Just finished this. I think I pegged what had been sort of bothering me. Aiken (or under Laurenston), has taken to not just having the one book to tell the romance. There's hints of that in the Dragonkin books (which this is set in the same world) and the Pride books (more directly in the Honey Badger books), but this is full on gunning at it.

Which isn't a bad thing, just makes the genre (Paranormal Romance) misleading. Kind of like how Ilona Andrew's series "Hidden Talents" is PNR, but its a slow build to the romance. ( )

This book is a flawed mess but that wasn't the reason why I dnf.

Something that was somewhat confusing was the frequent head-hopping. It is 3d person limited so this isn't too jarring but it was still confusing because I recognized very few clues to figure out which perspective I was in.

In the attempt to create strong female characters the author went a bit too far imo. This was particularly jarring to me because I mostly read books by female authors with female MCs (I don't choose based on those criteria. It just turns out that way.) so I don't experience the male-dominated sexist book world that is supposedly out there. What I am trying to say is that this wasn't a welcome reversal of my usual experience but instead seemed just unnecessarily obsessed with strong female characters.
There is no such thing as reverse sexism or reverse racism. It's just sexism or racism regardless of the direction.
If I was better with words I could've probably expressed this in a single sentence, oh well.

The plot couldn't be less original but the book takes its time to even introduce the core conflict so I didn't have much time to be annoyed by it.

What ultimately lead me to dnf was the mismatch in tone between the MC and the world. The author delights in being crass. Crass language, crass actions. People chopping each other's limbs off over nothing. Casual nudity presented in a crass way. Family members literally stabbing each other in the back for minor advantages. While it is a little over the top even for hateful scheming feudal politics, the MC has been taken from a middle-grade fantasy adventure where the good guys triumph over the evil bad guy with the power of friendship. She is just too naive and too stupid for me to believe that she is part of this world. Not only that but she is supposed to lead the good guys to victory.
Maybe there is a huge amount of (probably very painful) character development and it all turns out to fit nicely but I doubt it. And even if that's the case I just can't bring myself to read about yet another naive MC that needs to learn the hard way to succeed in a hard world.
There just isn't anything interesting there for me.

I wrote so much negative stuff but beyond my personal dislike of these kinds of plots and MCs, this was actually very enjoyable. I loved the colorful characters which, while maybe making use of clichéed tropes a little too much, nonetheless felt like they had depth and unique personalities.
I very much enjoyed the somewhat blunt humor.
And I will always love characters with a special connection to animals even though it's clichéed as heck. ( )

Really enjoyed the women in this. Like soooo much. The romance was very blah, LOL and it honestly could have been excluded completely without any plot changing. The conversation about offsprings after was hilarious though.
Eagerly looking forward to reading more about the world! ( )

I love G.A. Aiken/Shelley Laurenston. Her books are always hilarious and full of action and fluff. I loved all the characters and the plot was insane.

I had two issues with this book though. The first is that, I often felt I was reading a redone version of Hot and Badgered. It made it feel a bit predictable. Keeley, Gemma and Keran are very similar to Charlie, Max and Stevie in temperament. I mean, the plots were different in many ways, but it mainly felt like Charlie, Max and Stevie were transplanted to a different world. On the other hand I loved Charlie, Max and Stevie so it wasn't a huge issue, just a noticeable one.

The second issue I had though - and was the same issue I had with Hot and Badgered, was the language. At one point the c*** word is used and I hate that word so utterly much. It's so unnecessary - it adds nothing and jolts me out of my enjoyment of the narrative.

Beyond that, this story was really good. Although I'm not sure it's as good as some of her other books. I loved the humour, G.A. Aiken is a master of witty dialogue and quick banter. I loved Keeley and Caid - their relationship was sweet and enjoyable. They just made sense. There was no unnecessary drama just a plain romance that moved along at a decent pace with swoon worthy moments. I can't wait to read Gemma and Quinn's story - I'm sure it will be just as insane and adorable.

Overall 3.5 stars. It was really good but it was just not quite as good as some of her other books and it loses one star for the language. ( )

Rating: ★★★✬☆ (3.5/5 Stars)
Title: The Blacksmith Queen
Author(s): G.A. Aiken
Character(s):
― Keeley Smythe: ―
― Caid: Brunette/Grey, Brown Eyed
Setting: Black Hills
Tag(s): Romance, Fantasy
Content Rating: R
POV: Third Person
Smexy Level: Hot
Favorite Quote(s):
― “That, like it or not, my heart belongs to you.
Overall Opinion:
The first installment of this trilogy, I immediately became immersed in this fantasy world which was story filled advertising of good versus evil, epic battles, heartwarming romance and characters that kick some major ass. I will notate that it did start start slow which almost prompted me to drop the series but I persevered and was immensely become fascinated by Keeley journey to becoming the Queen. "The Blacksmith Queen" was an overall enjoyable read and I look forward to future editions of this fantasy series.

( )