I couldn’t wait to read this book. I had seen tons of buzz on social and the description was exciting. I most liked the idea of a woman finding a way for herself in what was at the time a “man’s world.” Young alchemist Thea has worked alongside her mother, learning the craft of alchemy from the time she was young. What Thea thought was a close bond between them is shattered when her mother destroys the magical Philosopher’s Stone they had worked to create. Thea must flee France for her safety and meets her father for the first time. Trust must be built and is not easily forged between the two. A romantic relationship with a longtime love is also not what it seems and Thea must learn to guard her life and her life’s work as danger comes at her from many sides.
A richly told story with a feminist perspective.

Thank you for an early copy for an honest review. I loved that it had a historical setting. I loved the family and friendships in this book. It felt a bit rushed in some places, but overall I enjoyed this read. Our character Thea was smart and strong in my opinion.

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

YA fantasy at its best. In this golden age of YA fantasy these books can be a dime a dozen so an author often times needs to hit it out of the park to be remembered and draw back its reader. A Golden fury did that. While I feel it started out slower it kept drawing me back as I yearned for more.

This book had so much! Family ties, duty, clear aspirations, strong women and intriguing characters. Love and betrayal follow Thea as she races to complete the Philosopher's Stone.

I enjoyed this book so much! It was a refreshing read and definitely had one of my favorite book vibes.

I was in love with this from the moment I started to the moment I finished. A fantastic fantasy I wish wasn’t a stand-alone.

Thea Hope, an alchemist who has learned from her mother, yearns to create the white elixir, which turns any metal to silver as well as the philosopher’s stone. Unbeknownst to her and the many other alchemists attempting the same feat is the darkness lurking within the task itself.

Thea was an interesting character, with depth, who did not need a man to save her even though this would be common in a book set in this the time period. While she was assisted, and hindered, by several men along the way, the author made her successes and failures believable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Review to come. Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Publication Date October 13, 2020
#AGoldenFury #Netgalley

This book was wonderful from a historical fiction point of view. If you like Stalking Jack the Ripper, I highly recommend you read this one! The characters and history were rich. It's about the philosophers stone and alchemy, which is a topic I have loved since my childhood. At times it was a little slow, but overall I did really enjoy!

I liked the premise of this book. I was intrigued by the focus on poisons and alchemy, having recently finished the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness--I was ready for more alchemical magic. However, I ended up getting lost with the plot and the writing. I got so bored and confused. I didn't make it 30% of the way and DNFed it. I won't be reviewing this.

DNF @ 15%

I was really excited for this book, but I just couldn't get into it unfortunately. It was way too slow and my mind was drifting off while I was reading this. It's too slow paced for me, which is definitely not for me. But the characters do seem amazing along with the world, so if you can get through the pacing, I definitely recommend this!!

Over halfway through and I just didn’t understand the purpose to this book. There is no direction and I’m failing to understand why so many accents and made history when everyone keeps dying.

Okay so I REAAAALLLLY liked this one. First of all, I think it's mostly because I am OBSESSED with Stalking Jack the RIpper, but I found Cohoe's writing to be in a similar style at Maniscalco's in all the best ways. Cohoe's writing was lyrical and intriguing and it made me super invested in Thea's quest to find / make the philosopher's stone. For as long as I can remember... probably back to my middle school days where I watched Fullmetal Alchemist every night, I have been fascinated by the idea of magic alchemy. In FMA when the two brother's use alchemy at a young age unaware of the consequences looming over them, I assumed it would work similarly in this novel as well. I immediately felt attached to all the characters in this book, rooted for them, cheered for them, and by the end was mostly satisfied by the ending. Part of me is sad that this is a stand alone, but I also think it works perfectly as a stand alone.

If you are a fan of really and truly great writing, a kick-ass heroine, and a riveting story about a girl's quest to create the most elusive alchemist's stone in history- then this is surely one you'll want to add to your TBR! Thanks again to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this review copy!

Unfortunately, this book was taken off Netgalley before I had the time to read and review it. Maybe I'll have the chance to read and review it in the future.

I was really happy to find this one to be a fun and exciting read, but where it fell a little short was that some of the characters felt a little without dimension. The book is very plot driven, which I did really enjoy and it did suck me in with that component. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept the momentum of the book up and I did really enjoy the premise and tackling of issues that faced women in the time it is set (and some that are still prevalent today in different ways). I have to say the writing was really compelling and well crafted and I would definitely write more from this author since this is their debut.

I loved the feel and vibe of the book. It perfectly captures what it was trying to show and made me want to read it.
I also loved the characters, they were all well fleshed out and interesting to read about!
Really enjoyed the book!

This book was a bit slower-paced than I'd like, but holy moly it was awesome. The atmosphere, the alchemy, the character relationships- beautiful.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

I'd like to begin by thanking Wednesday Books and NetGalley, for approaching me to host a book review tour. I was provided an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Golden Fury was a departure from my usual reading habits. I'm not a fan of historical fiction/period pieces, and on the surface, A Golden Fury encompasses both of these. Set against the backdrop of Normandy, France, during the height of eighteenth century Europe (and subsequently, the French revolution,) the novel introduces to Thea, a budding alchemist. Or, as her mother would be quick to assert, an alchemist's apprentice. When the publisher originally approached me via email to pitch this book, I was admittedly skeptical. My experience with historical fiction usually consists of 'heaving bodices,' and appallingly outdated tropes/language surrounding women protagonists. Fortunately, A Golden Fury leaves those tropes exactly where they belong: in the

The premise was interesting enough to pique my interest, and I was happy to pledge my support and commitment to a publisher I've worked with frequently. While A Golden Fury introduces a capable, intelligent, and iron-willed protagonist, and I applaud Mrs.Cohoe's innovative twist on the legend of the Philosopher's Stone, after a quick reread to refresh my memory, I've unfortunately had to revise my original rating.

While A Golden Fury was an enjoyable read, there were several pitfalls and missteps throughout the novel that prevented me from truly immersing myself in Mrs.Cohoe's world.


Writing quality/readability - 3/5 Mrs.Cohoe isn't a bad writer. Far from it! The descriptive quality of her writing does a wonderful job framing the atmosphere of the setting, and vibrantly captures the rising tension of the time period. The imagery in A Golden Fury is evocative and easy to picture. The issue isn't the writing itself. However, from a stylistic/mechanical point of view, the novel falters. The pacing was the epitome of my biggest issue with historical fiction, in the sense that it was unbearably slow. It takes roughly a third of the book before the main conflict - introduced in the early chapters of the novel - actually goes anywhere. This was slightly jarring as well, since we abruptly switched from an otherwise glacial sense of pacing to a frenzied, high octane rush through the rising action and climax that, frankly, felt bizarrely out of place, in comparison to the rest of the book.


Plot - 3/5 The novel introduces us to Thea, an intelligent, willful young woman who, thanks to her scientific and alchemical knowledge, lives and works under her mother's shadow. Her mother, a powerful and well respected alchemist, is feverishly obsessed with the rumors and mythology surrounding the fabled Philosopher's Stone. With Thea's help, she manages to create the coveted formula that will allow her to construct the stone, giving her the fame, power, and recognition she craves.

It's a process that costs her mother's sanity. Forced to flee the countryside as civil unrest sweeps the country (and following a violent confrontation with her mother, Thea soon finds herself out of her depth at a men's college, where she struggles to be seen as capable as the male students. Facing sexism, betrayals, and a race against the clock to find a cure to her mother's madness, A Golden Fury provides a fun historical romp.

The issue is that separately, one or two of these elements would make a solid novel. All of them is frankly overkill. This novel has a lot going on. While this isn't inherently a bad thing, Mrs.Cohoe seems to struggle with deciding on whether she wants to focus on romance, magical realism, or history. As a result, much of the novel's central plot gets lost in translation. It reduces much of the plot down to predictable tropes. (I am once again asking, "are the straights okay?")

While a fresh twist on an old, slightly overdone myth, there were too many unresolved plot points to warrant a higher score.

Characterization - 3/5 Thea is, on the surface, a likeable protagonist. Relatable, even. She's resourceful, classically educated during a time most women were not, ambitious, and willful. It's a pity, then, that she's prone to so much introspection/navel gazing, replete with the "shrinking violet" stereotype. What I'm trying to say is, her personality is inconsistent, which undermines what Mrs.Cohoe was trying to accomplish with a strong central protagonist.

While the dynamic between Thea and her abusive, controlling mother was admittedly interesting, it didn’t save it from being the same tired YA rehashing of "you aren't truly a badass unless you have mommy/daddy issues." Hardly progressive. Disappointing, if I'm honest. Unfortunately, Thea's character seems to mostly center around a power imbalance; Thea and her mother, Thea and her father, Thea and her manipulative love interest.

That hardly bodes well for an independent protagonist. More concerningly, it sets an uncomfortable precedent for Mrs.Cohoe's future works, and sends a disturbing message to an audience mostly compromised of young women. Not even Thea's love interest is spared from an inconsistent personality, and unfortunately, devolves into a manipulator and villain.

World building - 2/5 Mrs. Cohoe didn't have to do a lot of work, here. It's historical fiction, after all. Much of the groundwork for the setting and culture has already been laid. So the last minute introduction of high fantasy elements, including demons, seemed weirdly out of place. Unfortunately, see point A: not a lot of work was done in this respect either, re: expanding on or explaining the inclusion - or the lore of - these supernatural elements.

As a result, the inclusion seemed rushed, jarring, and disjointed.

Overall, while I can't deny that A Golden Fury had fun and, at times, interesting elements, it wasn't enough to salvage it from its missteps. I'm grateful and honored for the chance to host a bookblog tour, but ultimately, this is my first and last foray into Mrs. Cohoe's work.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

I waver between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. On the one hand, it was very well written and interesting. But it didn't end in a way I loved. The thing is, though, I can't really think of another way it could have ended--anything else wouldn't have fit and would have felt forced. And it's not that it ends badly; it just wasn't perfectly happy. So 4 stars it is, I guess.

Something I liked was the concept of magic in this book: it wasn't free--it took something from the user. To clarify, this book was not a book like Harry Potter or others that are straight-up, obvious fantasy. It was more science fiction that delved into a little magic when it involved the Philosopher's Stone. The characters were a little surprised and reluctant to call it magic, but that only made it feel more real and more like it took place within our own world.

The characters were pretty well fleshed out, though most of it was in personality. There were physical descriptions of them, but they were brief. These characters were complex like real people; they changed in a believable way and remained true to who they were at the core. Each character had good and bad, and I appreciated that there was no stereotypical villain. To be honest, my like and dislike of various characters shifted around throughout the book. And typically I would be a bit angry with how one character in particular turned out (so frequently I feel like authors alter a character's nature from the beginning of the book to the end in order to make him or her a villain, but I don't feel like it stays true to the character). However, in this case, I honestly feel like the character remained as he ever was, and something about him made me uneasy the whole time. I didn't want it to be the case, but I knew it was. I liked seeing the growth Thea (17) made throughout the book and the changes in her priorities. I don't know how old Will was, but I suspect from comments he made that he was at least a few years older than Thea. Dominic was likely about Thea's age, perhaps a year or two older.

Note: Off-page torture. I can't think of anything else.