Review: Reforged by Seth Haddon

Spoiler-free, as always. (Everything I say that may sound like a spoiler is in the book's marketing)

Genres: Fantasy/romance

The romance is between the king and his bodyguard/knight (called a paladin) who have romantic history from before the paladin started his training and the king was a prince. They fell out of touch, and you can really feel that longing and wistfulness in the paladin's inner thoughts

One of the smaller reasons I have a hard time reading romances is if I don't like the love interest. I believed the MC's love for him, and the reasons the LI was off-putting were justified by the narrative. He still got on my nerves at .

Romance build-up was nicely intertwined with the progress of the narrative, which I appreciated. There were two sex scenes, which I thought were tastefully reserved/limited in number, and well-earned by the narrative. It didn't feel gratuitous or forced at all, more like a natural extension of the author showing the bond between the characters

The plot twist at the end was not something I saw coming because I thought the plot twist was going to be something much worse and grotesque. (I thought there was going to be a flesh golem involved)

Stakes and scope were big enough to feel like I was part of something vast and amazing, but focused enough to feel like the characters are part of something vast and amazing, with their limited perspectives

Rating: 8/10

LMSS: 7.5 - Rules weren't defined explicitly, but you could pick out approximately what seemed possible by the time the final battles happened. Everything magical the characters were able to do felt earned as they honed their skills over the course of the novel