Steelflower

3.5/5 stars

Kaia is one of the G'mai, called "elves" by those ignorant of their culture. The G'mai are worshippers of the moon and daughters have power and are held as particularly prized. The have destined mates that protect these precious daughters so that they can wield said power. In Kaia's case she has no mate and her people treated her with silence and avoidance because of her supposed lack of power. Now Kaia works as a sellsword and thief. The kingdom she's currently in is fighting a constant war with it's neighbors and Kaia is avoiding it. When we meet Kaia she wakes up in the middle of a bar fight between a man pickpocketed and some angry zealots. She gets herself and the giant Redfist out of the fight and safe out on the show more streets where she discovers he's not keen on leaving her. It turns out the trinket she stole from is a seeker from a G'mai prince looking for his mate. Kaia's doubtful that as a flawed female she's the mate of anyone, much less a prince, but he's insistent. Readers of Saintcrow will recognize this particular issue. Girl meets boy. Boy loves girl. Girl thinks boy is crazy because who could ever love her? Kaia's story is less dark than that of Dante and Jill and her whining and wincing is therefore less, but still somehow more annoying. Probably the main thing that made Kaia frustrating for me was her deep, dark, sad past was not so much. Kaia's people were not avoiding her, she was avoiding them. Her entire feeling of ineptness is due to her lack of power, which isn't true and no one ever believed it. Her people loved her and when she withdrew were unsure of what to do. Their supposed act of kicking her out wasn't even slighty true. I didn't even suspect she'd been kicked out from the beginning despite her story, so I spent a lot of time wanting to shake her and waiting for the truth to come out and maybe get some "whoops" moment from Kaia..

That aside Kaia is a strong female with a big sense of loyalty. People latch themselves onto her as she travels, trying to come to a friends aid on the war front. Everyone who joins her is an annoyance but she cares for and protects them the best she can. Darik, her destined mate is willing to follow her to the end of the earth. His 2 kin people won't leave him behind, and then there's Redfist, Diyan the adopted wharf rat and the Minstrel. As if caring for her motley crew wasn't enough Kaia has assassins on her tail and the war growing on new fronts. When she joins her friend at the war front she finds that not all is as it seems and she has enemies and trouble and new fronts. Darik is set on keeping her safe and her motley crew is ready to follow her any where, no matter the danger.

Her mate is struggling with her prickliness (does Saintcrow write a different type of female? I hope not, cause I like 'em). Kaia is struggling with having a mate and her new found power. This book is not dark UF, unlike most of this author's works, but rather more what I would call feminine fantasy. No, I wouldn't consider it feminist per se, rather it has a strong female character. Admit it, in 90% of typical fantasy the females are pretty and padded, not so here! The story was enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the next in the series. show less

Shiny.