Metal Slinger

Metal Slinger is a 2024 romantasy novel by American author Rachel Schneider, who has previously written three other adult romance titles. Metal Slinger is her first fantasy romance, and the title first became popular on the social media platform TikTok. The novel is slated to be the first in a duology. As the first installment in the Fire & Metal series, Metal Slinger examines themes such as The Tension Between Love and Betrayal, The Corruptive Influence of Power, and The Importance of Claiming a Homeland.

This guide refers to the 2024 Kindle/Amazon Direct Publishing e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, bullying, child abuse, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Jovie (initially known as Brynn) is from the community known as Alaha, which was banished to live forever on the seas after losing a war with Kenta. Now, Jovie and her friends, Kai and Messer, prepare to attend Kenta’s annual Market, which will likely be the only chance they will ever have to experience land. At the Market, Jovie sees a Kenta soldier following her. He seizes her and pushes her hand against a wall, causing her extreme pain. (Jovie will later learn that physical contact with the land causes her dormant magic to flare painfully.) She attacks the soldier (who will later be revealed as Acker, the son of King Edmond of Kenta) using his own knife and then flees. Aurora, a fellow guard trainee, causes an explosion, allowing Jovie and her group to escape to Alaha by ship in the ensuing chaos. Jovie accidentally keeps Acker’s knife.

In retaliation for the explosion, Kenta decides to limit Alaha’s access to the Market, a development that will threaten Alaha’s food supplies. Back in Alaha, Jovie is fortunate to receive only minor punishment for the incident in the Market because Kai, the Alaha leader’s son, defends her. Wren, the Alaha leader, fears that Aurora is involved in a rebellion designed to damage the Kenta-Alaha peace treaty. (As the narrative will much later reveal, Jovie is the one who is secretly plotting to depose Wren. Although Wren claims to have rescued an orphaned young Jovie from an otherwise empty fishing boat years ago, calling her “Brynn,” Jovie remembers very well that Wren actually kidnapped her from the realm of Maile. Jovie is really Princess Jovinnia of Maile.)

Now, Wren explains that the Kenta have agreed to maintain the peace as long as Alaha turns Aurora and Jovie over to them. However, Wren has refused to give up Jovie. Kai suddenly announces his intention to marry Jovie. Though she is willing to marry him, she dislikes the decision being made without her consent.

Acker comes to Alaha by boat and is immediately put into the brig, at which point he insists that he will speak only to Jovie. Acker teases her about her platonic love for Kai and hints that he has significant information about Jovie’s past. However, he cannot reveal this information because Wren imposed a magical blood oath upon him, forcing him to remain silent. Acker does reveal that Kai has magical powers of persuasion, which he has been using to coerce Jovie into feeling affection for him. (This issue will later be revealed as a ruse on Jovie and Kai’s part; Jovie wants to trick Acker into taking her to Kenta, where she will gain access to King Edmond, whom she wants to depose.) An upcoming storm makes the brig flood, but Jovie frees Acker before he drowns. She hides him in her room and indicates that she wants to escape Kai’s supposed coercion of her. Together, she and Acker escape from Alaha on a small fishing vessel. Acker suffers a stab wound in the escape and tries to attack the pursuing Kai, but Jovie convinces Acker not to kill Kai.

Jovie and Acker sail for weeks, battling against starvation, dehydration, and storms. They are aided by a mythical bird, which Jovie later learns is really her friend Messer, a shapeshifter. They eventually land in Roison, a hostile territory to Kenta. They cannot sail any longer because Acker needs to touch land, the source of all magic, in order to heal from his stab wound. Jovie, however, is struck by serious pain as her magic manifests all at once, and the pain renders her unconscious for several days. Soon after she wakes, she and Acker are attacked by a group of Kenta deserters. He and Jovie escape, but not until Jovie is shot in the chest with an arrow. Acker rushes her to a healer, who helps Jovie heal. When she recovers enough to travel, they hurry toward Kenta’s border. They seek to circumvent the Dark Forest, a place of dark magic from which nobody ever escapes.

They are suddenly attacked by a panther, who reveals himself to be the healer’s son, Sven, a shapeshifter. Messer reveals his own shapeshifting abilities when he transforms from a bird into a leopard and leaps to defend Jovie from Sven. The struggle takes them into the Dark Forest. Despite Acker’s warnings, Jovie follows Messer and uses a powerful burst of her magic to burn the entire forest. This display of power wearies Jovie. Acker hurries her over the Kenta border, where a group of soldiers await. They address him as the prince of Kenta.

Jovie wakes up in Kenta to find herself healed. She meets Beau, Acker’s sister, and Hallis, Acker’s closest friend. They interrogate Messer, who explains that he followed Jovie to protect her from Acker. At Jovie’s urging, Acker allows Messer to go free, but he first brands Messer with a mark that will make him a valuable target for Kenta’s enemies, thereby binding Messer to Kenta.

As Jovie, Acker, Beau, and Hallis begin a multi-day journey toward the Kenta palace, Jovie finds her attraction to Acker growing. Eventually, she finds that she can project her consciousness and “jump” into his mind; one such jump uncovers the fact that Acker is engaged to Irina, the Princess of Strou. Rumors of Jovie’s light-based magic, which was previously wielded by a malevolent queen, arouse the people’s hostility and compel the group to travel incognito. Whenever Jovie sleeps, she has the ability to project her consciousness to Acker’s location and watch what he does. (This ability is eventually discovered to be the result of a mating-related bond between them.) As they periodically kiss and flirt, their connection grows stronger.

As they near the capitol, they encounter a group of Maile soldiers, who want to return Jovie to her homeland. Acker swears a blood oath that he and Jovie are matched, that he will not harm her, and that he loves her.

Finally arriving in the palace, Jovie dislikes the ostentatious display of wealth and chafes under King Edmond’s demands for displays of fealty. She also dislikes Acker’s apparent ease with cruelly wielding power over others. The Kenta court openly disdains Jovie, whom they consider a sign that there will be further conflict with Maile.

Jovie begins researching matched bonds, using forbidden books that Beau’s mother, Greta, keeps in a secret library. Jovie also learns more from Acker’s friends, Wells and Olivia, who are happily bonded and married. When Jovie astral projects to a room with Acker, they have manual sex, but she has difficulty returning to her body afterward. Once she returns to her body, they have sex, which they find emotionally and physically satisfying. They enjoy a brief period of playful affection, confessing their love for one another. In direct defiance of his father, King Edmond (who wants Acker to marry Princess Irina of Strou), Acker accompanies Jovie to a court dinner, thereby publicly declaring his intention to marry her instead of Irina.

In a flashback, Jovie reveals that she and Kai have conspired to manipulate Acker into trusting her so that he will take her back to Kenta. This is part of their plan to overthrow both Edmond and Wren. Edmond is an imperial tyrant, while Wren is too concerned with preserving his own control over Alaha to challenge the harmful Kenta policies that are slowly driving Alaha to starvation.

In the narrative present, Acker asks Jovie to marry him. Suddenly, various Kenta nobles begin to collapse, poisoned. Jovie puts a magic-suppressing collar on Acker, restraining him. Beau has also joined Jovie’s rebellion. They reveal that Jovie and Kai have spearheaded this rebellion, which is meant to dethrone both Wren and the misogynistic, war-mongering King Edmond. They offer Acker the throne only if he promises to maintain peace with the realms of Alaha, Maile, and Roison. Acker refuses. Jovie severs Edmond’s magic but leaves him alive at Acker’s request. She flees, knowing that this moment will ruin her relationship with Acker, whom she genuinely loves.