I’ll be honest it took me a couple tries to get into the book. I’ve been in a reading slump and nothing is really appealing to me right now. But I tried it again because I love this author and this cover and I’m glad that I did! It’s a super interesting story (and again, that cover is gorgeous). Definitely give it a read and find out for yourself.

What a fun little gem of a book! Having just read Six of Crows for the first time only a week ago, I found the resemblance startling – but in form only. The story is rich and fast-paced, with all the magic Chokshi brings to her books. It was exciting to see her take the magic of her usually Indian inspired novels and bring them to Paris, nothing lost in the transition. Her rich worldbuilding and colorful detail made this book a joy to read.

Chokshi has created an alternate Paris where magic is commonplace and the Order of Babel retains control. Babel pieces hidden from the world allow forgers to create beautiful and dangerous items, which give this alternate world technology similar to ours. It is here, in the lavish hands of the order, that our story takes place.

The crew of this Oceans-Eleven-Meets-Indiana-Jones-with-Magic book is diverse and easy to relate to:

Séverin, the heir to the third house of the French Order of Babel, stripped of his title due to nefarious reasons and politics. He owns a hotel, L’eden, and secretly runs heists to steal the most remarkable forged objects the world has ever seen, along with his team.
Laila from India, with an ability to read people’s history while holding an object of their possession, with an amazing talent for baking and one of the best dancers Paris has ever seen. (Can she be my best friend, please?)
Enrique, the Spanish/Filipino historian with a great sense of sarcasm and who occasionally remembers how to act human.
Zofia the mathematician/engineer of Polish Jewish descent, kicked out of university for her dangerous magical affinity, who only seems to tolerate people and would much rather ber tinkering.
Tristan, the recluse botanist, and who is a very recluse sort of person, with his gigantic pet spider he seems to love more than anyone else.
And unoficially, Hypnos, heir to another French House, a French aristocrat of mixed race, which doesn’t sit well with his peers, making him defy expectation at every turn.

Together, they need to solve the clues to basically save France, using their own set of skills. It involves cunning, deceit, and a fair bit of math, along with amazing forged gadgets a bit à la James Bond with a scoop of magic. You get to know each of the characters just enough to relate to them, though I wish I had more time to know them more. If I had one disappointment to say of the book, it would be that it was too fast: in some places, it got confusing because the action piled up and the points of view were all over the place, and it could have been paced down to show us more about the characters and their past.

All and all, I’m getting the hardcover. This book is sure to be a hit and I can’t wait for the sequel!

(But I still have no idea why the book was called The Gilded Wolves)

I received a copy of this books thanks to Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
It seems like I’m growing old for YA books since I’m finding them more and more unsatisfying and The Gilded Wolves is not the excepton.
I found the writing style just ok, not the type of writing that could grab me and make my want to read the book in just one sitting.
The cast was diverse and very interesting but I didn’t like the premise of the story, it’s just a personal preference but I don’t like story with Biblical references, and I was aware of the revelation at the end of the book.
I think many young readers would like this story, that faintly remembers Six of Crows, for me was just an ok reading that didn’t made me curious about the next book in the series.

At once a heist novel, a historical tale, a fantasy, and a meditation on the abuses of power, this book hits the mark in all respects. In this reimagined Belle Epoque Paris, certain individuals have the power to Forge, or affect matter or mind in a way that smacks of magic. Such power creates a world of haves and have-nots, and that’s where Severin’s team of thieves comes in. They use their gifts to “liberate” valued items for various clients, but Severin’s ultimate goal is to restore his House Vanth back to power.

When the head of House Nyx hires the crew to steal the Horus Eye, a mysterious power object, the team has to deal with not only the many challenges of the job, but a shadowy group that wants to claim the item for its own ends, which just might include the end of the world as they know it. Science collides with magic, and there are plots within plots as the tale unfolds.

The main characters are colorful, flawed, and distinctive, and each has his or her own goals — from Laila, the object reader, to Enrique, who seeks Filipino independence, to Severin’s plant wizard brother Tristan, and Zofia, the socially awkward master engineer. The relations between these diverse characters deepen and grow more complex as the story evolves, but they never get in the way of the action.

It’s a heist tale to rival Leigh Bardugo’s SIX OF CROWS, told in lyrical, evocative language and full of twists and reversals. I was sad to see the story end, but cheered by the fact that it’s the first of a series. Highly recommended.

http://brucehale.com/book-review-the-gilded-wolves/

I’m just gonna go ahead and state the obvious. is The Gilded Wolves almost exactly the same book as Six of Crows? why, yes it is. are the six main characters in The Gilded Wolves almost precise carbon copies of the six main characters in Six of Crows? also yes. BUT does The Gilded Wolves hold its own despite the undeniable comparisons and parallels I can draw from any given scene in this book? ALSO YES, THANK YOU GOD.

funny how formulas sometimes DO work. give me six INCREDIBLE, diverse main characters with an extremely specific set of skills each, a heist, a luscious magic system and powerful world building, and I’m absolutely sold. regardless of the indisputable likeness between the two books, The Gilded Wolves takes off with an extremely rich world building in the lush and vibrant descriptions Roshani Chokshi gives us of 1890s France. As an art/design student, I also really appreciated the teeny tiny nods to things like art movements and The Great Exhibition of 1851. The magic and science systems here are also absolutely to die for!! I love how industrial everything in this book feels, how modern. I’d even go as far as to say The Gilded Wolves gives off steampunk vibes, and I LOVE it. I love the magical atmosphere and ambience of this alternate picture of France.

and God, the characters! I’m now a mother of six and I’ll do anything in my power to protect my children (I WON’T LET YOU TOUCH TRISTAN, ROSHANI CHOKSHI, I WON’T, I’M PRETENDING THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK DID NOT HAPPEN). I love the backstories!! I love the Bible references in Severin’s character (and overall in the general world building)!! I love how diverse the cast of characters is!! I love that everyone provides their very own special touch to the gang, and how none of them could even begin to survive a day without the others. I love how they’re a less deadlier and much livelier version of the Six of Crows characters, yet they hold their own and absolutely shine when juxtaposed.

the one thing I couldn’t bring myself to like about this book was the villain. I LOVE a good villain, but Roshani Chokshi just simply didn’t give us a clear and morally gray bad guy in here. there WAS a bad guy, yes, but we never really learn about his true motivations other than ‘taking over the world’, and that’s honestly not really a good villain to me. I need to get to know the villain, to even come to ROOT for him at some point, and that just didn’t happen here.

again, addressing the elephant in the room, yes, The Gilded Wolves is almost exactly a carbon copy of Six of Crows, but it’s also so essentially its own story and plot with a drastically different magic system and startlingly beautiful world building. can’t wait for the next book in the series!! thanks again to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books!!

Book Talk 12/14/18: Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves
Traci Kenworth

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. MacMillan. Jan. 15th, 2019. Netgalley.

Amazon’s blurb: From New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi comes a novel set in Paris during a time of extraordinary change--one that is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous desires...

No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them.
It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.
To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.
Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history--but only if they can stay alive.

My review: The story is told in five different viewpoints, making it a bit tough to follow at first but then you get into the meat of the story and it’s a good read. It kind of reminded me of the movie, Now You See Me. Each of the five have different strengths, different lives they lead. They are biding their time together until a better day comes along. However, they’ve all made fast friends and are sort of a family. When one of them is kidnapped by the Fallen House, the others set out to rescue him and may lose all they hold dear.

The cover is fabulous and I feel like the book is too, but just can not get into it. I find it a bit confusing but realize that may be because my mind is spinning with deadlines and holiday things. I will give it another try, after Christmas, when I can give it my full attention.

In similar vein to the lush, languid reads of her Star-Touched Queen series, Gilded Wolves is heavy on the world-building and descriptors of a rich, beautiful backdrop. But the effort to move towards a faster pace heist story falters, and stalls before it can take off. A book with good crossover appeal to both adult and YA, and highly appreciated diverse reads, but it misses the pacing needed move a book with so many characters and plot elements forward. Chokshi’s writing style seems at odds with the trope-laden heist genre, and the book lacks the mythical quality of her other reads.

Severin is a wealthy hotelier in 1889 Paris. He seems to have it all but looks can be deceiving. Severin is a treasure hunter with an agenda. He wants his House reinstated back into the mysterious Order of Babel. He wants to be acknowledged as the blood heir to the house. The only way for that to happen is to hunt down and retrieve a ring stolen from the Matriarch of one of the two houses that are left. He also needs to prevent an ancient artifact from coming to life and destroying the world. It is not going to be easy. Severin needs the help of his team. Can Severin and his team hunt down the ring and prevent the artifact from coming to life? Or will they be too late?

The Gilded Wolves showed up on my radar a few months back. When I read the blurb, I had a “meh” reaction and almost didn’t accept the review request from the publisher. At the time, my reading/review schedule was busy. Even though the book was due to be published in January, I didn’t think I was going to be able to read it. Then I reread the blurb and my “meh” reaction turned into a “Hmmm“. Since I had a few books scheduled for review in January, I decided to accept the review request. Let me tell you, I am so glad that I did. This has to be one of the best books I have read this year.

This was a beautifully written book. The author took her time building up the characters backstories while progressing with the main storylines. Any other book would have me sitting here and complaining about it. But not here. It worked. The author separated the backstories by having them in italics. What I liked also is that there was no confusion when that happened either. That alone made this book an enjoyable read for me.

I liked that the main characters were fleshed out and they were diverse. Enrique was from the Philippines and was mixed race. He was Filipino/Spanish. Laila was from India. Zofia was Jewish and from Poland. Hypnos was White and Black. Severin was Middle Eastern and White. I enjoyed reading how each culture was different and how everyone meshed together.

I also liked how the author chose to bring up sexuality in the book. The century that the book is set in wasn’t known for being tolerant of homosexuality or bisexuality. So to have Enrique be bisexual was awesome. His attraction to both Hypnos and Zofia was written beautifully. He wasn’t ashamed at being attracted to both men and women. Which was fantastic.

I didn’t like Severin when he was first introduced in the book. He came across as cocky and careless. As the book went on, I did start to like him. All he wanted was to bring his House back and to be its Patriarch. Which is why I was surprised when he did what he did at the end of the book.

I liked Laila. She was the heart and soul of the group. The relationships that she forged with everyone was prevalent throughout the book. I was surprised and intrigued by her backstory. I am wondering what is going to happen to her when she turns 19. Her hidden ability was amazing.

Zofia was odd but I liked her. She was brilliant. Her nickname of “the phoenix” fit her. I wanted to cry when she was remembering her years at the university. The way she was treated by both her classmates and teachers was horrible. I don’t blame her for doing what she did (even though it was by accident).

Enrique was one of my favorite characters in the book. For the reasons, I stated above. Also because he told it like it was to Severin. He was also brilliant. The history he knew blew me away.

Tristan touched my heart. From the beginning of the book, I could tell there was something wrong. The abuse that he suffered by Wrath broke him. He reminded me of a small child at points in the book. Because of that, I thought he job as a poisoner was odd. But he was brilliant. He was also obsessed with spiders. He devotion to Goliath was touching. Creepy, but touching.

The plotline with Severin and his quest to get his House back was fascinating. I liked that Egyptian mythology was used in the book. At times, the book reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie. I love it when a plotline keeps me guessing and this one definitely did.

The secondary plotlines enriched the main plotline. They added more depth to the book that was needed.

The end of The Gilded Wolves surprised me. It also broke my heart. The author did a fantastic job at wrapping up some storylines and leaving other ones wide open. The cliffhanger at the end of the book did its job. I am going to have to read book 2 when it comes out.

I gave The Gilded Wolves a 5-star rating. This is a beautifully written book. It has a diverse cast of characters and plotlines that kept me reading.

I would give The Gilded Wolves an Older Teen rating. There is no sex (there is mention of sex and several kissing scenes). There is no language. There is violence. There are trigger warnings. They would be child abuse. I would recommend that no one under the age of 16 read this book.

I would reread The Gilded Wolves. I would also recommend it to family and friends.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Gilded Wolves.

All opinions stated in this review of The Gilded Wolves are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

I absolutely fell in love with this book. There's a lot of complicated world-building that I was worried was going to be too heavy, but I was mostly eased into it - and then from the first moment I met each of the characters, I knew I was going to love them. Zofia in particular, with her nontraditional worldview that was never once used to discredit or devalue her as a character, captured my heart, but I'm head over heels for the whole crew. (Even Hypnos!) The story kept me guessing, and I loved that we got to see the puzzles the characters were working with. The ending left me with a whole pile of emotions and desperately yelling in all caps with a colleague who had also read an ARC. I know the effortlessly diverse cast, beautiful prose, and captivating heist narrative will appeal to many of my library teens, and I can't wait to share it with them - but I'm also just dying for the sequel! Between this and Aru Shah, Roshani Chokshi is rapidly earning a place on my must-read authors list.

I adored The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. The heist story and plot was excellent. But it also had an amazing world building that I can see leading to more books and it was such a diverse cast of characters and history and cultures that I found really beautiful.

While I understand the connections people are making with six of Crows. I believe this stands in its own right. The diversity within it is so much more than six of Crows and heist stories were not invented with six of Crows. This stands excellent for fans of it. But also stands amazing on its own.

The fantasy is very well built based on Christianity and Egyptian mythology. I enjoyed learning about these stories. It's clear Chokshi researched well and added her own imagination into the soup. I liked the characters she created, and I think she put her own culture and her heart in it as well, which is very valuable.
I'd read again from her.
Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

A thrilling fantasy world, complex and fully developed awaits the reader here. Vivid language and lush settings conspire to enthrall the reader as fatefully as the villains and heroes who struggle to find and hold onto the truth. Hidden in a city lost to time, and distant from our own lives, a tale of trust and betrayal plays out in the mind of the reader, and lingers for some time after the final page.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me once I picked it up. However, I’ve heard amazing things so I’m sure many will love this book. I may be tempted to give it another shot in the future.

I received a free ARC from netgalley.

This fantasy heist was well researched and intelligent. The characters each had their own viewpoint. A few mysteries are solved but more questions come up at the end along with strained relationships. The fantasy is based in Christianity and Egyptian mythology that strongly reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.

There isn't any sex but it is alluded to as a past event. There is homosexual and heterosexual kissing.

Intersting twist on the world. I really liked the caste idea of being "marked" by the ruling personages.

There’s been a lot of comparisons between this book and Six of Crows. To me, the only similarity is that it’s a heist book.

In Six of Crows, you really get a feel for the complicated relationships of the characters. Their back stories are woven into the storyline in an appealing way.

In this book, I have no idea why Severin has earned such loyalty from his team. We weren’t given enough backstory to understand. And The flashbacks to Severin’s childhood were so confusing.

And the magical elements were difficult to follow at times. It actually reminded be more of The Palace Job.

It took me a long time to get though this one. It was slow going in the beginning, but picked up in the back half. So I have it 3 stars instead of 2. There was some nice writing at times, but this one wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It intrigued me from the very beginning, caught my attention, and held it up to the end. The creative world building and interesting characters are what made this book for me. The world of this novel is unlike any I have visited, either in life or in literature, which made it an especially engaging read. The characters are multicultural and multidimensional; there is a lot going on and each character has his/her own unique complexity. It kept me guessing and left me wanting more. Hopefully the next book in the series is not long behind!

[Review will be posted on Reader Voracious Blog on December 13, 2018.]

"Everywhere he looked, he was surrounded by gilded wolves. And for whatever reason, it made him feel perfectly at home. Wolves were everywhere. In politics, on thrones, in beds. They cut their teeth on history and grew fat on war. Not that Séverin was complaining. It was just that, like other wolves, he wanted his share."
I am a sucker for historical fantasy, and The Gilded Wolves delivers an action-packed story with a diverse cast of characters that I treasured with every ounce of my being. A secret society that pulls the strings of society (Illuminati?!)? Hunting for artifacts? Magic and technological invention when the world was on the cusp of Industrialism? Heck. Yes. If you are in the mood for an adventure with a precious found family, this book might be for you!

It's Paris, 1889. The world is at the brink of the Industrial Revolution, but there is another kind of technology that goes back way further. "The art of Forging is as old as civilization itself," and is the magic system of the book. Those born with the ability manifest it by their 13th birthday and can either influence the mind or matter.

"To those blessed with a Forging affinity, it is an inheritance of divinity [...T]o Forge is not only to enhance a creation, but to reshape it."

The former is heavily regulated by the Order of Babel, but "all Forging is bound by three conditions: the strength of the artisan's will, the clarity of the artistic goal, and the boundary of their chosen mediums' elemental properties." The Order's taking of culturally significant artifacts and assimilating folk beliefs are a powerful and nuanced allusion to colonialism.

Where this story truly shines is with its characters. The Gilded Wolves is told in the perspectives of four main characters: Séverin, Laila, Enrique, and Zofia. The fifth part of their crew is Tristan, and they work together to help Séverin get what is needed to claim his true inheritance. While they each are looking for something themselves, they never expected to form a family of their own and each of them express anxiety at what the future holds when their goals are achieved.

"It'll be 'like dreaming' you said. As 'easy as sleep!'"
"Nightmares are part of sleeping."
"Is that a joke?"

Honestly the banter between the characters is absolute perfection and everything that I want in my friend groups. Can I enlist myself into their friend group? I will help feed Goliath. *shudders*
✨ Séverin is a French-Algerian treasure hunter and hotelier with a haunted past. He was robbed of his true inheritance 10 years earlier and is determined to claim it.
✨ Enrique is a Spanish-Filipino historian that has a mind tuned for riddles and history. He longs to be part of the Ilustrados' inner circle and recognized for his brilliance.
✨ Laila is an Indian girl that has the ability to read the histories of unforged objects, loves to bake, and is honestly mom of the group. She cares so much for everyone, taking the time to do little things that matter to each of her comrades.
✨ Zofia is a Jewish Polish Forger with a propensity for fire. She adores math and solving puzzles, and has social anxiety. Zofia loves perfectly round cookies, counting, and of course fire.
✨ Tristan is the little brother in all but blood to Séverin and a botanincal genius with a giant pet spider named Goliath.
✨ Hypnos is honestly kind of Anne Hathaway's character from Ocean's 8 and really seems to want friends. Which is adorable.

Power and race play an important role to the diverse characters of this book and their positions within the world they live in.

"Of course it would be easy to spy when you hardly look like one of us. Marcelo spoke with no malice. In a way, that was worse."

Each of the main characters has something about them that outwardly alienates themselves from their cultural identity, whether it be their religion or their mixed heritage. These assumptions and misunderstandings are all brought to the fore when fake identities are provided which directly challenge their identities: a Filipino is given an Chinese identity, a classically trained bharatnatyam dancer is told she will be a nautch dancer. This blatant insensitivity is addressed and called for what it is - offensive - but sadly brushed aside as they realize that playing into the prejudices of others will allow them to blend in and go unnoticed, thus continuing the system of oppression. I really appreciated this quiet and nuanced discussion on racism and power dynamics.

"Séverin [...] saw how each invitation flew in the face of each person's self-image. But he also understood how Hypnos had seen the scenario, how he had worked to ensure that each person could access the Chateau de la Lune without incident. 'When you are who they expect you to be, they never look too closely. If you're furious, let it be fuel.'"

I loved the world that Chokshi crafted, drawing from history and mythology from multiple cultures around the world. The reader is thrown right into the world and action. The one thing that didn't quite work for me was the execution of the worldbuilding. It was kind of infodumpy in parts, over time I became overwhelmed and confused by all of the information and backstories provided. For me there was SO MUCH going on to keep track of that it was a little difficult to keep it all straight. Where I think I struggled the most was that some of the events were not clear to me while reading: some things were left unresolved/skipped over and I assumed something happened that made future plot points not make sense, only to find out much later that the thing I thought happened didn't. Since I read an early ARC, it is possible some of this confusion will be edited for the final copy. What's weird was I was still so intrigued, so interested and hungry for more. I wanted to wade through the confusion to have everything slide into place like the puzzles our team was solving. If I am being honest, usually I am a lot more bothered by confusing worldbuilding, but I adored the characters and the ideas so much that I was a lot more forgiving.

Friends if you are looking for a character-driven book with a truly diverse cast of characters, I highly recommend The Gilded Wolves! The puzzles, the adventure, the heists, the banter between the characters made this an incredibly enjoyable read for me. The excellent diversity and representation in this book, along with its subtle discussions on racial prejudice, colonialism, and assimilation also make this an important read.

Things I hope are explained in the next book:
- How the overall Order of Babel functions & different country's Houses interact with one another
- How Forging works. It doesn't appear to be inherited but is something a person is born with. What does being born with the affinity mean, and what training/indoctrination do they undertake?
- More about Fallen House

REPRESENTATION: racially diverse characters (Filipino, Indian), Jewish rep, bisexuality, anxiety
CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: racism (kind of challenged), inferred abuse, death of a loved one

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change upon publication.

I could not stop reading this book! The world building was phenomenal and I completely fell in love with the cast of characters. It was very reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows to me. I cannot wait for the next book and to be back with this crew!