Reviews

There are enough interesting world building elements that the book should probably be about 3x as long. If all the abandoned bits were explored and woven together, it would make this a much more interesting story.

kasperin's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

notesappwitch's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

trope grown in a lab to make me read it— it was good; you can tell theres a lot of “male” fantasy influence (got, etc) but once i got past the first chunk of it i enjoyed it

glowhoya's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

So aggravating to read. this book has great bones! an interesting magic system, a compelling romance dynamic, plot twists, reveals. the execution is just clumsy. in the last 75ish pages it picks up, but you'll find both the action and the romance throughout to be lackluster (or infuriating, which i did)

Content Warnings

reecereads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Finding this book on tik tok and hearing this be related to TTRPG’s, I can say I am very glad to have found it!

Finally getting around to reading and listening this world was like getting a run down by the DM on what happened in the last arc of a campaign

(Note: Gary Furlong was a 10/10 narrator! Loved and amount of effort he put into not only emphasizing parts of the book, but also to make sure main as well as side characters had a distinct voice was great!)

At times I would be thinking of how these characters just felt like someone was playing them behind the scenes. The feel of a campaign was there full fledged. The interactions would go from being very serious scenes to joking like a normal TTRPG game would be and it was so fun!

I was fascinated at times with the fight sequences- timing in a 6 second pattern how the game is played and such. Thinking on how of how Ballen would have rolled and not met the AC or rolling a nat 20 in scenes was PERFECT!

(Just overall nerding out about this)

If you’re looking for a romance adventure book that resembles TTRPG I could not recommend this more!

sophie10130's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

senqin's review against another edition

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3.0

"Shall we face the world, Prime?"
Balen smiled. "Whatever Your Highness desires."

★★★

This year there have coincidentally been a lot of mlm fantasy books coming out from big publishers that center around "royalty! fealty! hair washing! bodyguard romance!" (A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, A Taste of Gold and Iron, etc.). While the way these books are advertised honestly sort of irks me, I absolutely love that queer epic fantasy is becoming a bigger thing and that we are not only getting more of it, but also that it's even receiving a good amount of hype. Out of all of these books though I was really most excited about Reforged published by Blind Eye Books, a smaller publisher which in my opinion has released a lot of really interesting and amazing queer fantasy books over the years wayyyy before these bigger publishers would even consider them. I really love their work. I admit I was a little hesitant when Reforged was described as being inspired by "dnd + danmei" because that is an incredibly vague description but I was still really excited to pick this one up. I was even more excited to be able to grab an early copy of this book when I saw that the author had made them available to reviewers (even those without a huge platform which I have to give huge kudos to). Unfortunately, this didn't really live up to the expectations I had for it and I found the plot to be frustrating with characters that felt flat and wooden.

I knew that Reforged was a fantasy romance going in but I really, really wanted this book to be that perfect balance between a romance I could invest in and an engaging story. It's definitely more romance heavy, which doesn't do it any favors because I found the central relationship to be really bland and built around forcefully manufactured drama. First, the whole reason why Zavrius and Balen parted ways at all is just AGHHHH it's sooo melodramatic and hamfisted. My understanding is that they essentially "break up" because Balen had chosen his dream of becoming Prime over his relationship with Zavrius. Most of the interpersonal conflict that comes between the two main characters stems from this issue and so it all kinda falls apart. There's just a lot of miscommunication...oh so much miscommunication. I swear there's more open conversation happening between two blocks of wood than there was between these two characters.

Speaking of the characters, I also could not find myself caring about any of them because their actions and personalities were often so inconsistent. His subjects think that Zavrius is an incompetent king because apparently that's the facade he's trying to put on but like he really does come across as just incompetent a lot of the time. I felt like he was mainly there to sulk about Balen. Balen, on the other hand, just gets randomly jealous of anyone getting close to Zavrius which was so annoying to me. The absolute nerve of the man to feel this way about Zavrius when HE HIMSELF is the one who chose his dream over his relationship. Balen is also supposed to be Prime (aka the cream of the crop in terms of the Paladins) and yet I just could not wrap my head around how he could just do some absurd things like trusting these two random buffoons so easily after a little fighting tournament. Not to mention that they enrolled in this very publicized tournament while they were supposed to be undercover and not attract attention to themselves after escaping from some assassins.

The plot started off interesting enough with the potential for mystery with the sudden death of all of Zavrius' siblings, but any sort of "political intrigue" that followed ended up feeling a little juvenile. I was not expecting some sort of masterpiece but all of the courtly machinations were so simplistic and boring. A huge plot point essentially revolves around Zavrius just keeping crucial information from everyone responsible for keeping him safe.

I had a lot of gripes with this book but I did enjoy some parts of the worldbuilding. The gedroks were a particularly cool concept and the visual of the scattered corpses of these huge magnificent beasts in this world was amazing. Zavrius' magic based on music was also super intriguing as well. The author really does have a lot of potential, and I feel like as he hones his craft I'd definitely be willing to pick up any of his future books. Reforged just felt too much like an amateur work to be anything more than a mildly entertaining albeit frustrating story.

I received a free copy of this book via BookSirens and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

— ♩♫♩ ~ Rogue Heart

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