Cold Iron

Cold Iron (A Cold Iron Novel Book 1) by D.L. McDermott (Feb 10, 2014)

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Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2014For fans of Jeaniene Frost and Kresley Cole, this full-length novel is the first in D.L. McDermott’s fast-paced, sexy paranormal romance series—available exclusively in ebook!
The Fae, the Good Neighbors, the Fair Folk, the Aes Sídhe, creatures of preternatural beauty and seduction. Archaeologist Beth Carter doesn’t believe in them. She’s always credited her extraordinary ability to identify ancient Celtic sites to hard work and intuition—until she discovers a tomb filled with ancient treasure but missing a body. Her ex-husband, the scholar who stifled her career to advance his own, is unconcerned. Corpses don’t fetch much on the antiquities market. Gold does. Beth knows from past experience that if she isn’t vigilant, Frank will make off with the hoard.
So when a man—tall, broad shouldered, and impossibly handsome—turns up in her bedroom claiming to be the tomb’s inhabitant, one of mythic god-kings of old Ireland, Beth believes it is a ploy cooked up by her ex-husband to scare her away from the excavation.
But Conn is all too real. Ancient, alien, irresistible, the Fae are the stuff of dreams and nightmares, their attentions so addictive their abandoned human lovers wither and die. And this one has fixed his supernatural desire on Beth.

I bought this book not ever having read anything by this author. I ordered it because I love stories about the Fae and this sounded like a great option, and in some ways this book was great. However, in other ways this book left me cold.  The first 50% of the book, I was thinking about throwing it against a wall and promising myself not to buy anything else by this author, but I kept on and really enjoyed the last half of the book. 

My problems were that the heroine of the novel was such a spineless, nearly TSTL, unthinking and wimpy woman. The men around her had egos the size of Texas, they almost seemed like caricatures (especially Frank her ex-husband and Egan his buddy) and all they did was use her, even Conn.  As I kept reading I realized that her spinelessness was due to being an untrained Druid - yes she still was unthinking, putting herself into constant danger, but these actions made more sense the further you read.

I think with the next book, (and I have already bought it) I will have a better understanding as to what I am reading and enjoy it more.

The world building in Cold Iron was a little sporadic at times.  The character building of the main characters Beth the Druidess and Conn the Destroyer was fairly in depth and they were smartly written.  In a way I don’t think we were supposed to like them very much until the story grew.  

The secondary characters are fascinating and I am glad to know that they have their own book Silver Skin, which is the next book in this series.

There is romance but less actual sex than you would have expected – there is more building up to it than the actual act.  Don’t mistake me there is sex, but this is more of a traditional romance and the act takes up less page time than the coming to love each other does.

The ending with Conn and Beth is great –I love it when women have the upper hand to some extent yet the men are still their own creatures.