A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
The m/m romance is mostly sweet, though Evemer is so steeply and unrelentingly judgmental in his early chapters that I wanted to smack him and Prince Kadou could get caught in anxiety spirals that made me feel a bit edgy myself. Evermer's kink for powerful people to kind of step on him is funny. Unfortunately, the longer the book goes on, the more of its plot unfolds, and almost everyone is too much of an idiot to live.
Judging the plot of a book mostly sold as a romance? you might ask in disbelief. The plot affects the characterization and evolution of Evemer and Kadou and the progress of their relationship. Plus, there was literally a scene that had me mentally screaming in rage at the stupidity.
Oissos is behind all the evil plotting. The sultan's babydaddy from Oissos, Siranos, in particular acts suspiciously 90% of the time he's on the page. It's obvious from the beginning, so obvious that I thought it had to be a red herring. There had to be a good reason Oissos isn't being investigated for any of this, right? The sultan's people did a look into it and found nothing, right? Nope. It was Oissos and Siranos all along and nobody investigated anything until Kadou got involved. Several guards saw Siranos accost Kadou multiple times and in one case physically attack him... but said nothing? Apparently, Zeliha was completely blinded by her babydaddy (and his dick?) and her whole government and all her law organizations as a result turned a blind eye. Of course, many of those people were already in the secret employ of Siranos and his sister, and the sultan thoroughly missed it.
The prince is forced to do a lot of personal, dangerous investigation on his own because his sister's forces are too undermined and riddled with corruption for someone whose job this actually should be to go instead.
Most of Kadou's problems are caused by Zeliha's stupidity. The oversensitive feeling of responsibility for everything that's been drummed into Kadou missed her entirely. Eozena, who supposedly cares deeply for Kadou, winds him up even tighter about his every thought and action having horrible consequences on a few occasions for doing less than his sister, the sultan, is doing on a daily basis, and I don't know if the author intended it to come off that way.
As for the scene that had me internally screaming with rage... An attempt at murder or kidnapping was made on Kadou, so he, the sultan, and her daughter are rushed out of the palace and into hiding. None of their security noticed Siranos tagging along with them. A small team does a reconnaissance on a suspicious location and discovers Siranos right there, directing the counterfeiting operation. Because these people are dumbasses, they're discovered and take several injuries on their way home. They've just discovered that someone very close to the sultan, who knows the location where she, her heir, and her brother are hiding, is directly working with their enemies. They don't tell anyone important about that until the next morning! Though they do have time to interminably talk about Evermer's past love life.
It's a good thing that Kadou can often defend himself, since there's an occasion where there's no valid reason why he's not under guard when he's attacked in his own bedroom. For how long it takes for help to arrive, where any of them even near his apartment?
There's a sex scene near the end, but it's in such euphemistic terms that the author might as well just have briefly said that they sexually consummated their marriage and moved on with the plot. For one thing, it's a blowjob that doesn't ever mention a cock in any way.
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"Mask of Zorro" Olivia Smart & Adrián Díaz, Spanish Olympic Ice Dancers (2022 Senior Free Dance)
I love the elements of paso doble and swordfighting that are sometimes incorporated, the lifts are great, and the partners are so in sync.
Judging the plot of a book mostly sold as a romance? you might ask in disbelief. The plot affects the characterization and evolution of Evemer and Kadou and the progress of their relationship. Plus, there was literally a scene that had me mentally screaming in rage at the stupidity.
Oissos is behind all the evil plotting. The sultan's babydaddy from Oissos, Siranos, in particular acts suspiciously 90% of the time he's on the page. It's obvious from the beginning, so obvious that I thought it had to be a red herring. There had to be a good reason Oissos isn't being investigated for any of this, right? The sultan's people did a look into it and found nothing, right? Nope. It was Oissos and Siranos all along and nobody investigated anything until Kadou got involved. Several guards saw Siranos accost Kadou multiple times and in one case physically attack him... but said nothing? Apparently, Zeliha was completely blinded by her babydaddy (and his dick?) and her whole government and all her law organizations as a result turned a blind eye. Of course, many of those people were already in the secret employ of Siranos and his sister, and the sultan thoroughly missed it.
The prince is forced to do a lot of personal, dangerous investigation on his own because his sister's forces are too undermined and riddled with corruption for someone whose job this actually should be to go instead.
Most of Kadou's problems are caused by Zeliha's stupidity. The oversensitive feeling of responsibility for everything that's been drummed into Kadou missed her entirely. Eozena, who supposedly cares deeply for Kadou, winds him up even tighter about his every thought and action having horrible consequences on a few occasions for doing less than his sister, the sultan, is doing on a daily basis, and I don't know if the author intended it to come off that way.
As for the scene that had me internally screaming with rage... An attempt at murder or kidnapping was made on Kadou, so he, the sultan, and her daughter are rushed out of the palace and into hiding. None of their security noticed Siranos tagging along with them. A small team does a reconnaissance on a suspicious location and discovers Siranos right there, directing the counterfeiting operation. Because these people are dumbasses, they're discovered and take several injuries on their way home. They've just discovered that someone very close to the sultan, who knows the location where she, her heir, and her brother are hiding, is directly working with their enemies. They don't tell anyone important about that until the next morning! Though they do have time to interminably talk about Evermer's past love life.
It's a good thing that Kadou can often defend himself, since there's an occasion where there's no valid reason why he's not under guard when he's attacked in his own bedroom. For how long it takes for help to arrive, where any of them even near his apartment?
There's a sex scene near the end, but it's in such euphemistic terms that the author might as well just have briefly said that they sexually consummated their marriage and moved on with the plot. For one thing, it's a blowjob that doesn't ever mention a cock in any way.
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Click to view"Mask of Zorro" Olivia Smart & Adrián Díaz, Spanish Olympic Ice Dancers (2022 Senior Free Dance)
I love the elements of paso doble and swordfighting that are sometimes incorporated, the lifts are great, and the partners are so in sync.