The Blacksmith Queen

Actual rating: 4.5 ⭐️

If I had to rate just the story without the romance, I'd give this 5 stars. The plot is SO good! There are so many twists and surprises I didn't see coming. It's gory, but funny, and the action scenes were incredible. Besides, the female cast is one of the best I've read so far, and it made me happy!

But the one thing I hated was the romance. Yes, I know this book is labeled as “paranormal romance”, but I expected something different. At the beginning I was a bit afraid of reading super cheesy scenes, but turns out this book is more focused on other themes rather than the romance. That was good, but even thought I liked the characters separately, I hated them together. I don't want to see the romance taking over the whole plot in the next book of this series. For being honest, that's what's making me doubt about purchasing the next book. I want to read more about the characters and the story, but I seriously cannot stand one more romantic scene.

I won this book through GoodReads and I thank to publishers for providing me this copy. My review isn't influenced by this fact.

Not what I was expecting. It caught my attention because of the strong female characters (women blacksmiths), but the writing style didn't please me. It follows the trope of the death of a ruler and then a prophecy that will point to the new heir. It has brutal and bloody battle scenes that were treated so childishly as if they were of no consequence. It uses an amusing tone for everything (even violence), and that bothered me.