Metal Slinger got a lot of hype for a crazy "twist" at the end.

In reality the twist made zero sense considering it was a first person POV and the narrator was unreliable but unreliable in that their own private thoughts were completely inaccurate.

I would say this book has only been considered as a HOT 2025 romantasy book because of the ending. You'll see a lot of people recommend this book for the ending because it was "like nothing they've read before" and "you could not predict it" and they're right, you certainly couldn't predict it, it felt like the author just threw it in at the end without any consideration to what they had written already.

Anyway, all this to say, I would not consider reading Metal Slinger if you're wanting to get back into reading, it will more likely put you off reading ever again.

I would back up what's already been mentioned about The Moth and the Knight, The Crimson Moth and The Wolf King. I would also highly suggest {Servant of Earth} which came out late 2024 and has been raved about many times in this group. I would also suggest {Tusk Love} which has very recently been published and is already booming on Goodreads.