Publisher - Snowy Wings Publishing

Published - 4/3

Price - £14.99 paperback £3.49 ebook

Wehia and Geri travel back to the fens to find the truth about the link between the border people and the matriarchal sword smiths. Are the two ready for the truth? Wehia is also holding a painful secret: her perfect sword is not perfect. When the threat of war comes knocking at Wehia’s doorstep, will she be able to rise above failure, pain and pride? Will she be able to reforge the broken Council Sword and bring peace to the City of the Swords? Moreover, will Wehia and Geri find the happiness they both seek?

Warning this is the conclusion to the Fire Heart duology that starts with Fire Heart reviewed here https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2024/11/12/fire-heart-by-joyce-chng

Learning to pick yourself back up is a hard lesson. Stopped where the heroes simply walk through life untouched are unrealistic. It’s more how we learn to get over our defeats where things get interesting. In Joyce Chng’s fast moving but compelling Cold Steel we wrap up the Fire Heart duology with our main character finally knowing she can make mistakes and deciding what to do about them.

Weiha has from an early age wanted to forge swords. However elder family clan only focuses on knives so she has moved to her cousin’s clan and learned the art of sword making while also she has found out all is not well in the wilder world there is strife between those in the cities and neighbouring settlements and those living on the boundaries of the land. Weiha and her girlfriend Geri have gone to investigate but are about to find the problems weave all the clans together and will put Weiha in extreme danger.

I really enjoyed this Chng delivers a fast paced story pulling through the plot but keeping the story moving and interesting. It also shocks the reader with changes to Weiha. In the first novel she is the super keen student, not willing to give up her dreams and has a firm sense of justice. That initially carries on but a worry that Weiha had about her first sword Fire Heart is shown to be justified and a sword with a flaw is not something you want into battle…

The central skin of the story is what happens next and we see Weiha have to battle Crippling anxiety, guilt and a loss of confidence is both totally understandable and jarring compared to her in the first book. I really liked that this was not a problem she could solve on her own and all her key allies from the first book are required to help her find a way through. I also like the reminder that people like swords can be reforged into something stronger.

The larger plot of the boundary people gets bigger again we find longstanding corrupt secrets that have hit the clans and are still casting a shadow on the world. There is a build up to war just when Weiha isn’t willing to fight. The two plots though neatly come together in a well crafted finale that covers honour, finding out how not everyone is good all the time and knowing your goals. It rattles along so no time to explore many other characters but the overall feeling I had was that this neatly fitted the first half and the complete story was a satisfying read.

Cold Steel is a very entertaining conclusion to an interesting fantasy duology that fans of the first book will enjoy and be surprised by. Highly recommended!