I was really hoping for more from this book! It's what I would normally gravitate toward. I think it was too long, although the world-building was well done. I know that's a contradiction - "it's too many words, but all the words did paint a detailed portrait of this world . . . "

Anyway - I borrowed the second book from the library, hope it's better with the words and whatnot. ( )

I want to give this 1 star because large parts of it are bad. These bad parts (and there are many) aren't just bad, they are abysmal. Even by deliberately picking the worst available options within those areas, I am not sure that you could make it much worse.
But not everything about this book is bad. Some aspects are actually quite well done so I'll give grudging 2 stars.
( )

4.75 Stars

An absolute EPIC read!
Plenty of Adult Steam, adventure, suspense and romance.
Awesome world build with fantastic characters.

I loved every word and nuance!
I WILL be reading book #2 [bc:A Touch of Stone and Snow|48646570|A Touch of Stone and Snow (A Gathering of Dragons, #2)|Milla Vane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580757874l/48646570._SY75_.jpg|73988694] next month.
And as long as there are books in this series, I am going to read them.

More later. Maybe ( )

I liked the story and the hero and heroine. There was action. There was romance and angst. I will say they took forever to get in bed together which would not necessarily a problem. But after waiting that long the sex scenes were pretty ho hum. So stick to the action and make the sex scenes shorter. I liked the strength of the heroine who was physically weak. I liked the idea of an entire people who didn't tell lies.

Biggest draw back of the entire book was the fact that the author tried much to hard to make the writing style epic fantasy esque. It turned out to just be poor English that snatched me out of the story much too often. The narrative voice used this and so did the hero, heroine and most other characters. Examples below.

So quiet they were now. She knew not what lay behind.

No reply she made.

His name she breathed

Hard Maddek must have slept. He knew not when Yvenne left

Yet still tender she must be. And with her armor gone, easily he might hurt her.

So far she had come. So much she'd set in motion with a letter to Parsathe. Now no say did she have

Criminy stop already. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the A Gathering of Dragons series. The third book in this series, A Dance of Smoke and Steel, is expected to be released in April 2022.

Thoughts: There are some things I love about this book and other things not much. Previous to reading this I had read all Meljean Brook’s Iron Seas series and absolutely loved those books; that remains one of my favorite series to this day. Milla Vane is a pen name for Brook and I was eager to see what her foray into a barbarian fantasy world would look like.

The premise of the story is at first glimpse a fairly basic “enemies to lovers” type of premise. However, don’t be deceived, this is a complex and well built world with a lush history that is packed full of intriguing politics, characters, and even some adventure.

I really loved the world-building here, as with Iron Seas, this is a huge strength of this book. The world is complex with an amazing history that definitely has an impact on the world as it exists in these characters’ present time. The world has its own environments, creatures, magic, and dangers. I also really loved the Barbarian culture created and how it existed in a way that supported a larger alliance; this was very well done.

Characterization is awesome as well. All the characters are complex, easy to engage with and fun to read about. The chemistry between our two main leads is very well done. Maddek and Yvenne each have their strengths and weaknesses and support each other well both emotionally, physically, and mentally.

Now on to a few issues I had. The story is a bit too long. Don’t get me wrong I loved all the side conversations, history, and feeling like I was really journeying with these characters through this country. What I didn’t need was long pages of hearing about both Maddek and Yvenne’s uncertainties over and over again. Some of this is great and really gives us insight into these characters, but I felt like there was too much of this especially as the story went on.

Lastly, this is a very sex heavy book. While I really don’t mind some (even a lot) of sex in my fantasy reads at points I felt like it actually took over the story. The amount of time we had to hear about Maddek’s…uh…steel against Yvenne’s back got excessive to the point of eye-rolling. Yeah, we get it Maddek really really likes her…moving on…we don’t need this pointed out constantly. I like romance in my fantasies but at times this was just too much and took over what was an amazing and epic fantasy read.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was very good; solid world building, amazing story and characters. For me though it tipped a bit too far into the realm where the romance/erotica takes over the whole plot. Some will love it I am sure but it was just over the edge for me, especially towards the last third or so of the book. Right now I don’t plan on continuing this series. ( )