e-ARC, 464 pages
Release Date: January 15, 2019Published by: Wednesday Books
Read from: December 22-26, 2018The Gilded Wolves, #1Source: Edelweiss (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)TW: Spiders
For fans of: Historical Fiction, Action, Adventure, Series Starters, Diverse MCs, Multiple POV’s, Fantasy, YASet in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure.
Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.
To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.
Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.
*MY THOUGHTS*
So when I first heard of this one, I heard it was kind of like National Treasure and Six of Crows. And that was enough for me to love it instantly. And sure enough, I did. There were only a few minor things I would have changed, but I overall I still really liked this one.
“She never saw the blade, only felt the consequence of it….“1%
After things went awry with his heritage, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie was “cast out” of the Order of Babel. Until they needed his help. They need to recover an artifact that only Séverin and his wit can retrieve. But he will need help from others to get it done. Together can they bring back the artifact and restore Séverin to his rightful heritage?
“You and your secrets.” Secrets keep my hair lustrous.“3%
Hands down the best thing about this is the characters. I LOVED them and Enrique and Hypnos were my immediate favorites. Every scene with either one of them made me laugh out loud or roll my eyes. In other words, they were just my kind of people. But the thing I didn’t care for was so many POV’s. I think that might be why I felt it was a little info-dumpy because it took awhile to get to know all of them. The good thing was, I enjoyed all the characters, they all had their own strength and I loved that they could all come together to make such a great team.
“He didn’t understand that sometimes the only way to take down what had destroyed you was to disguise yourself as part of it.“14%
As for the writing style, there were a few things I would have changed, but for the most part I loved it. Like I said I did feel like it was a bit info-dumpy in the beginning. Like I lost out on a really epic pre-quel or something and lost some of the information that I should have had and it was trying to make up for it. But as I said, it could be because of the many different characters and getting individual chapters for all of them. I think this is also the reason for the slow start, so I won’t say much about that. But it does take some time to get started. But once it does, its hard to put down.
“And, if I may be so bold, which I am, so I will. You have no choice but ti help me….“27%
Also, if you don’t take notes while you read, I would advise that you do so with this one. The characters and what they do are easy enough to remember, but the things they do in this one can sometimes get a bit jumbled. There’s Egyptian mythology, the seven deadly sins, Indian mythology, and all the rules of the Order. It got pretty confusing pretty fast, so for me, writing notes down was pretty helpful. If you don’t want to write it down, it may also help to use the highlight or note feature in your Kindle if you have one!
“Take what the world owes you by any means necessary. […] the world has a shit memory. It will never pay its debts unless you force its hand.“61%
This is a completely different style than Chokshi’s Star Touched Queen and Aru Shah, and I loved that about it. We got to see something different from her and it was just as amazing as the other two. I cannot wait to get more of the Gilded Wolves in my hands! (Because after that ending, there’s more right? THERE HAS TO BE.)
Overall, I give this
I literally just finished and I'm torn between a 3 or a 3.5. I thought the most interesting aspects were the lessons Severin's fathers taught him, but everything else was surface level.
This! I struggled with 3.5 or 3 as well and I couldn't decide until I wrote the review what I wanted to give it. I enjoyed the book overall and I enjoyed the plot twists and stuff, but it still felt like I was missing something. Like the other one we read.