I want to start off by saying that I hardly give books less then 4 stars but man I was lost as to wtf was going on. This book follows the journey of a woman named Hellevir. She can raise people from the dead and talk to animals. She is brash and irrational. She mistakenly raises the princess from the dead and finds herself in her service. Sacrificing pieces of her soul to save the princess whilst hiding from the hateful religion who wants nothing more than to rid of her.

The magic system in this book didn’t really make a lot of sense and it felt that it was haphazardly thrown together. I am not sure where the title comes into the book but they are not related whatsoever. On top of that this was marketed as romance, was the romance in the room with us? The author attempted to create a soul bond kind of relationship with the princess and Hellevir through the resurrections but it felt forced. I was lost and confused a lot of the time and it felt that she spent too much time on the wrong things and little time on the important stuff. I think this could’ve had a lot of potential but executed poorly. I am not interested in reading the following books as I’m unsure even what the overarching plot of the series is. The characters were severely underdeveloped and her use of religious persecution and how that played into her family dynamic was the worst part of the book. It was a quick read and I was intrigued but I overall did not really like it.

This was an ARC provided by NetGalley.

The journey Hellevir went on was one of growth, love, and loss. I want to continue this journey with her because I feel we have only scratched the surface of her bond with death and the adventures his riddles will take her on. Sullivan, I hate to say this but I absolutely detest her character, read and find out why. Over all great writing, great storyline, I just hated how it ended. Life is never fair and this definitely proved that point!!

Hellevir can raise the dearly departed. Every time she brings a soul back the prince of the afterworld takes a little more from Hellevir though. She is summoned by none other than the Queen herself when Princess Sullivain is assassinated. Her task is to bring the princess back to life but it does not stop with just one attempt on the Princess’s life, so the Queen orders Hellevir to stay by her side in order to protect Princess Sullivain. If the princess passes away it would certainly cause civil war. Princess Sullivain is not easy to get along with, she is stubborn and hard-headed. It only gets harder as Hellevir starts to fall in love with her. With war looming Hellevir must trade more and more of herself in order to keep Princess Sullivain safe.

Even though the story was a little slow at first, I really enjoyed this book, the writing style was different than anything I’ve read before.


Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this eARC.

The Gilded Crown is an incredible book about family, betrail, and the love that can prevail through it all. Our main character, Hellevir, is a girl who can talk to death and bring people back from the dead, but like everything, the power comes with a price--a piece of her soul.
When she saves the princess's life one fateful day, she finds herself bound to protect her in order to keep her family safe.
Hellevir is such a caring character; she harbors a deep love for both her family and the one keeping them in danger. The tension grows and grows throughout the book in a way that's very fun to read.
Plot aside, the characters a very well written. Farvor--Hellevir's brother--and his boyfriend have a very sweet relationship and I adored the way Hellevir and her raven interacted.
It was a very fun read; I can't wait to see what's next in the series.

I love the idea of this book but unfortunately for me, it just never quite reached where I had hoped it was headed. The author's writing is lovely, and I found Death to be very interesting. However I think if the author had tried to do fewer things it could have made a huge difference in the overall book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gilded Crown is an adult debut about a girl who can raise the dead and ends up working as a resurrectionist for the princess and has to navigate a scheming court while dealing with her growing feelings for the princess, as well as a . While the idea of this novel was super interesting, something just didn’t work for me. I found myself struggling to finish this and just overall not as interested in the story as I had hoped. The main reason I had such a hard time getting through this book was the slow pacing. Not a lot actually happened in this book and the plot just kept repeating itself. Despite this being an adult book it read much more YA in my opinion and I wish I had gone into it thinking it was YA instead as my expectations were higher, and if I had thought it was YA I might have enjoyed it a bit more.

Another big reason why this didn’t work for me were the characters… I didn’t really like any of them and found the romance to be forced. I didn’t think the princess was likable at all and was confused as to why the main character was falling for her. As for the main character I found her choices to be too trusting which really annoyed me. I am a sucker for animal companions though and I adored that she had a raven she could talk to.

In the end this book was not for me and I won’t be continuing with the series any farther. As it is a debut I might still be interested in reading something from this author in the future.

This was a great premise, and I loved that there was so much queer representation! I will say that it felt like it could have been a little bit shorter, but I still really enjoyed it!

Not a big fan of the worldbuilding. Cannot quite tell just how “fantasy” it is meant to be so I don’t quite have any expectations or disbeliefs when things happen. The main character does not have much, if any tension with her love interest. Also I was just kind of bored, the events were all pretty expectable to the point that I didn’t feel like I needed to continue reading to know what was going to happen, and I didn’t care for the world or the characters enough to keep on reading. I do think that the rules of the world not being established make up the biggest flaw of the novel, because we don’t know what makes her special– the fantasy is described very matter-of-factly, but no other characters have the same experiences as Hellevir.

I loved this! The emotional turmoil throughout kept me hooked. By the halfway point, I wanted to murder someone on behalf of Hellevir. She goes through so much, and all because she cares for others. I will definitely be reading book 2 when it comes out - I am so excited to see how Hellevir grows.

The magic system was so different than anything I have read recently! IF you are into main characters who do not make all the best decisions and work with morally gray characters this is the book for you! Highly recommend.

This is a political heavy book, definitely not romantasy. Where it is dark it’s not a dark romance or like YA dark. This is a dark fantasy book and a slow paced one at that. I’m sure this is a book for someone but I found it difficult to even force myself to pick up. Just too slow and heavy without any redeeming qualities for the book or the main character.

From the tags and description I thought this would be romantasy but found the romance to be very b plot instead of somewhat equal. I found the base concept really compelling but the execution somewhat lacking. The stakes just didn’t feel very high at times and I had a hard time connecting with some of the characters.

I need more sapphic fantasy like this in my life. It didn't lean too heavily into the romance which makes it a great fantasy in its own right but the romance elements fit so well and made sense in the story. Nothing felt forced or out of place within the world. The writing was strong although I think it could have been trimmed down a bit. I'm excited to see what else the author comes out with because this was a very strong book overall.

I loved this and can’t wait for the follow-up. It had the perfect amount of eeriness, violence, romance(ish?) and moral/existential complexities. The only thing I struggled with was the MC’s arc and how long it took her to stand up for herself. I would have liked to have seen it happen slightly sooner so she could leverage more politics to her advantage and start to “play the game.”

I think the themes were poignant and make any reader question what they would do if given the choice to bring someone back to life, faith, and so on.

Looking forward to supporting the full release of this and the next in the series!

I tried so hard to enjoy this book, but it was a chore to read through it. I dreaded having to open it back open for the sake of reviewing for an ARC because I just could not get into the story. I’m giving two stars because I believe the story idea and some of the writing was good, but overall it fell flat during a majority of the reading for me. Felt too drawn out and I couldn’t connect to a single character, so I genuinely didn’t care what happened to any of them.

Thank you Netgalley, author Marianne Gordon, and HarperCollins Publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐️- I wanted to like this book more, but I just could not get into it. Let me start off by saying that I absolutely adored the main character Helliver and her side-kick Elsevir. The story between Helliver and Death held my attention and every scene between them was beautifully written.

The part of the story that lost me, and was a large portion of book one, was the relationship between Helliver and Sullivain,the Princess of Rochidain. This was written as an intended enemies to lovers, but the lovers part fell flat. There were several instances when Helliver expressed feeling sympathy and her chest tightening when thinking or looking at Sullivan. The actions and words from Sullivain never displayed a genuine, redeeming quality.

All of that said, I enjoyed the world building, including religion, in this novel, but wish there had been more focus between Helliver’s relationship with death.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc which will be available 7/2/2024!!!

I am absolutely loving that we now have LGBTQIA rep in books especially in fantasy.

That being said this is a sapphic romantasy that is on the darker side. It reminded me of the Hades/Persephone trope and it delivers. Beautifully written, action packed story that I think will be well recieved by all.

*Side note that I received the ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Went into this book excited because I enjoy darker romance/fantasy books sometimes and was left a bit disappointed. It had a lot of promise and potential to be great, I just think that the pacing was a bit too slow (which made it hard for me to read consistently- took me a while to get through it) and it was a bit too political heavy. I also didn’t enjoy the relationship between the MC and the love interest- the set up for it and they way it progressed left a lot to be desired in my opinion- now with that said, there were elements I did enjoy, thus the three stars- “death” had such an interesting character and I would’ve loved to see that expanded. Would I read again? Probably not, but I don’t regret reading it.

This review is posted on my Goodreads account as well!

Queer Poltical Fantasy. If that doesn’t draw you in, I’m not sure what will, this story goes well beyond your typical romance fantasy. There is a battle of morals, of fighting who you are at a cellular level. This book is much more than its blurb suggests. Please give it a try.

This book was good! I really enjoyed the the unique take on how Hellevir had to pay to use her gift. Some parts felt a bit dragging, but I honestly think it's because the third person POV is not something I usually pick to read. I'm excited to see if there will be a book 2 to find out what happens to her and Death!