A Taste of Gold and Iron

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The ambassador of Oissos is behaving with no sense of decorum whatsoever,” Zeliha went on. “She keeps following me around and declaiming as if she’s in the middle of her Senate. I don’t know who thought a Senate was a good idea. All it seems to do is turn out a load of annoying power-hungry bureaucrats.” The mystery plot got lost constantly, to the point that I didn’t understand what or why was happening. The break-in? I actually still don’t know what that was about. I saw somewhere this book compared to the goblin emperor and I can definitely see that - I think if you enoyed that you will really love this. They have the same overall calm and comforting vibe (despite some heavy themes) while still having a intriguing political mystery at the heart of things. there he was, familiar and comfortable. that’s what it felt like. like his heart, or whatever part of him it was that yearned for someone worthy to serve, had recognised the person he was meant to follow. the person he was meant to die for. there he was.”

A Taste of Gold and Iron" was, in every sense, what a good political fantasy should be. Scenes including political turmoil outnumbered the romantic scenes. So, you can imagine..this book was heavy with court politics, treachery, betrayal and tactical negotiations. The political intrigue was surprisingly enjoyable. I don't like political fantasy novels that much. But the political discussions in this book were easy to understand and I thoroughly enjoyed them. The action sequences were great. I liked how the main characters were being thrust into forced proximity whenever a conflict appeared. Both of them, Kadou and Evemer, pretended that all of it was fake and out of necessity but they secretly waited for such opportunities. Opportunities when they could be together however they wanted without any obligations to follow by the ruled. Moments when they could express their hearts' desires; even if it was under disguises and pretense. Kadou and Evemer were loving it all. And me? I was busy trying not to melt into puddle... Truly, though,” she said, “I can’t imagine having a baby without six kahyalar to help. And even then, they always disappear just at the wrong moment. Can you take her? My arms are about to fall off. She’s deceptively heavy.” He’d confided his fears to Tadek—another of the kahyalar, who he had known for some time, and who he had once been … close to. Tadek, who was so easy to talk to, even about matters Kadou barely dared to whisper aloud to anyone else. Thanks to Dumbledore11214, I learned that the author wrote a 10K-word epilogue, what spring does with the cherry trees. It's on AO3, and you can read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414.... Looking at it with his eyes rather than just the senses in his fingertips, he could see that the counterfeit was extremely well made. If he had only glanced at it lying on the table, perhaps amongst genuine altınlar, he wouldn’t have taken any notice of it.

Who you are isn't the thoughts in your head or the fears in your heart or the name someone else gives you or takes from you. Who you are is what you do. It's the actions you take, or that you don't take. It's the way that you help people, or don't. It's the good that you put into the world, or the bad.” I wouldn’t have minded dying for him. Part of me is disappointed that I didn’t. I would have felt it an honor.” Yall need therapy. Just saying...

The world building was lot more intense than I expected. The story was set in a world, reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, it was grand. The author creates a vast new world. A world that has magic and is very matriarchal. I loved the world building. It was picturesque and vivid. Every bit of it was original and well crafted. Alexandra Rowland did an amazing job indeed. In the forest below, there was a particular clearing, the usual staging area for the beginning of royal hunts. Servants had come ahead hours before—or perhaps even the day before—to assemble airy, colorful tents and pavilions, floored with carpets and cushions. The grandest of these was the sultan’s, of course, and Kadou was surprised to see Zeliha already waiting when he arrived with the few other courtiers who had not returned to the countryside after the week’s festivities wound down.

A Taste of Gold and Iron Alexandra Rowland book announcements Fantasy Historical Fantasy publishing news Tordotcom Publishing Tordotcom Publishing Acquisitions The romance is central in A Taste of Gold and Iron, and I adored it. Kadou and Evemer were both complex characters with many, many layers, and even though they disliked each other at first, they became more and more vulnerable to each other by peeling off those layers. Their first kiss was unexpected, and I immediately felt a warm glow of light in my chest. When they held hands in the cellar, butterflies fluttered through my belly, and I sighed with contentment.

The good? The tropes. There's an A03-style list of tags for what you can find in this book, I won't list them out but they are easy to find if you go looking, and most of them are delicious. And honestly how they played out was also, mostly, delicious. And actually most of what I found to be good in this story was the romance because I did like these characters; one was easier to love than the other as he was more fleshed out, but the other had a good bit of unlayering from how he started out, too, so it didn't feel too unbalanced. They are caught up in a complicated dynamic, and even though there was some angst due to pining and yearning and feeling unworthy being caught up in that, the dialogue that the author leaned on to express consent, reciprocity, the morality/ethics of it all, and understanding between them, was so good.Of course, peace and relief were a luxury that not even princes could easily afford for more than a moment or two: Princess Eyne’s birth was followed by days of celebration—for the court, for the people of the capital and the rest of the kingdom, for the hundreds of kahyalar who served throughout the palace and the government with loyalty and devotion. With his sister the sultan indisposed (and gleefully taking advantage of her own opportunity for some peace), the duties of representing House Mahisti to the populace naturally fell to Kadou, as did a greater than usual proportion of the daily concerns of the realm—a very alarming break-in at the Shipbuilder’s Guild on the night of the birth itself; a wealthy merchant from Oissos caught committing one of the most blasphemous crimes Kadou could conceive of, several days later; a number of perplexing tantrums thrown by Siranos, the body-father of the new princess (which Kadou’s already shaky nerves found as upsetting and alarming on a personal level as the former two catastrophes were on a larger scale) … All these added up to a solid whirlwind week during which time Kadou barely had a chance to breathe, let alone hold his new niece for more than a minute or two the morning after she was born. Gods, he realized immediately, of course they had seen it. He and Tadek had been right out in the open, they hadn’t been subtle in the least—) It's the perfect slow burn. Even their friendship is a slow burn, and getting to that point in their romance where they admit their true feelings, not only to each other but to themselves, is so worth it. A sweeping fantasy romance inspired by the Ottoman Empire, A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland is perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and The Goblin Emperor.