Details
Haven’t you ever wondered how your parents met?
Orlun and Rurig have been married for a long time. Things may have gotten a little less exciting after having three children together, but it’s their life, and they wouldn’t trade it for anything else. So when a civil war threatens to tear apart their home and has them both working with the city’s militia, they’re not exactly happy about it.
Jarek is a new recruit. Young and maybe a little naïve, he’s a lover, not a fighter—but he’ll do what he has to if it means protecting the people he cares about. Which might include Orlun and Rurig. There’s something brewing between the three of them, but is it strong enough to survive when tragedy strikes?
This is a story about romance, awkward dates, and questionable parenting decisions. Set over twenty years before the events of Steel & Thunder, this prequel tells the tale of how these three men found each other and formed a family in the face of danger and uncertainty. This novella is for readers who like gay/male-on-male polyamorous romances with a heaping helping of orcs.
Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐ I totally chose to read this book because of the cover. And I was absolutely right.
The story is short, so it doesn't go into much detail about world-building or how magic or politics works, but enough detail is given so that the reader understands at least the surface of how it all works.
The protagonists, Orlun and Rurig, are a couple with children, who occasionally invite third parties to their beds and this seems to be a normal thing in their society, as well as same-sex marriages. So it's no surprise that they start dating Jarek, a new recruit in the militia, where Orlun and Rurig already work.
Apart from the story between the characters, there is the political situation in which they live. There is a rebel group that wants to take control of the city by force, and the leaders must repel the attacks. And while that happens, our characters are faced with difficult decisions to make to cope with the situation while they raise and educate their children.
An important point is the fact that Rurig and Orlun each have two jobs, one of them being their assignments in the militia. And because of this their children are left alone at night and this fact is questioned by Jarek and causes a temporary break in their relationship. The children are very young, only 8 and 1-year-old, so they are not old enough to be alone at night and there is only one neighbor to check them from time to time and taking into account the precarious sociopolitical situation… It's very irresponsible of them.
If they weren't under attack, I think it wouldn't be such a bad idea for the children to be alone and have someone watch them, but they are, indeed, under attack. Luckily, nothing bad happens, at least not to the children.
I would have appreciated an explanation for certain words, such as 'Orda' or 'Ruda.' For the context in which they are used, it is clear that those are the terms for Father or Dad, but it is not specified. There also isn't an explanation on how same-sex couples have children. There is no mention that it is an omegaverse or that the story is Mpreg or that they have used a surrogate mother… Nothing.
Maybe it's explained in the next books in the series, and that's why I'm going to read them all 😉
