Master of Iron (Bladesmith #2)

Tricia Levenseller

YA Fantasy

Eighteen-year-old Ziva may have defeated a deadly warlord, but the price was almost too much. Ziva is forced into a breakneck race to a nearby city with the handsome mercenary, Kellyn, and the young scholar, Petrik, to find a powerful magical healer who can save her sister’s life.

When the events that follow lead to Ziva and Kellyn’s capture by an ambitious prince, Ziva is forced into the very situation she’s been dreading: magicking dangerous weapons meant for world domination.

The forge has always been Ziva’s safe space, a place to avoid society and the anxiety it causes her, but now it is her prison, and she’s not sure just how much of herself she’ll have to sacrifice to save Kellyn and take center stage in the very war she’s been trying to stop.

In Master of Iron, the conclusion to Tricia Levenseller’s exciting Bladesmith YA fantasy duology, a magically gifted blacksmith with social anxiety must race against the clock to save her beloved sister and stop a devastating war.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

“Was I always made for death? I only ever wanted to help people.”

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Ziva is scrambling to save her sister which leads to to compromising situations where she is forced to use her magic for evil. It goes against everything she believes.

This was an exciting installment to the Bladesmith series! Book 1 is reviewed here where I wished Ziva would be strong and break free of her anxieties. Well, Levenseller took it one step further (and better) and kept her anxieties but helped her work through them to still achieve what she was trying for. This was the strong heroine I was longing for!

While Ziva was fabulous, I still had a hard time connecting with her. I empathize with the anxieties but it’s almost like they came through the page and put up a wall. I think it’s the negative self talk that bothered me, even if she is trying to overcome and change it. I struggled with her! The disconnect was too strong. Her internal dialogue was so pessimistic and awkward that I started cringing. Do I think she’s an important character for people to connect with? Absolutely, so I’m hoping it is just me with these issues and she is all that someone else needs.

General content summary: The intimacy was slightly higher in this book as they were discussing it and wanting it to happen but there were still only closed door scenes. Violence is still prevalent with some details; No/minimal language, physical violence (some gore) and death (multiple), kisses and make outs, an ear is cut off, severe social anxieties, f/f engagement, battle and blood and death (few details, multiple times), m/f sleeping in same bed (no intimacy, multiple times), intimacy reference and talk of birth control, alcohol (drunk), intimacy: starting to take off clothes then discussing waiting until marriage, deaths by arrow. 

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