The Blacksmith Queen

When a prophesy brings war to the Land of the Black Hills, Keeley Smythe must join forces with a clan of mountain warriors who are really centaurs in a thrilling new fantasy romance series from New York Times bestselling author G.A. Aiken. The Old King Is Dead With the demise of the Old King, there's a prophesy that a queen will ascend to the throne of the Black Hills. Bad news for the king's sons, who are prepared to defend their birthright against all comers. But for blacksmith Keeley Smythe, war is great for business. Until it looks like the chosen queen will be Beatrix, her younger sister. Now it's all Keeley can do to protect her family from the enraged royals.
Luckily, Keeley doesn't have to fight alone. Because thundering to her aid comes a clan of kilt-wearing mountain warriors called the Amichai. Not the most socially adept group, but soldiers have never bothered Keeley, and rough, gruff Caid, actually seems to respect her. A good thing because the fierce warrior will be by her side for a much longer ride than any prophesy ever envisioned ...

The Blacksmith Queen is the first book to G.A. Aiken’s The Scarred Earth Saga. This book is a Fantasy Romance, so it’s full of action-packed scenes and adventure, but it has some romance elements. This happened to be the first book I read from G.A. Aiken and won’t be my last. 

Storyline: The Old King has died, so his sons are battling and killing each other for the throne. There’s a prophecy, though, that a queen will ascend to the Black Hills throne, which is terrible news to the sons fighting for the throne. The centaurs set out to find the future queen and protect her from the King’s sons. They never expected to see the queen with the Blacksmith family. Now the family has to fight off royals and whoever else wants to kill the future queen in their family. I don’t want to give away too much of the storyline. I’m moving onto my thoughts of the story of what I did like and didn’t like.

My Thoughts: I loved the main characters in the story, and I also loved the secondary characters. G.A. Aiken not only had the main characters have a POV, but the secondary characters had one too. I loved getting all the different POVs because there were more angles to the story. Although, I wish I had less of the bad guys/gals points of view. It made me despise them even more. I loved the main character Keeley because she was strong and determined. She was one kick-butt heroine who could take care of herself. She also came off as rude and violent, so some readers may not like her. They may not even like the other characters too. Keeley’s family is much different from other characters I read before. This was the first book that I read from G.A. Aiken, so I had nothing to compare to, but I plan on reading her other books now after reading this one. I loved the humor in this book, especially with particular scenes that involved Keeley’s cousin, who was different from the other characters. There was also Keely herself and how she saw the world. It drove the Centaurs crazy how Keeley put herself in danger at times. I mean, she does have ‘demon’ wolves in this story that everyone is scared of, but her. I loved her to take in the world and how much she loved animals.

Here are the things I didn’t like, though, in the story. There are certain words in the book that was overused in how characters described each other. I won’t type them in my review. It got annoying at times. There was also the ending that left me in shock. I felt like there needed to be more, but I know that G.A. Aiken will continue it in the next book. I was not prepared for the ending, though. Overall, this book gets 3.5-stars from me.

Another thing that bothered me was the villain(s) in the story, but that is because G.A. Aiken wrote them to be hated, if that makes sense.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I recommend it to readers that enjoy the Fantasy Romance genre and are looking for a book that has a lot of fighting in it. It has a lot of action-packed scenes, which is why I love this genre. The romance element is not a priority. The storyline, main characters, and even secondary characters take center stage in this book. I can’t wait to dive into the next book.

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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