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vicerry's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
caffeinated_reads3's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
2.0
This is Priory of the Orange Tree Lite. How The Gilded Crown similar to the Priory? Simple: take a matriarchal empire with swords and horses, throw in a lesbian romance between the FMC and royalty, the "protector" of royalty has some kind of power, a group that has been established for a long time that's attached to said power, and oh yeah, throw in another homosexual relationship. Yup, that's about it. Seems harsh, but it's the truth.
The Gilded Crown is a book that I wish was better. It has the potential to do well and be better than average. The FMC realizes that she has a relationship with Death, and able to bring once living things back to life. She learns that there is a price that needs to be paid for each life. Of course she is young and d*mb, and in a way to prove to herself that she can do amazing things, she brings back the life of the princess. From there, the queendom uses and abuses the FMC. There's a weird and forced romantic relationship that builds between the princess and FMC. The magical part is confusing and not well described, though I would love to read more about it (backstory of the empire's origin and magical beings/gods behind that). And then throw in a dash of Salem Witch trial like plot line. FMC makes me frustrated, making such ridiculous decisions, and of course she learns too late on how to "manipulate" the system that controlled her.
It's a two out of five at best for me. Thank you Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager | Harper Voyager, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC for a review.
The Gilded Crown is a book that I wish was better. It has the potential to do well and be better than average. The FMC realizes that she has a relationship with Death, and able to bring once living things back to life. She learns that there is a price that needs to be paid for each life. Of course she is young and d*mb, and in a way to prove to herself that she can do amazing things, she brings back the life of the princess. From there, the queendom uses and abuses the FMC. There's a weird and forced romantic relationship that builds between the princess and FMC. The magical part is confusing and not well described, though I would love to read more about it (backstory of the empire's origin and magical beings/gods behind that). And then throw in a dash of Salem Witch trial like plot line. FMC makes me frustrated, making such ridiculous decisions, and of course she learns too late on how to "manipulate" the system that controlled her.
It's a two out of five at best for me. Thank you Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager | Harper Voyager, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC for a review.
allofmyfriendsarebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
signe_vejbjerg's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
kimwritesstuff's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is a good debut from author Marianne Gordon. The book centers around Hellevir, who can walk in death and bring people back to life. When she brings her mother back from the dead, her mother is startled by what Hellevir is capable of. Sensing her mother's discomfort, Hellevir moves in with the town's midwife/herbalist. While there, the Queen brings her granddaughter who has been poisoned and demands that the herbalist raise her. When Hellevir raises her, the princess Sullivan, she traps herself in a deal with the crown.
Hellevir leaves the town she grew up in and joins her family in the capital. Her mother is still wary of her, but her dad and brother are so excited to have her back. It's genuinely sweet the relationships Hellevir has with her dad and brother. From there, we get into the bones of the plot where Hellevir has a promise to raise Sullivan any time she dies in order to protect her family. At the same time, Hellevir makes a deal with Death to bring him treasures in a trade for raising the dead.
I thought the world-building felt really organic and described the history and religion of the book clearly without being a giant info dump. I wish there had been more info or history about the beings Hellevir was interacting with for the treasures. However, I think that leaving out that information set up a good plot for the next books in the series. I also loved that the queer characters in this book simply existed. There wasn't really any discussion of persecution or exile for being gay. I love a book where queer characters just are.
There were a few confusing plotlines for me. Like, were the treasures good enough for Death that Hellevir wasn't losing more pieces of her soul? Or were they just stand-ins for her limbs? I thought that was a little confusing. I also thought there should have been a little bit of a reveal about what the Onastian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) symbols meant. It was described over and over without actually giving any descriptions or meaning. I get that it sets up the next book, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out more. It just felt like for how good the world-building was, some of the background lore made no sense and could have been fleshed out more.
Overall, I thought this was a solid book, and I'm excited to see where the series goes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Hellevir leaves the town she grew up in and joins her family in the capital. Her mother is still wary of her, but her dad and brother are so excited to have her back. It's genuinely sweet the relationships Hellevir has with her dad and brother. From there, we get into the bones of the plot where Hellevir has a promise to raise Sullivan any time she dies in order to protect her family. At the same time, Hellevir makes a deal with Death to bring him treasures in a trade for raising the dead.
I thought the world-building felt really organic and described the history and religion of the book clearly without being a giant info dump. I wish there had been more info or history about the beings Hellevir was interacting with for the treasures. However, I think that leaving out that information set up a good plot for the next books in the series. I also loved that the queer characters in this book simply existed. There wasn't really any discussion of persecution or exile for being gay. I love a book where queer characters just are.
There were a few confusing plotlines for me. Like, were the treasures good enough for Death that Hellevir wasn't losing more pieces of her soul? Or were they just stand-ins for her limbs? I thought that was a little confusing. I also thought there should have been a little bit of a reveal about what the Onastian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) symbols meant. It was described over and over without actually giving any descriptions or meaning. I get that it sets up the next book, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out more. It just felt like for how good the world-building was, some of the background lore made no sense and could have been fleshed out more.
Overall, I thought this was a solid book, and I'm excited to see where the series goes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Child death
helenamt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
kayu99's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
corabookworm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ARC provided by Netgalley and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.
The Gilded Crown is an enchanting high-fantasy book about a girl who is forced into the twisted world of politics when the Queen finds out she can raise the dead and forces her to resurrect the murdered Princess. Now, Hellevir must keep the Princess alive and find the assassin before the cost of dealing with Death grows too high.
I loved this book! The magic system, setting, and animal companions made it feel almost like a dark fairy tale, and the writing was excellent. The characters were complex and had complicated relationships with one another, and there was a big focus on family and friendships. The plot was by far the strongest aspect, though. The political intrigue was well-built, including a dark and corrupted but also complicated monarch, and betrayal and assassins and whatnot. There was also some wonderful worldbuilding and history, with some fascinating religious conflict thrown in for fun. Altogether, extremely well-written, especially for a debut!
I only have two real critiques: one is that the romance fell a little bit flat for me. It was marketed as a romance, so I guess I expected more, but even then, I didn’t really root for the relationship as I was reading–and I couldn’t fully explain why! It just wasn’t there. The second thing is that the interactions with Death got very repetitive and boring after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it was a super interesting magic system! But they just kept having the *same* conversation, and certain events felt anticlimactic because of it.
Besides that, this book was amazing! I was expecting a standalone, but the ending proved me wrong, so it will be interesting to see how the author stretches this into a sequel. I look forward to it. Altogether, I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy magic-focused, fairy-tale-feeling high-fantasy!