Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Nor Iron Bars a Cage
AUTHOR: Kaje Harper
PUBLISHER: M/M Romance Group @ goodreads
LENGTH: 244 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 1st 2013
BLURB:
First I was a sorcerer. Then I was a hermit. For so long—for years that seemed to go on forever—I couldn’t bear to be touched. I put up not just walls but whole stone bunkers to keep everyone out, emotionally, and physically as well. I was protected from people, from ghosts, from specters real and imagined. Sure, I was alone. But I felt safe. Only, after a while, I wasn’t sure any longer whether a totally “safe” empty life was really worth living.
Then Tobin came along. Out of the blue, out of my past, with a summons from the king that he wouldn’t let me ignore. I tried to cling to my isolation, but he wouldn’t give up on me. Tobin never believed in walls.
REVIEW:
The M/M Romance group at GoodReads has the occasional challenge events wherein authors are given a picture and/or a story prompt and asked to write a short story based on it. This book came about as the result of one of those challenges. Though the challenge was for a short story what we have here is a full novel. Though there are several scenes in the book that the photo-prompt may have inspired I was never able to narrow down just which scene it was.
That said, this is the story of two boyhood friends who grew up in a kingdom where the common means of transport was horseback and mages existed. (Though magic had pretty much faded from the world.)
Lyon, our hero had apprenticed himself to a “magician” though the only magic that still seemed to work was the summoning of spirits. 15 years before we join the tale, a summoned wight overpowered the boy’s master and Lyon is subjected to a horrendous captivity and sexual torture until he could free himself. But, bleeding and broken as he was, he isolated himself and has recovered slowly. Even 15 years later he’s unable to tolerate being closed in, having anyone near him, or even touch him without considerable mental preparation. Still a hermit with severe agoraphobia, still afraid to venture far afield, still obsessively checking his magical wards every night, his hermitage is interrupted when his boyhood chum (and adolescent crush) shows up as an envoy from the king summoning him to duty.
If you thought Gandalf had a hard time getting Bilbo out of the shire, it was nothing compared to what Tobin has to do to get his scarred (and scared) boyhood chum to answer the King’s call. But Tobin didn’t become a trusted confidant of the King by taking No for an answer, and he soon has the friend he still calls “Lion Boy” on the road. Perhaps it’s the road to the capital. but in a greater way it’s also the road to recovery. In many ways this is tale of one young man’s tragic fall and his recovery due to the gentle aid of an old and trusted friend. While this tale is told from Lyon’s POV (and perhaps because of that) one can’t read this without falling a bit in love with the patient, wholesome, supportive character of Tobin.
This is NOT a light romance. It’s an epic fantasy tale, part recovery tale and part quest tale. Even the side characters (living and dead) have backgrounds and some are tragic. But by the end you’ll feel it was worth the journey. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll be torn between wanting these characters to enjoy the HEA ending they both deserve, and wanting to hear another of their adventures. It’s certainly worth the reading time and an astonishingly good tale for being a freebie.
RATING: 
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