Tag: Helen Sheuerer

Total Star Rating: 3.5 Stars

A true man won’t cut you down as you fight your battles, nor will he fight them for you. A true man will help sharpen your sword, guard your back and fight at your side, in the face of whatever darkness comes.”

— Helen Scheuerer, “Blood & Steel”

What It’s About:

The official synopsis:

Perfect for fans of The Bridge Kingdom, From Blood and Ash and The Witcher, BLOOD & STEEL is an epic romantic fantasy with enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn spice, found family, and a sprawling world of magic and monsters.

With her death foretold, Althea Zoltaire only has three years to become what she’s always dreamed of being: a warrior legend.

Women are forbidden to wield blades, so she has trained in secret her entire life. Now racing against the clock, she fights to secure her place in the elite guild charged with the protection of the five kingdoms.

The sparring and hazing of the new trainees border on deadly, but even more dangerous is her growing attraction to Wilder Hawthorne, her unwilling warrior chaperone.

All around them, schemes are afoot and darkness looms.

Will Althea pass the perilous initiation test and take her place as a champion of Thezmarr – or will the invading evil snatch away her dream before it starts?

If you like fierce sword-wielding heroines and brooding, tortured heroes, you will devour this sexy, addictive fantasy adventure.

Blood & Steel is the gripping first book in the heart-pounding, epic romantic fantasy series, The Legends of Thezmarr.

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This was a book that several of my fellow romantasy fans have told me “You absolutely need to read this one!” And I gotta say for the most part they were absolutely right! It was actually a really decent start to what can be a pretty epic fantasy adventure story!

It felt like a good mix of The Witcher and Throne of Glass in my opinion, both of which are amazing fantasy stories in their own right.

This story revolves around Althea Zoltaire, a young woman who’s destined to perish on her 27th birthday, so she’s trying to make the most of it until that happens, but also she’s basically going to also be like “Bitch, I don’t wanna,” and say fuck it all to that nonsense. Women are forbidden to go to arms as an actual warrior because of some historic event that took place before the start of this book, but Althea is “Fuck the patriarchy,” and tries just about everything she can to become one anyways.

In comes Wilder Hawthorne *drool* who is a master swordsman and who reluctantly becomes her guide/mentor and while they be doing battles outside with swords and shields against other humans and monstrous shadow wraiths, they be fighting them internal romantic feelings for each other while they also can’t stand eachother!

Oooooooo we loves to see it

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It doesn’t matter who stands against you… What matters most is who stands with you.”

— Helen Sheuerer, “Blood & Steel”

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What I Liked:

1. The Found Family Trope! You meet other characters like Cal, Kipp, Wren, and Torj who just make it feel like such a well rounded cast of characters, and I definitely say pay attention to the group relationships and dynamics, it’s just so wonderful!
2. The Slow Burn Romance! The romance between Wilder and Althea was so wonderfully done in this book…it was a slow-burn for sure, but man are those so satisfying when they finally give into their feelings! Thinking back on it, I loved seeing their relationship grow throughout the book and change like it did!

What I Didn’t Like:

1. It’s Very Slow Paced…It can be very slow paced throughout, or at least it was for me. It IS the first book in the series and its about setting the scene and introducing the world and building it from the ground up, and Ill admit my impatient ass would have me like GIVE ME SPICE ALREADY!!

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Conclusion:

Overall, this is an incredibly decent start to what could be considered another romantasy series to be considered a classic or a staple of the subgenre! I am hooked, and I think fellow fans of series like Throne of Glass, From Blood & Ash and even the Netflix show The Witcher–or maybe even the books too, I haven’t read those yet–will enjoy these!

I will of course be excited to keep reading these books to see how it progresses and to see what happens next!

Thanks for Reading!

— Nick Goodsell