tale of MLM romance between a prince and his loyal retainer. I started reading because I thoroughly enjoyed Rowland's "Running Close to the Wind," which was less romance and more adventure and humor than this. While "A Taste of Gold and Iron" still has moments of funny and a fair amount of dangerous knife fights and such, the focus is really on the growing affection between Kadou the prince with the anxiety disorder and Evemer, his emotionally repressed bodyguard. Bonus gay points to Rowland for making Kadou's ex-boyfriend a major part of how the couple solidify their romance. One point deducted because I wanted more swashbuckling and I also wanted Kadou's sister's (she's the Sultan) triumphant return to her court not to happen offstage, as it were. Still, if you want something lighthearted and gay to read, you can't go wrong with this. Rowland has a great knack …

A fairy tale of MLM romance between a prince and his loyal retainer. I started reading because I thoroughly enjoyed Rowland's "Running Close to the Wind," which was less romance and more adventure and humor than this. While "A Taste of Gold and Iron" still has moments of funny and a fair amount of dangerous knife fights and such, the focus is really on the growing affection between Kadou the prince with the anxiety disorder and Evemer, his emotionally repressed bodyguard. Bonus gay points to Rowland for making Kadou's ex-boyfriend a major part of how the couple solidify their romance. One point deducted because I wanted more swashbuckling and I also wanted Kadou's sister's (she's the Sultan) triumphant return to her court not to happen offstage, as it were. Still, if you want something lighthearted and gay to read, you can't go wrong with this. Rowland has a great knack for letting us observe both her characters' inner and outer states.

Kida reviewed A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

Solid fantasy romance

5 stars

I really liked the first half of this book. The latter part sidelined many of my favorite plot elements in order to focus almost exclusively on the romance, which isn’t my thing; this book may be a better choice for readers more into pure romance. Lovely writing, though, and very sympathetic characters as well.

Chetana reviewed Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

Review of 'Taste of Gold and Iron' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

3.5 - 3.7 ⭐️

I really wanted to love this book. I looked forward to reading it early this year and was disappointed when the release got postponed. There were 2 books I was looking forward to this year - one was A Strange and Stubborn Endurance and the other was this. I didn't read any further than the goodreads description before I read either and both their premise was enticing enough to warrant a read as soon as the books came out. Both books had a protagonist who had something holding them back mentally, one had PTSD and the other a very severe case of anxiety. While Fox Meadows made me feel empathetic towards their MC I was left feeling meh about Kadou, at least for quite a bit of the beginning. I started seeing more of his steel towards the latter half of the books. I guess what …

3.5 - 3.7 ⭐️

I really wanted to love this book. I looked forward to reading it early this year and was disappointed when the release got postponed. There were 2 books I was looking forward to this year - one was A Strange and Stubborn Endurance and the other was this. I didn't read any further than the goodreads description before I read either and both their premise was enticing enough to warrant a read as soon as the books came out. Both books had a protagonist who had something holding them back mentally, one had PTSD and the other a very severe case of anxiety. While Fox Meadows made me feel empathetic towards their MC I was left feeling meh about Kadou, at least for quite a bit of the beginning. I started seeing more of his steel towards the latter half of the books. I guess what I am trying to say is this is a good book. I think I just read a book that I probably erroneously decided to lump together with this and to compare the two. On its own merits this was a good book with a potential to have been great. And with no knowledge of there ever being a sequel I feel that we have been left shortchanged on the ending. But if there ever is going to be a sequel then this was a good place to end the story. What can I say? I like to have some closure to stories, without major plots left unresolved. I wanted to see how Kadou and Evemer traverse their relationship within the construct of both of their stations. So all in all, good not great.