Ok first off, I am really sad about the cover change for the US edition of The Gilded Crown. The original drew me in and caused me to request an ARC knowing nothing about the book. I'm not sure why the change, but its an unfortunate loss.

Secondly, I really liked this book. Its slow paced, political, sad.. kind of depressing, honestly, but I liked that it was different. Helliver is a whole hearted character who, despite all of the terrible things that happen to her, all the people who take advantage of her, tries to do good by people. She reminds me of "The Foolish Traveler" story from Fruits Basket.

I think most people will hate the romance in this story because its not a good romantic story. At least not when it comes to Helliver (because lets be real, none of Helliver's relationships are positive). Her brother, Farvor, has a much more healthy/cute romance but in both cases, the romances are more of a sub plot than main story.

I also loved the concept of Death in this and really look forward to diving deeper. The Gilded Crown is very much a set up kind of book. It can stand alone, but I have a feeling it'll be much stronger with sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading The Gilded Crown! The plot and world felt very unique, and unlike anything I had read before.
The story is slow paced, but I loved the world and the main character, so I did not mind.

The only thing I did not like was the princess. I found her character very i likable and annoying. I hope Helliver realizes this in the next book.

I am really excited to see where the story goes from here and to learn more about the world that Helliver can travel to.

I would totally recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon was such a great book! very interesting story and characters. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

Thanks to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed at 20% of the way through.

This had such a cool concept but the most...cookie-cutter generic characters and protagonist dragged the entire thing down. The setting wasn't expanded on much nor were the characters and their feelings. It just felt like a really slow fairy tale that lacked all the magic of it.

Blog Post goes live June 22
Will be discussed in mid-month wrapup

I keep trying these Romantasy books and honestly I keep getting disappointed. It could be me, it could be the books I’m picking but that’s the unfortunate state of things. The Gilded Crown had a lot of promise, and in fact at the 30-50% mark I was very intrigued. But a few things really killed this one for me.

The Gilded Crown follows Hellevir who can visit Death and return souls to the living for a price. She becomes entangled in the politics and webs of the ruling class when she returns the princess to life after a successful assassination attempt. She is forced to move to the capital city where the new ‘one god’ religion is taking root and things unravel from there.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this was the narrative style. Told with a detached almost fairy tale tone, it made Hellevir feel cold, wet, and very dull to me. She reacted to what happened to her more than she took any steps for herself. Any time she stood up for herself, she immediately backed back down. Which leads me to the incredibly off-putting ‘romance’ in this. The book is casually queer, which I loved, but the Princess (our romantic interest) is the definition of a red flag. The book attempts to excuse this, but those are simply put - just excuses.

There was convenient perspective jumping later in the book that was weird and out of place as well. Not to mention the author very clearly uses Christianity as her ‘villainous’ religion. Which, I truly don’t mind authors pulling and using religions in such a way, but this felt sadly very lazy as she did little but change names and titles.

Add into the mix a very tired and frustrating ‘My Mother hates me! Or does she…’ trope/twist and this was just not for me. If any of those things do work for you though this could be a win. I think I’m just going to have to step off the Romantasy boat though. It sails me into nothing but disappointment.

2.5 Talking Ravens out of 5

This debut novel follows Hellevir, this chick who can bring the dead back to life. She gets roped into reviving a murdered princess to prevent a royal mess. It started strong, but then the vibe shifted to something more YA, and the characters didn't hit me in the feels. The book's supposed to be this queer, political fantasy with a Nordic twist, but it left me with a lot of unanswered questions about Hellevir's powers. It's alright, but it didn't quite live up to the hype I was expecting.

The Gilded Crown was an enjoyable and Unique sapphic fantasy read. I loved the use of a powerful magic with meaningful consequences, and adored the world building employed by the Author. Sadly I didn't care much for the love interest finding her too manipulative for me to root for the clearly developing feelings. The pacing of this story was expertly done and character interactions felt very well fleshed out leading to me becoming deeply invested in them.

I will certainly be reading more by this author and recommending this story for young readers looking for fantasy that doesn't shy away from death and self discovery.

•F/F Relationship
•Death Magic
•Morally Grey Main Character

I absolute love the cover of this book. Like I always say, a stunning cover can be the deciding factor if I will read a book or not.
We meet Hellevir ( a name I’m sure u pronounce wrong), a girl who can commute with death and bring back deceased people back from the dead but with a price. There’s always a price when you are bargaining with death.
I for sure love this concept in a book because I always feel that death is a concept a lot of people are intrigued and scared by. What comes next? Where do we go?
Seeing the way the author shows us a version that she creates for sure had me intrigued and invested in.
Our main character for sure sometimes I wanted to smack upside the head sometimes for her decisions but I know that she has to make these decisions to progress the book.
Overall this book was a trip and for sure had me feeling a wide range of emotions. Which is what a solid book does. My only and main complaint was all the dumb decisions the man in character was making. Like dumb dumb mistakes. Her ‘romance’ was more of a Stockholm syndrome kind of situation. I hated the love interest with a burning passion cause she was such a manipulative person. Add on privileged and toxic as hell.
The side characters weren’t really fully realized in my opinion and were disappointing. The plot kind of took a long time to get to the point and found myself wanting it to get there faster.
This book started out as a 4 star read but dropped down to a 3 because of the reasons I listed above. Would I recommend it? In my current state of mind, more than likely not. Will I read the sequel to this book? As of now, no.

Thanks to the folks at NetGalley & Harper Voyager for a ARC of this book. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings.

𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: 𝟑 ★
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: 𝟑 ★
𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐞: 𝟒 ★
𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥: 𝟑.𝟓 ★

I will say, I automatically thought this book would have been a fantasy or Romantasy, it’s not, but it does have some elements of magic and curses which left me interested. I liked the premise of the book , but the book just didn’t do it for me personally. I wasn’t able to fall in love with the characters and even though some of her were likable, to me I wasn’t interested in their journey nor their love life. I loved the aspect that the FMC was able to resurrect people, the meets with Death, the political points, etc. But at times the story was becoming a bit repetitive. Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Voyager for sending an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

4.75 Stars

Hellevir walks with Death. A blessing or a curse, she's able to walk with death and bring souls back. But, at what cost?

I loved how Marianne explored religion, personal beliefs, following blindly, and morality. It was such an interesting piece. It is neither romantasy or YA. I found it to be more thought provoking, stirring things in the soul and your own beliefs. I genuinely enjoyed every second of the book. I would have just loved to see a little more depth from Hellevir as a character, and a little more depth in her family's relationship.

I would definitely read again.
-FMC who is cursed or blessed
- Death
-Religion
- LGBTQ+ rep
-an adorable raven sidekick

Man, this book started as a 5-star read for me. I looked at my partner and told him this book might be up there for greatest debut. I was invested heavily, fell in love with the concept, and devoured the book's first part. Somewhere around the middle of the book, I felt it was buffering. No more plot development was happening, a routine had developed that left me wanting more and not getting it. I struggled to get through the last parts of this book because I couldn't get reinvested in the story. I know more books are going to follow this in the series, so maybe this was on purpose, but I think either the book should have been shorter or it should have had more exciting parts spread throughout.

However, I want to point out a few things that were spectacular about this book. The writing style is eloquent. I love the details, the darkness surrounding a lot of the settings and the FMC, the political discourse, the queer relationships, the religious zealots, the encounters and mysteries surrounding Death. I think this story could have been so much more if it had continued to progress at the pace it began with.

This story follows Hellevir, an herbalist with an affinity for nature and animals. She has a gift that the crown-appointed religion views as diabolical. However, the crown's granddaughter needs assistance only Hellevir can offer and they form a relationship. Each time Hellevir uses her gift, a toll is taken (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Hellevir is moved into the city close to the royal family and must learn the politics to keep both her and her family alive.

I was able to read the eARC of this book provided by HarperCollins Publisher from Netgalley. I hope this author can continue writing and developing a writing style, and I want to see where this story goes.

This book was so enjoyable! I loved how the romance wasn’t the center plot point, and honestly I cannot decide whether or not I wanted her with Sullivan. I think Death was such an intriguing character, and their relationship was fascinating. The ending was not what I expected, and I cannot wait to read more of her adventures. I hope what she said to Sullivan at the end actually becomes true honestly!!

This was a really well written and thought out fantasy novel. I loved everything about the world and characters.

World-building is okay, with enough details and descriptions to have a solid base for the story. The difficulty was my uphill motivation; I struggled to stay interested in the character. I think it was due to the pacing slowing down a few chapters in, and the character's abilities were painful to experience second-hand.

I didn't know it was lgbt. Not for me.

I loved this book so much! The start of this book with the sort of foreshadowing with Death was immaculate. I loved the scenes with Death it gave this story a gothic style that I fell in love with. Hellevir was to me, a very likeable character even with some of the choices that she made throughout. The family element in it reminded me of me with my own brothers. I think the queer representation that is in this book is beautiful and I am so ready to dive into anything else written by Marianne Gordon. Truly amazing!

This was given to me as an earc from Netgalley, all opinions are my own

I honestly to God loved this book so incredibly much. The world of Rochidain, the characters, the curious nature of Death. For a book with such a dark and gothic style of story, I truly found that the characters were so colorful and blooming with a rich collection of traits.

Hellevir is such a beautifully written character, as was Sullivan. Death, as it happens, was my favorite, because I always wanted to know MORE. Who is Death? Why is he there? How can he be so…compassionate and dispassionate at the same time?

A young herbalist, Hellevir, can bring people back from death once they’ve died, but only by giving Death a piece of herself in exchange, as well as a piece of something living.

That’s all I’m going to say, because well and truly, I really want you all to read this book. It’s phenomenal in more ways than one, and I cannot wait for the second!

Gratitude extends to NetGalley and the publisher for generously providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an unbiased review. Initiating my journey into this book proved to be a challenge, though the underlying concept intrigued me—a girl endowed with a distinctive ability capturing the crown's attention. Within the pages of "The Gilded Crown," a Nordic-inspired fantasy, the narrative unfolds, revealing a tale of potential grandeur that may fully blossom in subsequent installments of the series.

The protagonist, Hellevir, stands out as a compelling character, and the narrative weaves a unique perspective on the theme of death. Throughout this inaugural installment, a pervasive gloominess pervades, setting the tone for the unfolding saga. The allure of the storyline lies in its exploration of an uncommon ability drawing royal interest, adding a fresh layer to a familiar premise.

Comparisons to "Priory of the Orange Tree" initially piqued my interest, given my fondness for that narrative and my penchant for sapphic fantasy. While "The Gilded Crown" didn't resonate with me as strongly, it did manage to captivate. The prose exhibits a lyrical quality, and the worldbuilding displays meticulous attention to detail. However, my reservations stem from the character dynamics and plot progression, echoing the hallmarks of a beautifully written yet inherently slow-paced young adult novel.

In this initial foray into the series, the pacing unfolds leisurely, the protagonist grapples with self-doubt, and a realization dawns at the conclusion—a considerable portion of the payoff appears reserved for subsequent volumes. Despite the novel's substantial length of 450 pages, a significant portion is dedicated to laying the groundwork and fostering uncertainty. As a reader anticipating more substantial revelations in a debut installment, I found myself yearning for a deeper exploration within the confines of book one.

"The Gilded Crown" offers a Nordic-infused fantasy with an inventive premise, yet its deliberate pacing and measured character development may leave readers eager for more immediate gratification. As the series holds promise, one can hope that subsequent volumes will unfurl the full tapestry of Hellevir's journey with a swifter stride and more pronounced revelations.

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley.

The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon is a Sapphic fantasy about an herbalist who can bring people back from the dead and a princess everyone wants dead that she has to keep bringing back to life.

The novel opens with Hellevir bringing her mother back from the dead after she dies in childbirth, but cannot bring her stillborn younger sibling back as well. This leads into her mother refusing to have a relationship with her and a rift in the family to the point that the father, mother, and brother all move to the city, close to the royal family, while the daughter remains in the village and apprentices with an herbalist.

This is further exacerbated by the difference in faith, which parallels pagan vs Christian faith. Hellevir’s mother believes in something that reads very similar to the Christian faith, including priest-like figures, while the daughter believes in the pagan faith of her father.

The romance built subtly and showcased two young women from different backgrounds slowly building an understanding while navigating those differences (such as faith, class, and where they were raised).

I would recommend this to readers looking for more depictions of death or fantasy with a Sapphic romantic subplot. I would not recommend this to readers who are looking for Romantasy or romantic fantasy or do not want heavy-coding of real world Christianity in their fantasy or those sensitive to animal deaths in fiction.

Maybe it was because if the time I read this, but it wasn't a loved book for me. It was fine. I liked it enough. Enough that I'll read the sequel to see where it goes and what happens.

The story was interesting enough. Unique in its own way. Always love a good Death character. Wish we saw more of him. It's alluded who he is, but never confirmed so I imagine that will be answered in the next one. Looking forward to see where Hellevir travels.