This fun, adventurous YA fantasy novel featuring an aromantic asexual girl and an automaton with a heart of gold is one that I was very much anticipating, and while it wasn’t entirely what I expected, I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint.

This Golden Flame is mainly set in Eratia, a fantastical country inspired by Ancient Greece, and follows eighteen-year-old Karis as she tries to find out what happened to her brother after the two were separated seven years prior. Karis is an acolyte to the Scriptorium, an organ mainly comprised of scholars trying to discover how to reanimate the infamous Eratian automatons that were all deactivated a few centuries before. One day, while Karis is busy with her duties as an acolyte, she stumbles upon a still-functioning automaton named Alix, who appears more human than one would expect from an automaton. Together, they embark on a journey to find out what happened to her brother, only to find that their search for her brother comes with unsettling discoveries related to Alix’s mysterious past…

The points of view in This Golden Flame are split between Karis and Alix, which was an interesting experience because while I’ve seen non-human creatures like AIs, robots, and automatons questioning whether they are capable of feeling like humans do, I’ve never read this from one of their perspectives before. Throughout the story, Alix is questioning whether he is more than a tool created for a single goal and I think it was refreshing to see this struggle from his own point of view. Karis has been hardened by a difficult life and is surprised by the human softness she sees in Alix, and it was really touching to see these two connecting and learning from one another. Karis is aromantic and asexual and I loved seeing a YA fantasy heroine whose most important relationship is platonic rather than romantic. There are barely any traditionally published YA fantasy books centering aroace characters, so as a reader who is on both spectrums it was incredibly validating to see this experience being represented in one of my favorite genres for once.

Aside from Karis and Alix, there is a lovely cast of secondary characters, many of whom are part of a pirate crew Alix and Karis encounter on their adventure. Zara, the captain of the crew, is so confident and badass and so much fun to read about and even though the members of her crew don’t get a lot of individual page-time, they all feel like real people. They hail from many different parts of the world, and the snippets of information we get from them about the countries they hail from gave me the sense that the world is bigger than just Eratia, which is always a good sign. There are also various identities from the LGBTQ+ community represented in the side characters, among which we see a nonbinary character (who uses they/them pronouns) and a male/male couple. None of this is questioned, which is exactly what I like to see in my fantasy worlds.

Aside from being queer-friendly, the worldbuilding is fun and original. Ancient Greece has always been a special interest of mine and it was interesting to see a YA fantasy world based on that historical setting. The magic system with runes is intriguingly described, although it’s only explored on a surface-level. At the end of the novel, several questions related to the runic magic system and the automatons remain unanswered, which makes me feel like there is potential for a sequel or companion nonvel, even though it appears This Golden Flame is intended to be a standalone novel for now.

If there is anything I would criticize about this novel, it is that perhaps it does not have a particularly original plotline. It follows the generic YA plotline of a character who discovers a dark secret from the past and corruption within the government of their country and joins a rebellion to combat it. Victoria’s writing style also wasn’t anything special. It is quite simplistic and to-the-point, at times leaning more towards telling us about character’s emotions rather than showing them. However, I feel like this more simplistic writing style also opens up the book to a wider audience. Due to the accessible writing style and the minimal exploration of darker topics, this book is also suitable for an older middle grade and younger YA audience. Keeping that and the original setting and interesting characters in mind, these aspects ultimately didn’t take away too much of my enjoyment of This Golden Flame.

In summary, This Golden Flame is a YA fantasy story with interesting main characters and a fun, original world that will intrigue readers who are like pirates, Ancient Greece-inspired settings, and stories filled with seamless, casual diversity. While the plot might not be one that readers haven’t seen before, the well-realized characters and world make up for it. This is one of those stories I wish I could’ve given to my younger self; she would’ve been overjoyed to read a book about a girl like her who gets to go on an adventure with pirates and isn’t romantically involved with anyone. I truly hope this book finds the people who need it, the aromantic and asexual teens who need to see a main character like them who gets to go on a typical fantasy adventure. I’m so thankful this book exists, and I can’t wait for it to be out in the world for people, especially aro and ace teens, to read.

***I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley (thank you Hodder & Stoughton!) in exchange for a honest review.***

This Golden Flame is a very well-needed fresh breath of air in the world of YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi. It´s been quite a while since a book affected me emotionally the way this book did. It was the book I didn’t knew I needed. Perfect for fans of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

Emily Victoria is a master when it comes to world building with a unique and brilliant magical system which I definitely crave more of. Despite TGF being her debut novel, the author has managed to compose an amazingly beautiful story with a fast paced and intriguing plot.

Although the description was very appealing, I was a little bit reluctant to read the book at first since it gave the impression to contain little to no romance. And I’m usually all in for some romance, sexual tension and such. However, I do not regret reading this book what so ever! The small pieces of romance it contains is just perfect for the story and the fact that this wasn’t focused on romance enhanced the story in my opinion.

Emily Victoria has managed to include several queer characters; an asexual and aromantic MC with a homosexual brother is just the tip of the ice berg. And although queer people is absolutely underrepresented in this genre imo, this doesn’t feel overdone or forced, not the slightest. Since I’m hetero (at least I think so atm) I don’t have any own experiences as an aro, ace or such. But for me, the relationships between all characters felt incredibly real and I just loved the dynamic between all characters (especially Karis and Alix) We definitely need more queer main characters within YA fantasy and I cannot wait for what Emily Victoria has for the future.

Writing this review was really really hard since I don’t feel like my words gives this book justice. It’s such a complex book with several subplots and wonderful and lovable characters. This is the book you won´t want to miss out on!

I am in awe, honestly. I was absolutely blown away by this book.

For a debut novel, it is so well-written, the story is incredibly unique, the pacing feels perfect and the characters are all well-developed and just wonderful.

This story is told from the POV of two different characters.

First up you have Karis, she is an orphan who was kidnapped from the streets of her home island along with her brother and forced to work for the Scriptorium.

After acting out on the journey it was deemed that her brother would be too much trouble to be bothered with and was sent away, separating the two of them for the next 7 years.

From the moment Karis arrives at the Scriptorium, all she wants is to be reunited with her brother. She does not make friends (except for Dane, but I’ll get to him), she does not lay down any roots, she steals books and teaches herself the script and tries in any way that she can to escape from the island so that she can find him again.

Then we have Alix, lovely, sweet Alix.

He is an automaton but a unique one in that he can think and move independently without a “master” writing down commands in his tome.

Alix is my favourite character in this story. He is so well developed and his background is incredible. He thinks that because he is an automaton that the world around him and everyone in it just sees him as some tool to be used to accomplish a task, that they don’t see him as him, as someone with a life to live or choices to make.

He really struggles with this because he was made to feel. He was made to complete a task, yes. He was also made to think, to want, to like and to dislike. He wants more than anything to be accepted and to find his place in the world.

Your secondary characters are all really interesting too and all have their own stories to tell.

I particularly loved the “pirate queen” Zara. When you initially meet her you really don’t know what kind of person she is. Her background is explored slowly as it that of her crew and as you learn her secrets and history she just becomes more and more lovable! She is fiery, sassy, strong-willed and dangerous and I just love everything about her. I really would have loved to see more of her in the book and she was my favourite female character.

Dane is Karis’s best friend and actually, the only friend she made when she was taken prisoner at the scriptorium. His feelings change drastically from the beginning of the book to the end as he struggles to find his purpose.

Another thing I feel needs to be mentioned before moving on is the amazing representation and also the lack of a main “romance” plot. There was no need for romance as a focal point and so not to have that forced, as is the case in a lot of these types of books was definitely a good thing.

Now, moving onto the world and the magic…

The magic system in this book is really unique and interesting.

The “magic” all comes from something called “the script” which is basically writing down runes to accomplish certain things, to “lock” something for example.

The automatons are also a huge part of the story, they were created and used by powerful scholars as a weapon until 200 years ago when they were all put to sleep and frozen in time by someone who wanted to take that power away from the scriptorium.

Ever since then they have been hard at work trying to find a way to reawaken them.

Finally, you have your big baddie. He is sufficiently evil with his own agenda and his own terrible forces all working to take control of the script and the sleeping automatons. He does terrible experiments to fulfil his purpose and causes a whole rebellion to rise up against him. It’s all fun.

In order to get 5 stars I think the book really needed to expand a bit on the script and the rune system as there were quite a lot of unanswered questions and you are left wondering a bit as to how it all works by the end. I also didn’t really like Karis as a main character, she felt quite weak and her chapters didn’t add a huge amount to the story. I would have loved for some chapters to be told from Zara’s POV because she was far more fun and interesting. I also found some of the decisions that characters made to be a little bit strange and left me wondering why they did certain things.

Overall though a very solid book and one that I really enjoyed reading.

I enjoyed reading this more than I thought I would, however by the end I feel this would be better suited as the first in a series, or at least a duology. While I think the magic system is interesting and the novel as a whole is fast paced and made me want to keep reading, I was left confused by a few aspects and plot holes. While these may have been resolved in the final version for release, I still think the main characters Karis and Alix make it worth reading.

I always say that I am a big fan of standalone books, I prefer one-shot stories over duologies or trilogies. Except, on this rare occasion I felt this should have been at least a duology.

This story is told from two POVs, Karis and Alix. Karis is an orphan girl, who was forcibly separated from her brother when they were brought to Tallis island. She doesn’t know where they took her brother to or what happened to him. She was forced to work for the Scriptorium, wearing a bracelet to track her all the time. Except for Dane, another orphan who became a soldier for the Scriptorium, she was never able to, or wanted to, connect with anyone else on this island. She never felt like she belonged or wanted to stay as her only purpose in life was to find out where her brother was taken. One day, she accidentally finds a cave where one of the automatons, an ancient and mysterious machine from the past, was hidden. All the automatons stop working for some unknown reason 200 years before and the Scriptorium has been working relentlessly to find a way to wake them up since then. Karis manages to wake the automaton in the cave using its runes and tomes, and she astonishingly finds out the automaton, Alix (he not it), can think and talk. Karis and Alix try to escape Tallis in pursuit of finding what happened to their respective remaining families.

In the beginning, we are introduced to an interesting magic system, with runes activated via tomes or through a ledger, which are also engraved in the surface of the abandoned dormant automatons and that made me super excited about the story. And from the very first chapter we encountered Alix, I was absolutely in love with this character.

The story continues, told from Karis and Alix’s perspective, and it is fast-paced and easy to read. Other side characters start to be introduced in the story and I suddenly sadly realise that Karis wasn’t bringing anything to the plot. On the journey to find Karis’s brother and more information about Alix’s father, the writer brings into the play this amazing, smart, badass pirate queen, Zara. In my opinion, she absolutely overshadows Karis as the female main character, and I thought Zara had a way bigger story to tell. Continuing with the reading, Karis becomes a bit insignificant, doesn’t add much to the story, doesn’t do anything special to help the development of the story, and I felt the dual POVs wasn’t actually working. Both POVs were just a mix of each other’s inner thoughts.

Alix was a very well developed character, with some concrete character development. Everybody sees him as an object, a tool or a weapon and he is struggling to be accepted for someone with opinions, likes and dislikes and feelings. He has to find his place and purpose in the world. Karis, well… we know she is looking for her brother, and that’s the only thing she cares about. It’s mentioned at the beginning she is asexual but even this characteristic ends there. I felt unfortunate that even her being asexual was not explored further, which is a bit of a shame. In the end, Karis’s growth was forced, I didn’t like her as the main character and she didn’t strike me as a vital part of the plot or with exceptional strengths.

In general, this story started with a good premise and interesting world-building, with Ancient Greek vibes and AI-like automatons. It’s well written and easy to read, and I was intrigued to see where Alix’s story would go and discover more about Zara’s past. Towards the end, I was a bit confused by the magic-system and the ending left me with lots of unanswered questions and plot holes. Here’s why I thought it should have been a duology, so Karis could have more space to grow and be more the main character that she was supposed to be, and also to fully explore the automatons’ story.

I still think it’s worth reading for Alix and Zara – and I wish there was a book only for her. If you like fantasy stories without romance being the main focus you would like this. Unfortunately, I am all for romance in every shade, so I missed that bit in this story. There is in general good diversity representation as well, but it could have been more. This Golden Flame brings in the basics of a fascinating world-building but the plot and pace shift during the second part and the repetitions in Alix’s internal dialogues makes me give it just 3.5 stars.

This book is a fantastic, gripping and fast paced fantasy with a unique and fascinating magic system!

Karis, an orphan, stumbles across a sentient automaton and sets off on an adventure to find her missing brother. The friendships in this book are so brilliant to read - they feel real and relatable.

The action is non stop and there isn't a si gle dull moment in the whole book. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the author's next book!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.