I was excited to pick up this book because of the fairytale retelling. Some of my favorite books this year have been those, and I wanted to see how Puss-in-Boots could be done. While I did see the whole picture of what the author was trying to do, I got lost at times. The premise was great, but the actual details of the story are lost on me.

I enjoyed the story's dual POV and thought choosing Celine, the younger duchess, versus Magali, the older duchess, was a great choice. Although, Magali's POV was sometimes bland compared to Celine's. I know that Magali was supposed to keep her secrets to herself until the big reveal towards the end, but there could have been a lot more done.

Phillipe and Celine had their ups and downs as love interests as well. While reading, I sometimes could not understand whether they genuinely liked one another. The romance was not the story's driving force, though, so it was not a big deal. That said, I hope the next book provides more insight into their relationship and true feelings for one another.

I want to see where the story will go, especially after the ending! The twist was great, in my opinion. This book comes out on August 17th, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, and One More Chapter for the ARC!

This book unfortunately was not for me. I think the author had a great idea, something different than I've ever read it just didn't come through as far as execution. I do think the idea has great potential.

I was so disappointed in this book because I really loved the blurb but I just couldn't get to grips with the sheer amount of characters that just seemed to pop up from nowhere.
There was an index of characters at the beginning which was great but not practical when reading on a Kindle.

‘The Kingdom is a Golden Cage’ by Lilly Inkwood - 2/5 ⭐️

This was my first ever ARC and I was super excited to dive in, especially based on the premise. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, One Last Chapter, and Lilly Inkwood for the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review ❤️

A puss-in-boots retelling with ‘intrigue and backstabbing’ is how it’s advertised, and I was super curious to see how it was executed.

Turns out it wasn’t done too well in my opinion.

The first few pages of the book quickly explain that the talking cat of this tale used to be a man, and is now trapped in a cat’s body. He desperately wants to be free so that the Princess he’s in love with can… ahem… be with him.

There’s some uncomfortable, tense cat-stroking which is not fun.

It also opens on a glossary of historical figures from the setting, and every other chapter someone says ‘Let me tell you a story.’ and then gives you LOADS of historical information. It’s not good at letting you learn about the world through things in the world - it gets shoved in your face and you’re expected to retain it.

What I liked about it was the dual POV - a young princess and an older matriarch who are both playing very different political games is a really cool structure. Also, there are moments that were somewhat absurd and funny - how intentional this was, I’m not sure, but there’s a scene where a Princess thinks she’s being really slick by looking through someone’s room whilst on a guided tour of the palace. And the person she’s with is like ‘…why are you going through someone’s stuff?’. Made me chuckle!

The characters tend to have lines that they repeat over and over again, too. I’m not sure how I feel about this - I think it needs to be done more confidently, but it has the potential to be almost lyrical. The way one of the characters repeats ‘Guilt weighs heavily in my pocket’ over and over throughout her sections, for example. It’s an interesting choice.

All in all, this book is confusing. It’s hard to comprehend the world because it’s explained poorly, and there are so many twists that I got lost and confused with the events and intrigue. There’s nothing unique about the magic system and the romance is middling.

Unfortunately, this one is really not for me and I won’t be picking up the others in the series. It’s perhaps worth flicking through if retellings of fairy tales are a special interest of yours, and I hope the other books in the series improve on the promising concept! (less)

Did not like this one. Found it extremely boring. Hopefully others like it though so it can have a great audience that appreciates it!

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. I liked the world building but I wasn't able to take to any of the characters.

Thank you Harper Collins U.K., One More Chapter and NetGalley for the arc of The Kingdom is a Golden Cage by Lily Inkwood in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This book sounded intriguing. A Princess has lost her ‘true love’ Hugo, and finds herself having to marry his cousin to salvage her future. It sounded great so, off I popped and dove in. Unfortunately, I can’t say this book lived up to the premise for me.

The story is told from 2 POVs Princess Celine, and Magali, the duke’s mother. The Duke dies in an unfortunate accident, and Celine finds herself in a position of having to marry Phillips as her best hope of saving Hugo.

I don’t know if it’s a case of where my head is right now or how the book is structured but, I found myself in a constant state of confusion. The POVs weren’t an issue, it was more like I felt that I’d started reading the book halfway through, with little or no idea of the background to the world, story or characters.

I often found myself referring to the character summaries at the start of the book but, even then I struggled. Unfortunately, this didn’t do a lot for my enjoyment of the book and I honestly found the multitude of twists and turns that would normally delight me, utterly perplexing. It honestly felt like I was actually just gaining a small clue about the story rather than a twist to surprise and delight.

I can’t say that I loved this book and only finished it because I’d spent so long trying to work it out. Unfortunately this wasn’t the book for me.

Absolutely loved this retelling of Puss In Boots and the princess! A fairytale with dark corners and intriguing multiple viewpoints so you never really can tell who is the villain of the piece - is the wicked stepmother really that wicked? I can't wait for part 2!

At first, I found this book to be a little hard going, but slowly the story pulled me into it's world.  There are plots within plots and plans within plans.

Along the way there are hopes and dreams shattered, perhaps along with a chance for a happy ever after ending for our 2 main characters. 

Just when you think you have worked out who is working with who and what their intentions are you are proved wrong.

Despite my first impression, I did thoroughly enjoy this read.

I sadly did not love The Kingsdom is a Golden Cage and I really wanted to.
The premise sounded amazing so I had high hopes and sadly I was let down.

This wasn't a terrible book but it just didn't work for me.
I struggled with the writing style and found that the pacing wasn't great.
There were definitely great moments in this book which is why I'm still giving it 3 stars.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

Un seul mot pour décrire ce livre, confusion. Dès le début de l’histoire, je ne comprennais pas qui était qui et leur rôle dans l’histoire. Trop de personnages introduits en même temps(une bonne dizaines) qui sont tous rois ou reine ou duc de tel place qui fait tel chose. Je ne comprennais tellement pas que je n’ai pas pu embarqué dans l’histoire. Donc beaucoup trop d’infobomb dès le début de l’histoire qui est extrêmement déplaisant à lire et qui se poursuit malheureusement durant le reste de l’histoire.

La promesse était extrêmement intéressante. Un retelling du chat botté! OUI. De plus, on promettait de la magie et de la romance. C’est justement le genre de livre que je lis et que j’adore.

Il y a deux points de vue dans ce livre et je crois que l’histoire aurait nettement été meilleure si il y en avait qu’un seul.

Un manque de romance aussi.. et je n’ai pas pu m’attacher au personnage.

I really struggled with The Kingdom is a Golden Cage. I appreciated the premise, which is what drew me to request the book in the first place, but I never felt any deep connection with any of the characters or engaged with the story on anything more than a cursory level. I think some of the issue was the unnecessary complexity, coupled with the frequent info dumps to tell us the history behind events, rather than letting us experience it during the action. The idea was definitely good, but the execution of that idea could have been better handled. I am giving this book three stars. It had some good points, but it didn't entirely come together for me. Probably worth a quick look if you enjoy fairy tale retellings, as Puss in Boots isn't one I've seen done much.

The way the book is written is like a trap. The two women within the story, who are the first-person narrators tell their tales in assurance of their plans and moves, as they try to work in a system that oppresses them. They tell us what the other is like. What the world is like. They repeat their knowledge over and over again in a rhythm almost lyrical. They welcome us to listen to their stories. First, how they are told, and then how they are true. They repeat in their minds the things they cannot escape. The guilt in their pocket, the Sssss in how he says her name.

They tell their stories draped in secrets revealed later, and I hated every minute of it.

No seriously. Even if the writing style was meant to trap me in Celine’s and Magaly’s heads, I couldn’t appreciate it over how much I hated every moment of not being able to be in the world with them and actually learn about all these characters instead of getting lost in the princess’s of Magaly’s disdain of everyone and everything that isn’t them.

So no, I didn’t enjoy this book, but that is simply a writing choice. My suggestion: Read through the first chapter to see if you like it, because while I read the whole thing, I very quickly started thinking “I hate this” and it was down to writing style, so I think this might be a quick one to figure out if you like it or not.

The premise of this book is very intriguing. A fairytale retelling where a princess’ love is gone, and she must marry his cousin to secure her future, don’t mind if I do. That is right up my alley, and I was enthusiastic when I picked up the book. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations and I left a little disappointed.

We are following two points of view, Celine, the princess, and Magali, mother of the duke. Celine has lost her great love, Hugo and is bestowed to the Duke, Mael, against her will. She will do anything to change the course of her life, when we learn the Duke has been killed. She must then face marrying the Duke’s cousin, who is also the cousin of her love, Hugo.

Overall, the best word that I have to describe this book is confusing. The history behind this book was confusing, the writing and storytelling were confusing, the characters were confusing, the structure of the multiple points of view was confusing. I went back to the beginning of the book even towards the end trying to figure out how the characters fit together.

There were short blurbs about each character and their family ties in the beginning, which helped, but there were quite a few times that referencing this felt more like I was studying for a history exam, not reading a fantasy book. Ultimately it felt like those blurbs were a rather poor way to get around truly telling the history and explaining it in an interesting manner; a cheat, if you will, that did not do the book any favors.

It broke the fourth wall to tell the reader history, which was, again, confusing. It felt very much like it was telling the reader rather than showing and ultimately felt so out of place it didn’t add anything to the overall story.

The book attempted twists and turns and revelations, but it held so many secrets that when they came rather than feeling like the actual story took a turn, it just felt like I finally got a missing piece of information. I wanted to be immersed in the history and truly understand it so that the twists would add to the story, but all they accomplished was making me feel mildly less confused.

I wanted more romance, but even the romantic relationship lacked any depth or dimension and if it had been left entirely out of the story, I don’t know that it would have changed anything. The spice was, well not there. It was disconcerting to have it hinted at and then have a chapter abruptly end and the next chapter starts after the fact.

I was also very unclear on what genre this was targeting. It felt a bit YA, but also like it was trying to be high fantasy and didn’t really land on solid ground in any genre.

By the end of the book, I did want to know what happened, but I didn’t like a single character. I think I wanted to know what happened more because of my own time investment in the book than any investment in the characters.

I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was extremely hard to get into. I almost DNFd it, but I powered through because I really wanted to love it, but it was boring.

A re-telling of Puss in Boots. Check. A bit of fantasy with shape-shifters and beings with magical powers. Check. A wee bit of romance.. Sort of a check.

I enjoyed the book enough that I finished it in a day, but it left me a bit underwhelmed. I am not sure who the target audience for this book would be. The writing style leads me to believe it was aimed at YA originally, but then someone decided it needed some spice. Just a bit, but enough to fling it off the YA shelves and into adult. (Unless of course I’m not up on my YA reading, which I’m not.)

In the end, I think the story just got too convoluted trying to be too many things. Too many liars. No redeeming qualities in any of the characters. Too many repetitive sayings. I only need Celine said once with a ‘snake accent’. (Foreshadowing, perhaps? There are more books planned for the series.) If a theme with the characters is ‘I am the master of my own power’ then a few need to grow a spine. Frustrating.

All in all, not for me….

Thank you to NetGalley, One More Chapter, and HarperCollins for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the premise of this book. I’ve seen a number of people describe it as more of a spy thriller in a fantasy setting and I have to agree. The story is interesting and unique but I found the book hard to get into and keep track of who everyone is. Lots going on which I just got a bit confused with. Lovely writing but not for me

This book was really difficult to get into, with the characters and their information given way too quickly. It felt there was no character building or introductions to make you enjoy the characters, relying heavily on the character index. This could maybe work for a physical copy, but was difficult with an ebook to rely on (and I wouldn't like to be flipping back anyway).

As for the premise, it's interesting but I am not certain it is articulated well. The romance is a bit lackluster for me, and it felt like I was struggling through the book a bit as I was not necessarily drawn in by the plot, romance or characters.

I could see how someone may enjoy this book, but unfortunately it just was not for me.

a real magical adventure with a fairy tale twist
at the start i struggled a bit as there are so many characters and it was a who is who for while!
a book to escape and let your imagination. run wild
honest review it’s not for me but i can why others will love it

Thought this was a great start to a fantasy series, loved the characters and thought the plot was good kept me hooked!