After reading Belladonna, I became obsessed with stories that include Death as a character or main part of the plot. The Gilded Crown sounded like the perfect Fantasy Mystery with a bit of romance, so I was intrigued and excited to be given a copy on Netgalley.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me - I did try super hard with this one, picking it up every other day hoping it was just a mood-reader thing, but I really struggled to connect with the story. I didn’t feel any sort of attachment towards the characters and it just felt very flat overall. I found the premise of the story promising but it lacked any sort of depth or intrigue. Also, where was the romance? I didn’t make it all the way to the end but felt it was severely lacking without a really good love story to pull you along. The style of writing was pretty distinct but not my vibe. I will say it’s a pretty easy read, just not in a way that meant I wanted to keep going back to it. I’ve had to admit defeat!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I really enjoyed this one. I don't think I would agree to much with the comps, rather I would say that this book gave me vibes similar to the Winternight Trilogy, Nettle and Bone and Vespertine. More like a dark fairy-tale feeling. I found the characters very relatable and the world building very intriguing. The story is fast paced while still being very immersive and there were some moments of true heartbreak. I am really looking forward to the next instalment!

✨ 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 ✨

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Gilded Crown
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Marianne Gordon
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧; 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴.”

🤍 𝗙𝗠𝗖 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀
🌸 𝗔 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻
🤍 𝗙𝗠𝗖 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁
🌸 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲
🤍 𝗙/𝗙 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠/𝗠 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁
🌸 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

I love the premise of this book. Our main character, Hellevir, is able to travel to Death, talk to him, and can bring people and animals back… for a price, of course. The book then evolves by dragging Hellevir into the city where the royals reside, forcing herto suffer through political court intrigue and a meek attempt to find an assassin that has already killed Princess Sullivain. The royal family consistently take advantage of Hellevir’s compassionate nature and ressurectionist abilities. This new beginning to a fantasy series is marketed as adult fantasy, but it definitely felt more young adult to me.

Whilst really enjoyed the LGBT rep, the only romantic relationship I found myself enjoying was the one between Hellevir’s brother, Farvor, and Calgir. I didn’t particularly like the romance between Hellevir and Sullivain because I thought that there was absolutely nothing redeemable about Sullivain. Regardless, I still liked the character progression afforded to Hellevir due to the way she was treated by her romantic interest.

This book provides an interesting exploration of religion and mortality and whilst it suffers from being slightly repetitive, I still found it wholly gripping.

—Kayleigh🤍

DNF
Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. I read nearly 30% but found it to be rather boring, especially when the subject matter could have been so interesting. The characters lacked personality and I didn't feel connected to them.

The title and the cover art made me think it would be a romantasy: but it isn’t. Neither is it YA. This is a story of a woman, blessed - or cursed - with a power that will cause her, in turn, to be blessed and cursed in equal measure; to be courted by the royals and reviled by the priests; to be the subject of fears and whispers and awe.

Hellevir can walk in Death - but whenever she does so, she pays a price. When the nobility wish to use her for their ends, Hellevir is caught between duty and desire, and bound to the woman whose life she is called upon to save. What choices will she make when she is driven to bargain with what seems to be Death himself?

For fans of The Weaver and the Witch-queen, this is a queer, political fantasy rich with death-magic, moral questions and strong women, which also feels weirdly like an Odin retelling. I won’t elaborate (spoilers) except to say it does feature a Raven companion!

I am a big fantasy reader but I have to say I didn’t love this book. I didn’t hate it either. I couldn’t really identify with the characters. It is well written and an easy read but wasn’t for me.

A fantastic debut that reads like a dark gothic fairy tale with some great character work. It was nice to someone with "dark" powers actually being wanted and not automatically being a villain.

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this, except for a few minor issues.

First of all the writing was really good. I was hooked from the very first line which doesn't often happen to me. It's atmospheric without being overbearing or favouring description over plot. The scenes in Death were very good, very eerie. The character of Death himself (or whoever he really is) was mysterious, intriguing and a little bit scary - for a type of character that I have seen a lot in fiction, this was a very good rendition.

I loved Elsevir the raven, but I'm a sucker for animal companions. Hellevir, the protagonist, was likable and very easy to sympathise with. She's one of those endearing characters who is good at heart and just wants to help. I also liked how she reacted realistically to threats and violence, instead of just shrugging it off or being sassy like a lot of YA heroines. Her growth over the book is interesting to watch.

There were a few negative aspects. Some pacing issues. I feel like the book became somewhat repetitive in the middle. I was not convinced by the romance, mainly because I disliked Sullivain, the love interest, too much to really be invested in her and Hellevir's relationship, but to be fair this is the first book of a series and the romance is only just starting by the end, so there's lots of time to win me over.

I definitely recommend the Gilded Crown, and I will be reading the sequel. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for giving me a digital ARC.

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Harpercollins UK and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

Touted as The Witch’s Heart meets Priory of the Orange Tree is an absolute reach for this book.

Now it wasn’t bad, it was an easy read with some interesting aspects, and I would read the sequel. I would be interested to see more of the world building and how the characters develop.

But The Witch’s Heart or Priory this book is not. Those are both really excellent, complex books. This book just isn’t up to that standard, and having that comparison sets it up for disappointment.

4/5 Stars Definitely worth the read!

One of my favourite things about this book was the unique take on death and what comes after. From the very start I was hooked, with each page I wanted to know more and the writing never failed to keep me intrigued about what would happen next.

Although I mostly loved this book, the one character I could not connect with was Sullivan. For me her character wasn’t really that likable and I felt as though a lot of excuses were constantly made for her actions. On the other hand, I found the MC Hellevir very likable and intriguing, some of my favourite moments were often between Hellevir and death himself something that I cannot wait to see more often in future books.

I can quite happily see myself rereading this book over and over without getting bored. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for allowing me to read an ARC of this fantastic book.

Marianne Gordon's The Gilded Crown follows Hellevir, a young woman who has a connection to Death.

Hellevir was a really interest and complex main character, I enjoyed seeing her story unfold, particularly as she was faced with moral challenges and dilemmas. I loved her selflessness and her desire to always want to help, and her bravery.

My favourite relationship in this book by far was the relationship between Hellevir and Death (if that's who he really is!). Their relationship was complex, intense and I'm excited to see where it goes. I'm also intrigued to learn more about Death (the character) and the place. This book introduced a lot of cool and interesting concepts, ideas and plot. I am excited to see all of these things be built upon in the sequel.

Now to the romance (although this wasn't very romance heavy!) . . . I didn't love it and you know what, that's okay! There's a lot of bad blood between Hellevir and Sullivan, so I was glad things didn't resolve instantaneously. I won't spoil the ending, but I was happy with where they ended up, and, again, this is something I'm excited for the sequel to explore more. Their relationship, again, is most definitely troubled (a pretty tame description I think!) and I'm glad for the tension and the conflict. I'm not necessarily sure I'm rooting for Hellevir and Sullivan to be endgame, but I do think their relationship had a lot of depth and the capacity for even more complexity which will be intriguing to read.

All in all, I really liked this book. I loved Hellevir and seeing her relationships with her family, which is very complicated (especially towards the end). In particular I liked the complicated relationship with her mother and how this was explored, I think it was well written. I think I would've liked more from her Mum though, I think that character has more potential than what she was given. I also need Hellevir to open her eyes and see how her Dad treats her Mum is shitty - the way he would dismiss her was awful.

The plot held and still holds a lot of mystery. I was a bit let down that we didn't get more answers, but I think this book spent a good time building up the questions that shall hopefully be given in the next book.

The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gorden
3 stars as this was honestly overachieving, trying to do too many things.

This book is pitched at Priory of the Orange Tree meets The Witch's Heart. Which is extremely high levels to meet and unfortunately not living up to them for me.
This book is a nordic inspired court setting fantasy story involving around a herbalist who can go to the land of death communicate with him and bring people back.
While she is at court preventing the princess to be assassinated again, being on call for resurraction she is falling in love.

This book had a lot of interesting elements but nothing really came through for me. While the opening chapter starts strong with almost Addie LaRue vibes, the narrative shifts into a very YA tone after that.
I also didnt have any strong feelings for any of the characters. I honestly found everyone of them insufferable.
Mean egocentric royals abusing our main character for her power while judging she doesnt follow their god.
Her own family basically abandoning her with an old lady. And then the Death character who is not the dark type, the exotic type, nor the brooding type. Maybe I have read too many Schwab with high expectations but dont give me flat death. Plus why isnt our main character more interesting in the magic, resurrecting powers. Just giving body parts without actively searching for answers about why her, what means that for her life and who is she dealing with.
At 60% we still dont know more only that the one god religion did presecution for heathens historically which is freaking her out...
I was really rooting for the Willow Tree and the priestess hood. Which is the only PRIORY reference and unfortunately also didnt come through. I would have loved more Tree time!!

I am grateful to Netgalley and Harper for the e-arc unfortunately it didnt live up to my expectations.

DNF

This book is fine. The writing is fine, the concepts are cool, but I was just bored. It wasn’t giving the way it could have. It’s a similar writing style to The Thorns Remain, just not as spooky. It felt like this was a YA book trying to be adult and I just wasn’t meshing with it, sadly.

Hellevir can bring back the dead. But not without a cost.

This is a fantasy written in a very distinct style, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me and I struggled to connect with the characters. The magic system was interesting though and pulled it back a little for me!

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

THIS BOOK.

OH MY.

This book has such an incredible concept, with our MC being able to travel to the realm of the dead and bring them back, but things are never as easy as they seem and bringing people back from the dead never comes without sacrifice.
Helliver's ability to bring back the dead, gripped me from the start. I mean an ability like that is always going to cause difficulties and when the Queen finds out, and she has to bring back the princess she's forced to remain at her side as her protector. Her journey is one filled with suspense, heartbreak and the way her character grows through the tale is JUST *SQUEALS*

And whilst I don't want to spoil Death the character, he was one of my favourite parts of the tale.

This book was truly magical and still has me thinking about it weeks later. All the characters are complex and layered. the world building and the magic is just AMAZING. Basically, I need book 2 in my hands now!

First off, I love the concept of this book. I don't believe I have read anything where the main character wields the power to raise the dead, and that definitely drew me in from the start because of course such a power is never going to be straightforward. There will always be a cost involved, and it's interesting to see how the main character, Hellevir, navigates those costs and has to decide whether or not it's worth it. She grows significantly throughout the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her journey and the character development.

For me, perhaps the most compelling part of the story was Death - both the place and the character. I won't say too much due to the risk of spoilers, but there is something quite powerful about seeing the characters in that world before Hellevir brings them back. And as for the character of Death himself, or at least the one most commonly referred to by that name throughout the book, I found myself surprisingly drawn to him. Again I will avoid saying too much so that you can find out for yourself, but he's a far more complex and layered character than I would have anticipated. I loved the pages featuring him, and I am looking forward to seeing more in the next book.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars 📖

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for allowing me to read this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was such an interesting concept for a novel, unlike anything I have read previously and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We follow the FMC Hellevir, who has the power to raise the dead, as she is tangled up in a high-stakes job working to prevent the death of the Princess and thus a civil war.

This book was utterly captivating, with great world building and character development. It was fast paced and had a good mix of heartbreak, excitement, romance and suspense. I found myself unable to stop thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it, which is always a good sign! This was a great debut novel and holds promise for a superb series.

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this book.

I was so long and repetitive. I wanted to DNF it 20% it but decided to give it a chance and I shouldn’t have. This book reminded me of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (which I loved) hence why I wanted to read it but it wasn’t for me.

Book Review 📚
The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon - 4/5 ⭐

Such a interesting take on Death. Being able to bring people back from the dead seems like a pretty amazing gift, right? But if only it was that easy.

The story has such an interesting story line and I was completely enthralled by the entire thing. There was so much suspense, drama, heartbreak. An overwhelming amount of emotions throughout the book. It was fast paced and a really awesome story line.

There was a fantastic amount of description both on characters and world building. It didn't let up through the book, it made it really easy to use my imagination to set the scene for me. The characters were brilliantly written and I perceived them as Gordon clearly intended. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Hellevir and her story.

I was absolutely blown away with the entire story and I managed to finish it in a day, and I don't regret my choices. This is definitely going on my trophy shelf. Gordon has a magical style of writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.