The Blacksmith Queen (The Scarred Earth Saga)

This is a refreshing take on the serious epic Fantasy tales. The heroine is a beefy blacksmith with a love of forging and family. Her sociopathic sister is taking over the world and she gathers her friends and family to stop it: demon wolves, centaurs, war monks, and dwarfs help this big hearted blacksmith try to put things right.

I got in the story from the beginning. I like the all the characters and fanny parts. Very enjoyable book. Recommend to whom looking for relaxing fantasy stories.

Been having a hard time finding a book that kept my interest after just a couple of chapters. This one just started out with fast paced action, humor and fantastic dialogue from the beginning. I was so intrigued I couldn’t stop reading. The female lead character(FLC) was also very intrinsically different from a lot of other FLC, she was absolutely “real” her persona was so well fleshed out and the other characters were as well. Loved that it wasn’t just some romance type story, it was was gritty, with just the perfect humor added at certain times that made this book come alive. Can not wait to read the other books in this series. Won’t be disappointed. Bonus, book had good editing.

My favorite type of character and main couple.The Blacksmith Queen is quirky, forcefull, and awesome.Can not wait to read others.

Story flowed with a surprise at each turn of action! My 1st fantasy fiction and I want moor! No 2

First off if your not used to this authors writing and humor you possibly might not like it. If your unfamiliar with her Dragon Kin series you might not like it. It's a different world from that series BUT they do mesh together well. This isn't going to be written in the same way because it's different. Different characters who are mainly human. There are other creatures in it and yesss we get centaurs. I've wanted to know more about them. The bickering and fighting in this book might annoy those who don't understand the humor or this authors specific style. I read reviews before reading it and I'm ashamed to admit I waited to read it because people didn't like this. So, I waited over a year. What people don't understand is when you enjoy a writers work you think they'll write like that forever and no that's not true at all. If they did it would be super boring to them so they do evolve and change styles sometimes. First books in a series can be rough. Your introducing a lot. These characters might seem childish in their bickering but it's really not because honestly the story and plot is good. Granted everyone might not like it and that's fine. I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm mad at myself for waiting. I'm reading book 2 straight away. Her 3rd in this series is coming out soon. I'm loving it. I think what I kinda like is that her sister Beatrix isn't a misunderstood character especially being her younger sister. She is a psychopath and sociopath and narcissist all rolled into one. There's no saving her. She is definitely souless. There's nothing there that cares. She's played a role all her life. She reminds me a lot of Dagmar but Dagmar wasn't evil haha. She was smart and calculating and honestly the complete opposite other than that. Secondary characters are so much fun. Gemma I didn't like her at first but as things unfolded I love her. In conclusion you'll either love it or hate it.

The Blacksmith Queen is the first book to G.A. Aiken’s The Scarred Earth Saga. This book is a Fantasy Romance, so it’s full of action-packed scenes and adventure, but it has some romance elements. This happened to be the first book I read from G.A. Aiken and won’t be my last.Storyline: The Old King has died, so his sons are battling and killing each other for the throne. There’s a prophecy, though, that a queen will ascend to the Black Hills throne, which is terrible news to the sons fighting for the throne. The centaurs set out to find the future queen and protect her from the King’s sons. They never expected to see the queen with the Blacksmith family. Now the family has to fight off royals and whoever else wants to kill the future queen in their family. I don’t want to give away too much of the storyline. I’m moving onto my thoughts of the story of what I did like and didn’t like.My Thoughts: I loved the main characters in the story, and I also loved the secondary characters. G.A. Aiken not only had the main characters have a POV, but the secondary characters had one too. I loved getting all the different POVs because there were more angles to the story. Although, I wish I had less of the bad guys/gals points of view. It made me despise them even more. I loved the main character Keeley because she was strong and determined. She was one kick-butt heroine who could take care of herself. She also came off as rude and violent, so some readers may not like her. They may not even like the other characters too. Keeley’s family is much different from other characters I read before. This was the first book that I read from G.A. Aiken, so I had nothing to compare to, but I plan on reading her other books now after reading this one. I loved the humor in this book, especially with particular scenes that involved Keeley’s cousin, who was different from the other characters. There was also Keely herself and how she saw the world. It drove the Centaurs crazy how Keeley put herself in danger at times. I mean, she does have ‘demon’ wolves in this story that everyone is scared of, but her. I loved her to take in the world and how much she loved animals.Here are the things I didn’t like, though, in the story. There are certain words in the book that was overused in how characters described each other. I won’t type them in my review. It got annoying at times. There was also the ending that left me in shock. I felt like there needed to be more, but I know that G.A. Aiken will continue it in the next book. I was not prepared for the ending, though. Overall, this book gets 3.5-stars from me.Another thing that bothered me was the villain(s) in the story, but that is because G.A. Aiken wrote them to be hated, if that makes sense.Would I recommend this book? Yes. I recommend it to readers that enjoy the Fantasy Romance genre and are looking for a book that has a lot of fighting in it. It has a lot of action-packed scenes, which is why I love this genre. The romance element is not a priority. The storyline, main characters, and even secondary characters take center stage in this book. I can’t wait to dive into the next book.

If you like to laugh like crazy, if you like adventure, if you like lore, if you like mythology, if you like magic, if you’d like creatures from different realms, kings and queens, backstabbing and murder and sex, oh my…this is the book for you. I literally couldn’t put it down. I haven’t slept. It’s 4:26AM, but I had to finish it. SO GOOD!!

I don't usually bother either finishing or reviewing books which end up with such a low rating from me (2/5, in case you're wondering) but for <I>The Blacksmith Queen</I>, I'm going to make an exception and explain just how much it annoyed me.The basic premise of the book is that it's set in one of those pseudo-medieval Europe fantasy settings and the Old King (note the capital letters) has died and now his various psychopathic and/or stupid sons are fighting over who gets to put on the capital letters next. Naturally, this is the point where a bunch of witches prophesy that the next ruler will actually be a queen, thanks very much. Or, as we discover partway through, <I>two</i> queens - how that's supposed to work is anyone's business, that's really not how feudal societies do things!Since we've spent a good chunk of the first part of the book being introduced to the eponymous Keeley (yes, this should have been my first clue), it should come as no surprise who one of these queens is meant to be. The other is her younger sister, Beatrix, who is a bit of a caricature of all those bluestockings and whose love of books disguises her absolute lack of anything human going on behind the eyes. She's determined to be the only queen, thanks very much, and soon throws her hand in with one of the sons (and his scheming mother).There are also centaurs who can helpfully shapeshift, dwarves and elves. Sadly, what there is also is a really uncomfortable tone running all the way through the book - there's quite a lot of gore and bloodshed, with a high number of folks meeting their end as a result of Keeley's hammer, all described in a very jokey way. There are also a number of occasions where the same 'joke' about one of the characters gets trotted out and that becomes a bit wearing very quickly. Then there's the inevitable sex scene, which is possibly the least passionate thing I've ever read (and that's up against some stiff competition from a lot of very bad fanfic).All in all, there's <I>so</i> much good fantasy out there in the world - nuanced characters, well-written settings, thoughtful plots - this just feels like the kind of stuff we had to read in the 70s and 80s because there didn't seem to be much else around.

Couldn't put it down. Loved the story. Highly entertaining with a human woman who is a Blacksmith from a long line of Blacksmiths. She is super strong and devoted to her family. She has a special affinity to animals and they trust her. On the death of the old king her life changes. She comes across soldiers killing a boy and saves him from them but more come. Coming to her aid are four people. She takes them all home. She is a happy soul. Content with her world. Her four people are Centaurs on a mission to take her sister to be confirmed as Queen. All unexpected for a simple farming family. Each character is amazing. They bicker with one another but their relationships are highly comical. The journey through Amichais' territory is full of adventure. I can't wait for the next book.

My eyes are gritty and I'm yawning and I've just finished a really brilliant book. I have read, enjoyed and laughed through every one of her other books (no matter which name she writes them under) and here's another one to keep me happy. This one isn't one of the laugh-out-loud, rollicking tales the other books are. This is a whole lot more. All of G A Aiken books are well written and full of strong characters. Of all of her book this one feels the strongest. The story holds you from the start. The characters are amazing and not the stereotypical ones more normal to fantasy books. Not everyone is perfect and not everyone is fully convinced, at first, then the story gels them together and off we go!I hope she's got the next one ready. But then again what about the Dragon Kin, and what about the Badgers? Spoilt for choice and loving it!

I adore this author. Read some mediocre books recently and found this on my kindle. I’ve read it in one sitting it’s that good. A totally different world from the dragons but no less brilliant. Well written, plenty of gore and battles but full of good characters that are just so larger than life and evil characters that you just want them dead! Also wonderful warped humour that always appeals. Thank you G A Aitken for writing such great books.

If you've read the Dragon Kin books from this author then you know what your in for, if you haven't then your in for a real treat.Keeley is a blacksmith with a large unruly family who finds herself at war with the dead kings princes who are after the crown. There is a prophesy that the next ruler will be a queen and it's one of Keeley's sisters and with the help of some soldiers called Amichai who aren't what they seem.There's lots of creatures, bickering siblings, fighting and more bickering along the way and maybe the odd Dragon or Dwarf or demon wolves to keep things interesting.All Keeley wants is to be a blacksmith but the fates have other plans for her, and she's not happy about it at all.If you love a rip roaring story with a twist then you'll love this book and the author. Recommended.