The Blacksmith Queen – G.A. Aiken

There’s a prophesy that when the Old King dies, his replacement will be a Queen. Keeley is the oldest of whole bunch of kids (thing number one I loved about this book – Keeley’s family – they’re a hoot), and has carried on her mother’s family tradition of blacksmithing. When she finds out it’s her younger sister Beatrix who will be queen, she suddenly has her hands full protecting her family.

I feel like I shouldn’t say too much about this book, because it’s just the unfolding of the story that I really enjoyed. There’s plenty of swearing, and Keeley is both hard as nails, and also one of the most caring people you’ll ever run into. Beatrix’s path ends up being interesting. I’ve already started the second book because I’m very interested to see how this continues – the story is really only starting, and I’m curious to see where things go.