I would like to state that I predicted one of the main plot twists of this book by page 30. I did so based on the tagline (visible on the cover) and the fact that this is described as having a romance in it.
I expected a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which this only sort of is.
This is one of the few fantasy books I've read that include a Fantasy Roman Empire. They have cannons. (Side note, I find it hard to believe that our protagonist, who has lived in an isolated swamp in a medieval fantasy world for her entire life, would know the word "Firepower".)
Embergold does quite a good job of integrating the Fantasy Christianity with the story. It doesn't feel like the author got out her shoehorn.
One thing I've noticed about Christian fiction is that if you don't make the Christian and/or Fantasy Christian bits the focus of the plot (Deathless Beast is a good example of one where they're the main focus), it seems to be really hard to put them in properly without either shoehorning them in where they don't fit or tacking them on as an afterthought.
There's a |dragon hunter| guy in here who's mostly an antagonist. However, I do have to give him some credit, because aside from the love interest one, every single dragon that we know of is evil. So he is really quite justified in |dragon hunting|.
This is one of the "magic is evil and a bad idea" type of settings. I don't see that very often, so it was an interesting read for me.
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence, as well as marital abuse of a side character by a side character.
4 stars.
(Endnote: The plot twist is that dragons are actually space aliens. Definitely. Trust me on this.)
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