spacehue 's review for:

The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon

3.0

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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There were some moments that were brilliant with lovely writing, but overall I found the writing a bit too repetitive and felt that the characters weren't fully fleshed out. I cannot understand why

Hellevir would keep coming back to Sullivain. At one point she's like jee I knew Sullivain was harsh, but she's not brutal, is she? Yes girl, yes she is brutal, she had  literally tortured the cook by that point. I'm not saying that the romance between them was implausible, not at all, but I needed more of a moral struggle from Hellevir and an in text acknowledgement that her love for Sullivain was selfish. I don't think the Farvor POV sections were necessary or particularly effective either. There were some really interesting relationship dynamics going on, but I didn't feel that the book spent enough time exploring them. Bits with Death were cool, but I could have done without the bajillion descriptions of how spooky and black he is.