heart of steel is a solid anthology focusing on lgbtqia knights, most of which are women, which is nice as women knights are relatively underrepresented, and sapphic knights even more so. a couple of stories are a bit wobbly, but there's only one that i disliked, and that's pretty good going for an anthology.

overall rating: 3.5, rounded up because of the overall enjoyability (new word coined lmao) of the collection and for the wonderful blackberries and buckthorn.

the queen's dragon rider by cora walker
*4 stars*
i love dragons, especially baby dragons! this had a cohesive and interesting plot, and i liked it a lot.

the silent knight by avery stiles
*3 stars*
this had interesting characters and a nice romance, but i thought the polyamorous aspect was slightly underdeveloped, and there wasn't really much of a plot. it was still an enjoyable story, though.

to tame a dragon by christina marie
*1 star*
this was such a weird treatment of gender and to be quite honest i had 0 idea what was going on?? yeah i don't have much else to say about this

blackberries and buckthorn by t.s. porter
*5 stars*
this was definitely my favourite in the anthology! there was an interesting magic system and a great plot, and the character development was done really well for such a short amount of words in which to do it. i also liked how normalised being trans was (which is something seen in a couple of these other stories as well)

the heartless knight by heather morris
*4 stars*
this was the only story with an aro/ace protagonist, and there was also a pretty action-filled plot including espionage and intrigue, which was fun. i can't say a lot about the treatment of aro/ace people because i'm neither, but to me it seemed like a really good representation.

ser rae of del by b.a. huntley
*4.5 stars*
plot twists!! plot twists everywhere!! how did huntley fit so many plot twists in here!!

shieldmaiden's vow by helena maeve
*3 stars*
i found this mildly confusing but also pretty entertaining, i guess it was alright - and a story that opens with a sex scene is always good lmao.

I nice collection of stories. They were all cute and fun to read. All could be considered the beginnings of deeper stories. The meeting stories and budding romances of future couples.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

Another awesome queer fantasy anthology from LT3. If you've read any of their other shorts or anthologies this is pretty much more of the same but that's ok because it's always a fun time. As always with anthologies there were some stories I liked more than others, but it was an overall good collection. Lots of lady knights, lots of trans characters, and even a story with an aro/ace protagonist! I think that's the first time I've seen that in one of these collections and I really appreciated it.

There were a few bumps along the way. Like there's one story where the knight is a lesbian and kind of 'falls in love' with this guy but is worried basically because she 'doesn't like dick' but then it's all okay because actually he's genderfluid and can shapeshift! I can see what they were going for I guess but the whole thing just seemed to reinforce that 'gender = genitals' and I was definitely a little bit uncomfortable with that whole thing, especially in an anthology that otherwise had a lot of great trans characters. Also I've seen a review with a complaint that there is one story where a lesbian is the villain and while in regular media I could see being upset about that, if most of the characters are queer I feel like it doesn't matter if the villain is also queer because they aren't the ONLY representation in the story.

Anyway, just my two cents on a few of the 'issues' people might have with this anthology but overall I thought it was a really fun and enjoyable read.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35669350-heart-of-steel" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Heart of Steel" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499980034m/35669350.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35669350-heart-of-steel">Heart of Steel</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4838884.Samantha_M_Derr">Samantha M. Derr</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2156325638">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd a copy from NetGalley/Less Than Three Press for an honest review.<br />Knights and dragons star in this anthology of fantasy tales. An easy read, my favourites were "To Tame A Dragon" by Christina DZA Marie and "The Queen's Dragon Rider" by Cora Walker. Anyone who likes fantasy, dragons and lady knights should like this collection.<br />3.5 stars.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

Hearts of Steel features LBGTQA+ characters in a fantasy setting. All of the stories are complete and there are many standouts. Like I do with all Anthologies I read, I'll break my review down into each story.

The Queen's Dragon Rider - Cora Walker - I'm not sure I would have started the anthology with this one. It's a clean lesbian fantasy that is bigger on the fantasy than the romance elements. This story in particular had several editing errors that made it into publication and the ending is a bit abrupt. I liked Tess, Merryn, and Aria. 3 stars.

The Silent Knight - Avery Stiles - This story has the best POV character in the book. Loran is funny, interesting, and all around great. The use of a mute character was great. The romance is sort of pre-polyamorous romance with more of the focus on character growth/plot. I would have liked to have seen more with Farris (the third). Basically I liked the characters and wished this story was longer... maybe the trio facing the repercussions for the mission gone wrong? 4 stars.

To Tame a Dragon - Christina DZA Marie - I really liked this story featuring a female knight who has to hide her gender and a shapeshifter who has to hide their true nature. The symbolism was spot on and I was very satisfied with both the love story and the fantasy story. 5 stars.

Blackberries and Buckthorn - TS Porter - A knight and her companions must escort their ruler's daughter home which is more dangerous than it sounds. To say I loved this story would be an understatement. It is the best story in the anthology with well-rounded characters and even side characters. The romance made sense, even in the face of some twists. 5 stars.

The Heartless Knight - Heather Morris - This story features the lone asexual character in the anthology. While the main character is well-developed. The story itself needed more oomph. 3 stars.

Ser Rae of Del - B.A. Huntley - This story has an almost fairytale quality to it. While it could have used a better editor, it was still fun and well done. The twist was predictable, but that didn't make it less satisfying. 4 stars.

A Shieldmaiden's Vow - Helena Maeve - The other polyamorous story in the group. It was a bit confusing in parts. Especially the beginning and the ending featured a huge WTF moment. I wasn't terribly fond of the characters. 3 stars.

In all, there are a few authors I will happily check out more of their works on and this is a good taste of some up-and-coming authors.

4 stars.

***I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley

I think this is one of my favourite anthologies I've read this year. Lady knights covered almost all the pages, and when they weren't lady knights, they were most often trans knights.

How can a person not fall completely in love with content like this?

Also, it had two of my favourite authors: Cora Walker and TS Porter. I'm not biased at all.

Opening with Cora Walker's "The Queen's Dragon Rider", we get a close relationship between a lady knight and her dragon before we even meet the love interest. And let me say, there wasn't a page of this story that I wasn't invested in. I absolutely love stories that have close emotional connections with multiple people (and dragons).

I found "The Silent Knight" by Avery Stiles to be a very sweet read, for many reasons. One: I love silent characters. I just find that their ability to communicate is so wonderful because it's different. That's certainly the case here. And also, I LOVED THE POLY STORYLINE. Ahem. I'm not going to lie, I felt like bopping Farris on the head multiple times in this short, but it seemed like the beginning of what could be a very promising full length novel.

Miles is a young lady who pretends to be a man in order to be a knight in "To Tame a Dragon" by Christina Marie. As its title may suggest, this story had dragons in it too, but they took a far step back to the romance between Miles and the wonderful shapechanging Ikram. I love love loved the dialogue in this one.

"Blackberries and Buckthorn" by TS Porter sees Lady Siofra being guided between castles after her sorcerer training by Ser Izzy, even as she comes to terms with her green magic. This is a good enemies to lovers story.

I think I would have enjoyed "Ser Rae of Del" by B.A. Huntley more had they been consistent in the spelling of Sir/Ser in the tale, though that might be something that's fixed up in later edits. I wasn't 100% sure of the trans rep in this story, but that might have been simply because it wasn't the main focus of this story.