2022/096: A Taste of Gold and Iron — Alexandra Rowland

2022/096: A Taste of Gold and Iron — Alexandra Rowland

Just as someone's palate changed over time, so too might their sense of a metal change. ...Remarkable, and ominous, was the fact that it had happened now. Remarkable was what it had changed to.
He was never again going to be able to touch iron without remembering this: the wine cellar. The door. Kissing Evemer. It was imprinted on him permanently, written into his fingerprints. [loc. 5248]

The sultan of Araşht, Zeliha, has just given birth, and her brother Kadou is torn between relief that he's lower in the succession and anxiety that the baby's father, Siranos, is untrustworthy. His anxiety has frightful consequences, and he's assigned a new bodyguard, the upright and stoic Evemer. Evemer judges the prince to be careless, flighty and negligent ... until he comes to know him better. And when the two become involved in political and financial skulduggery, there is plenty of opportunity for both to show their mettle.

This is a romance in a fantasy setting, rather than a fantasy novel with romantic elements:( Read more... )