It was promising but it was confusing at times.

It felt like we were put into a middle of a story which is fine if there’s Easter eggs along the way. But it was full of information dump.
I found myself having to go back and re read parts and check on who they were talking about or too (cheat sheet at the front with most of the characters listed)

I received this book through Netgallery to review

The idea had promise, but the execution fell short..

I like the idea of a Puss In Boots retelling, but I found the story to be lacking in depth, development, and world-building. As a result, I was unable to fully immerse myself in the narrative.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Lilly Inkwood, and HarperCollins UK for graciously sending me the ARC to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

As a fantasy/romantasy lover, as soon as I read the blurb I was really excited to get this ARC.

I liked that it was a retelling, however I was in a state of confusion from the beginning and sadly I wasn’t able to finish the book.

The writing was good and I loved the premise of the story, but it somehow felt like I was experiencing both information overload and a lack of information at the same time, which ultimately made the story a little too hard to follow.

This is the first book in a new fantasy series and I am looking forward to reading the other books. Celine is a princess in a kingdom where she will not become a queen and has been avoiding marriage for five years because her heart is tied to her first love who has disappeared. When he reappears as a talking cat with a plan to be restored to his normal shape, she willingly goes along. It turns out that there is more going on than she realizes and you will need to read the book to learn about all the intrigue.

A Puss in Boots retelling is not one you see very often, but this book just brings it to you. The Kingdom is a Golden Cage is the debut of Lilly Inkwood, however she also has published some books under another name. I have never heard of her before but was curious about this unique retelling. What will this story bring?

Once upon a time there was a princess, locked in a tower, forced to bend to her father’s will…
Celine always must bend to her father’s will and therefore she must marry to make an alliance. However she is in love with Hugo, who wants to reclaim his birthright but is trapped within the body of a cat. She wants to help Hugo with this mission and needs help from his cousin. She must marry him until Hugo is freed from the curse. However soon she finds out nothing is as it seems. She is caught up between magic and illusion and has to find the truth. Can she free Hugo or will she fall in love with his cousin? What lies are told and what is the truth? Who can be trusted?

This retelling is really unique. It is not like something I have ever read before. The Puss in Boots add makes it unique, however there are other magical elements. This makes that this book is a real magical read.

There is enough room for the characters to be worked out and even development of the characters. The first half of the story focusses on the worldbuilding and the mission of freeing Hugo, while the second half is focussed on the illusions and character development. I found that these two halves could have maybe been connected a bit better, however they complement each other.

The second half of the book I have to admit is really complicated, while the first part is really easy to read. There are lots of illusions in the second part and lots of lies as well, making it sometimes though for the reader to understand what is going on. This must be exactly how Celine felt, so you could say the reader can easy feel with the characters in this book. However I feel like the second half was too complicated which made it a real opposite towards the first half of the storyline. This however is the only problem I have with this book, the rest of it is really nice.

Celine is a nice character who really thinks through her decisions. However she can also be manipulated, but she tends to wanting to know the truth first. Hugo just wants to be freed and needs someone to help him do that, so he just gives commands a lot. This is a difference to Phillipe who grew up as a farmer and is easygoing. He always is listening and thinking of others. Each one of them is really nice to get to know, and they each really add to this story. They are well-balanced, just as everything else in this book which is amazing to see in a debut. I really enjoyed this.

Lilly Inkwood has a nice writing style which is easy-to-read. She knows how to write a good story and the fairytale vibes just gave it that little extra thing. Overall I really enjoyed reading The Kingdom is a Golden Cage and I hope there will be more retellings by this author.

I like the originality of this retelling of Puss-In-Boots. The female characters are well-written and define the story. This story has a lot of world-building, which slows the pace, but the world is imaginable with detailed characterisation.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

#TheKingdomisaGolden Cage is decent enough book. In all honesty I struggled greatly through the first 100 pages or so. Its not that the writing is bad in any way but alot of the same things are repeated over and over again which is something that gets under my skin even if there is a purpose for it. Several of the chapters began with let me tell you a story but in saying that most of the chapters are a different womans point of view. We mainly go back and forth from Celine the Princess and Magali, the Dowager Duchess of Langly.
The characters in this book are very hard to like however I do believe that is the intent, there are a few characters such as Phillipe who is pretty loveable but for the most part all of the main characters are awful. That is the intent though is that they are all pretty skilled liars and to see how the same story plays out from different points of view. The book draws on the Puss in Boots fairytale in the form of Hugo who is a shape-shifter and Celines first love who gets bound in his cat form by Magali.
The characters weave so many lies that you have to really focus to follow the paths that they are all taking. Towards the last half of the book I was finally invested in what would happen with the characters and have to say that I am interested and will most likely read the net book in the series when it does come out.

Thank you to #Netgalley for the oppertunity to read #TheKingdomIsAGoldenCage by #LillyInkwood in return for a fair and honest review.

This was a Kingdom full of chaos and what a ride I had! This was a fun read, that kept me turning the pages.

King Mihiel is the father to princess Celine and like most rulers he has decided she will marry Duke Mal a man she has nothing but disdain for. What her father doesn’t know is she is in love with Val‘s twin brother who has been turned into a cat. The other thing the king doesn’t know is that Celine and Hugh have a plan. Val and Hugh are twins it’s so they were both in line to gain the dukedom but Vals mother Magdaley and holes the magic talisman that will turn Hue back into the handsome man he was first they’ll have to put their plan into motion and introduced another possible heir to the dukedom and try and get rid of the current one but like all plants things go awry but not for Philip he is The other possible air because his mom Isabel is is the older sister of the twins father the only thing is Philip has been raised on a farm because the possibility of him inheriting was slim to none and so he doesn’t have the smooth gentleman Lee manners that one would expect from a duke but needs must in so we get introduced to Philip but the beginning of this book looks vastly different from the ending and in the interim we learn how Celine and Hugh became friends at the school for magic it’s so much more I just want to say after reading the whole book and getting to the book notes and Lily Inkwood doing the mic drop with the whole info about the queen… Because OMG there’s going to be a queen really made me Thirsty for the next book not to mention I have so many questions about the blue kingdom and medley sister but I guess I’ll have to wait S4 S the kingdom is a golden cage by Lilly Inkwood the red Kingdom book one I definitely highly recommend it I Have recently became a fan of fantasy books and must say this is the best one I have read so far there is so much involved in the story and so many unanswered questions I only hope miss Inc. what is a famous writer because I will be impatiently waiting. This is definitely a five star fantasy novel and I feel so lucky I got to read it as an early reader. I want to thank Net Galley AN HarperCollins one more chapter for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I was really excited to pick up this book to read because the premise of it just sounded absolutely amazing. And while some parts of the book were, I found that where parts were well done other spaces lacked. The plot of a reimagining Puss and Boots was done really well but in some parts of the story I found that the characters were too 2D and I didn't get a good glimpse into who they were as people and why they were motivated to do certain things throughout the book.

Most of the time, I was left wondering if the main characters really liked each other, and by the end I was still slightly confused if they did in fact like one another. This book had a wide array of information dumps throughout it that sometimes broke my concentration on the characters and trying to understand them, which definitely made it trickier to read.

Because I enjoyed the premise, I will be keeping an eye out for more books by Lily to check out in the future!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very intrigued by the romantic plotlines of this book, but had a very hard time following who was who and, at times, what was going on. In a book where the relationships between the people was so integral, I needed a clearer explanation in the opening chapters of how they were all related and what, exactly, the backstory was between them all. I'm very curious how everything played out but was ultimately too confused too keep going.

I thought the book starts a bit slow. It does pick up before the half way point and ends with a bang. There’s lots of secrets and court intrigue. I liked it more than I thought I would. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

My review:⭐⭐⭐

This is a fantasy book, obviously setting up for a series, with reference to characters and the secret agencies.

It's got lots of intrigue, secrets and treachery. It's told from 2 points of view, a princess and a dowager duchess.

I found this a little confusing in places, but I enjoyed the magic. 

I was given this in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to One More Chapter.

An interesting and at times really quite complicated read!

When I read the blurb for this I absolutely loved the premise and it definitely sounded like it would be right up my street. I did like it, but it didn’t quite live up in the way I hoped it would.

Overall I did enjoy the story, however I found it at times a bit hard to follow with some of the magical elements - this takes planning, crossing and double crossing to whole new levels. There were times I wasn’t really sure who I was rooting for, I didn’t know who for sure was good and who was the villain!

An aspect of the story that I did particularly like was the character of Magali and the inspiration drawn from the War of the Roses - I thought this was such a great inspiration for a character and whilst she wasn’t the most likeable she was engaging.

It’ll be interesting to see where this series goes, though I hope that now the characters and world is sort of established that future stories it’ll be easier to pick a character to root for!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my earc of this story.

DNF @ 21%

I don't like not finishing books. Especially not books that should have been written for me. A fairytale retelling, Game of Thrones elements, Puss in Boots. The moment I got the invitation in my mailbox to read this book I didn't hesitate and grabbed my copy from Netgalley.

But the moment I started I had the feeling I was missing information. I was constantly confused. I couldn't tell the characters apart. The backstory didn't make enough of an impression to stick. We got loads of information and no idea why we needed this information. It felt like the story lacked direction and I couldn't care less about the goals of the characters. I know better than anyone that stories like this need time to get better. I know better than anyone that sometimes a book makes the struggle with the beginning worth it once you reach the end. At the moment I'm however mentally not in the right place to read and struggle through books I'm not enjoying from the start.

So, if you really wanna know if the confusing start of the book, with loads of information, characters, history and background, is worth it in the end, please check out the reviews of those who did finish the book. Maybe I will also give this book another shot at a later time when I'm feeling different.

I regret that I was unable to connect with this book and did not finish it. I was excited to read its description, where it was said to be a retelling of Puss in Boots with the intrigue and backstabbing of Game of Thrones. I usually enjoy the old fairy tales and their modern retelling. and was enthralled by all the Game of Thrones books. The premise was appealing to me, but the structure seemed convoluted, and I was in a state of confusion. I felt that I was missing parts of the story and came into the book too late. Relationships, likes and dislikes had already been established, with too many characters to learn about. There is a list at the book's beginning introducing us to the many characters. This could be helpful with the physical book but makes it awkward trying to reference it on an ebook. There were information dumps describing the history rather than letting the reader experience it Found myself failing to connect with any of the characters. I hope the book finds its audience. It just wasn't for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC.

This is one of those books that can be summed up in one word. Confused. I was so confused from the first page. I held out to about 50% of the book but after that I just had to call it quits. I was super excited to read this one but as it sits it was just not for me.

unfortunately, i didn’t like this book. it was really promising, and i was so excited to read it ! it seemed like a ya (or maybe na i’m not sure) romance fantasy but IT WASNT THAT AT ALL. like please don’t be fooled by the blurb. it’s more of a high fantasy than anything romance related. the blurb makes it seem like it’s a love triangle (or square) between the arranged marriage, the cursed ex lover, the guy she was supposed to marry first ????? idk i was confused trough this whole book. i genuinely wanted to dnf because if felt like i was being thrown informations (like literally, the narrator talks to to reader at some point ew) and all the twists felt like missing information and not good plot twists. it felt like we were supposed to know the plot twist before it was told, to understand the story.
also the dual pov mother/daughter wasn’t for me, and neither was the retelling thing (which wasn’t done horribly but not greatly either).

I wanted to love this. I think retellings are great and the premise of this one was exciting to me. However, execution was not good. It felt like we started in the middle of a story. And the character list at the beginning. I refused to read it before starting because I don't think you should have to. And several times while reading it would have been very helpful, but again I was so frustrated that I felt like I needed it that I refused to turn back and look. I liked Philippe. I didn't like the constant back and forth of them realizing they like each other and thinking they don't. Very annoying. I was very confused for most of this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the premise of a book! As a massive fantasy fan, I was really looking forward to reading this.

I liked the book it was entertaining and funny, but I did fin the amount of characters introduced overwhelming! It was hard to keep track of them all.

I would recommend it if you’re a fan of fantasy.