The Blacksmith Queen

This is a very weird book because the summary sounds great! If you describe what is happening to someone else as you're reading, it sounds really cool! 

But the book is not good.

None of the characters (except for the villain a bit, I won't spoil who it is but if you can't see the “twist” coming from about page 3 I question if you've ever read a book before) have distinct personalities. They all speak in vaguely Whedon style “quips” with a bunch of misogynistic language piled on for no reason. Characters claim to have specific beliefs but act counter to them all the time (eg. Keeley saying she wants to respect everyone even if she can't understand them and then spending several pages ranting about a religion she doesn't like), every sibling in this book is a hair-trigger for screaming matches or attempted murder no matter how important the things are that are happening around them, two characters are together for almost the whole book and somehow it's still insta love when it happens, and despite the apocalyptic sounding plot there are zero stakes. Everything always magically goes Keeley's way so you're never worried about her.

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.