didn’t know what to expect picking this book up as I had not read from Marianne Gordon before but I was blown away! This is an incredible fantasy book and recommend to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Gilded Crown follows Hellevir, a young woman who can speak with Death and raise the dead. The premise was fresh, and the world building was multi layered. Much of the book is set at court, with a Nordic inspired seaside city as the backdrop.

I enjoyed Hellevir’s relationship with Death – not romance, not exactly friendship, but a rather high-tension business relationship. It was a new take on an old trope, which brought out a new side of Death in fantasy stories.

Hellevir’s relationship with her main love interest does not have much tension. Sullivain’s character never grew on me, and I didn’t want to support their romance as it was quite sudden and toxic. Sullivain’s lack of personal growth and the fact that she hurt and threatened Hellevir on multiple occasions with little to no repercussions made it difficult for me to believe Hellevir’s infatuation with her.

I liked the political and religious themes throughout the book, but I did find most of the characters hard to appreciate. The characters I was most interested in or attached to either ended up dead or having a downward character arc. I will likely read the sequel because I am interested in what Hellevir will do after she leaves the capital city, but I do hope the pacing is faster.

DNF at 23%

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the world and the world building but the characters fell flat for me. I loved the concept for the book and it's disappointing on the execution. I tried multiple times to pick the book back up but it's a no from me.

dnf @ 45%

I really loved the concept, but this one just didn't work out for me. The world building is compelling enough, but the characters are so cardboard and their motivations so illegible that it's really hard to form any connections.

I would love to read more of this author's future projects because I think these are issues of a debut novel, but still, this one unfortunately didn't work for me.

DNF 37%

I really wanted to love this book as the cover (prior cover) and synopsis grabbed my attention. The issue is that it didn’t keep it.

It starts off with Hellevir and her first encounters with death and I was onboard for a little bit. Then I was getting confused by the characters, world building and plot. This book was boring. It didn’t held my interest most of the 37% I read and what I did catch didn’t make sense. There are too many names mentioned but not enough explanation for me to understand this world. This reads like a YA book instead of an adult.

I can’t believe Hellevir and Princess Sullivan are supposed to be love interests. Sullivan so far seemed to be selfish, uncaring and unlikeable. She couldn’t care less of the sacrifices Hellevir has to make each time she brings someone back from death. Seemed like the start of a one sided love or a toxic relationship. I actually prefer her relationship and conversations with Death. That would have made a more interesting story. Her relationships with her father, brother and even her raven were the only ones I liked.

I wish Hellevir was more selfish. I get she feels if she can bring someone back she should but that is not true. She is the one that has to pay the price each time. The people she brings back seem to be ungrateful mostly and unworthy of her sacrifice. She needs to say no or should have listed to Milandre and kept her mouth shut. I wish she had more of a backbone to stand up for herself.

This book had potential but felt flat overall for me.


*Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to net galley and Harper Voyager for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Gilded Crown had an interesting premise. A girl that can bring the dead back to life...for a cost. I loved when Hellevir spent time in death. I loved the atmosphere of this other world and the death character himself had a lot of intrigue around him. This was the saving grace of the first half of the book and most of the reason I kept reading when things got boring.

The author did a great job of evoking big emotions in me, as a reader. I was so angry at some of the main characters at the end and frustrated with Hellevir herself at some points near the end. I think the writing style has a lot of promise.

Overall this book was promising and definitely set up for more in the series at the end. I had a good time reading it, but I think it was too slow, too much of the time for me to keep reading any additions to the series.

Hellevir, a highly spirited, adventurous, innocent girl that we meet in the opening chapters, takes along on a journey of her life and her relationship with Death. As morbid as it sounds, her accidental discovery of the world ruled by darkness, where she seems to find the dead, becomes a familiar world to the reader as we tag along on the journey with Hellevir. Growing up in a more rural setting, fate brings her simplistic way of life to a crashing end when she meets the corpse of an assassinated heir to the throne of Rochidain, Sullivain, and resurrects her. This resurrection, costs Hellevir in more ways than one, and brings her to the Crown’s epicenter. Here, Hellevir is reunited with her family, and is expected to be the Sullivain’s lifeline, while simultaneously unravel the riddles set out by the being she refers to as “Death.”

Marianne has created a character who resonates deeply with her readers, and one cannot help but empathize with Hellevir’s anguish, pain, fear and love. It is no small task to weave such starkly contrasting worlds that Hellevir travels between. Surrounded by the lethal politics and characters, all of whom are on the greyer side of morality, we cannot help holding our breaths as our heroine dances a tantalizingly dangerous game with the new world she is a part of. The Gilded Crown seeps in to our minds with an ease that speaks to the incredible talent of the author. A five star read!

4.7 / 5.0

This absolutely blew me away. Dark fantasy? Yes. Political intrigue. Yes. Death magic? Yes. Slow burn and super cat-fish ending? Yes and Yes.

This is a debut and I cannot say how much I think this should be in a sub box. Please? Pretty please? I’ll be keeping my eye out for the release (hopefully with a SE/LE release) and for the next book. The characters are complex, the world building developed, and the plot is so captivating. I especially liked the magic system and the cost equality to the magic users.

Overall, very good and worth it. Recommend to anyone into dark fantasy romance.

Until Next Time,
MC

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC for review.

This is definitely a dark fantasy and the world building was really cool. I loved that there was a lot of political aspects to this book and the main characters. The only thing that took me out of the story was a couple perspective shifts at the end of the book. Overall an intriguing, compelling, and well written debut. 3.75/5

DNF 36%

First thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC of this book.

While the writing in this is extremely solid and the world created was pretty lush and interesting, the story itself is pretty flat. I’m all for the concept but it doesn’t really feel like much is happening and it feels quite dull.

Perhaps I am just not the target audience for this book. I think there are some out there who will enjoy it, but I just got bored and couldn’t connect with the characters.

This was beautifully written and delightfully complex and I especially enjoyed the raven conpanion. I liked the amount of political intrigue and thought it was excellently paced.

**I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley and Publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review**

NO SPOILERS! The Gilded Crown is a Dark Fantasy that follows the story of a girl, Hellevir, who can talk to Death. Not only can she talk to Death, but she can bargain to bring back souls to the living. However, having souls returned always comes with a cost, and each time Hellevir resurrects someone, Death keeps a part of her. Raising the dead is not an easily kept secret and after Hellevir brings the only heir to throne back to the living, her life takes an irreparable turn.

This book is written in the 3rd person, almost exclusively from Hellevir’s POV. I would say this is a medium paced book that maintains a good pace throughout without any major lulls in action. The writing is lovely and easy to follow and the dialog is mostly natural throughout. The chapters are a good length.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. The scenes with Death are my favorite and honestly Death might be the best character. These scenes are beautifully written and thought provoking, Hellevir’s relationship with death is one that makes you consider death as well. For as much as I like death though, Sullivan (princess) and her grandmother are a different story. I didn’t find either character very likable and the relationship Hellevir develops with Sulliven is more like Stockholm syndrome than anything else. Towards the end of this book, I feel that there may be some hope for Sulliven in the future…but time will tell. There is also an interesting family dynamic in this book.

This book has unique magic, an interesting cast of characters, religious tension, difficult family dynamics, selfish royalty with political scheming, a naive main character and questionable romance. Overall, the ‘romance’ is questionable at best. The main thing that kept me reading through this book was Death and his world. I would give this book a 3-3.5, I’m a mood reader so it depends on the day. Will I read the next book in this series? Probably, but time will tell.

This book blew me away. The descriptions were lovely, the sentence length was just right for me, and I fell in love with Hellevir.

I will warn you that it does not have a HEA or HFN ending.

I cannot wait to see where it leads and I highly recommend if you can handle a slow burn romance that may or may not happen- you pick this up.

This is Marianne Gordon's debut novel!?!? I was enamored from the very beginning - this story is amazing. I loved the plot, the setting, and the characters. It was unpredictable and mysterious. I would absolutely recommend this book to my friends. I can't wait to buy a copy when it comes out!

Thank you so much, NetGalley and to the publishers for this ARC. This may be the best ARC I've ever received.

“You don’t have much choice when your both bound and one of you decides to jump.”

“The Gilded Crown,” by Marianne Gordon

Hellevir has been able to raise the dead since she was ten years old. The showed figure in the afterlife demands a price for every life she resurrected which continues to go up the more she brings back. Her gift has been her secret until Princess Sullivain is assassinated and Hellevir decides to bring her back. With the assassin unknown, Hellevir must remain by the Princess’ side in case she is needed. Hellevir begins to fall in love with the Princess, but she only has so much of herself to trade the death god.

This book was really good. I loved the premise of the story. The main character was annoying because of how much she was willing to do for people she didn’t know but it was essential to her character in the book. I wanted her to stand up for herself more. I liked how the princess was more than she seemed and how it complicated the story. I cannot get enough of the death god and his lore and really hope there will be more about all that in the Raven’s Trade series. 4 out of 5 stars.

-F/F
-Magic
-Death God
-Political Intrigue

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This tale follows Hellevir, a woman endowed with a unique ability to traverse the realm of Death, a power that brings both blessings and burdens. Caught amidst the intrigues of nobility and the disdain of priests, she finds herself in a precarious position, torn between duty and personal desires. As she navigates her path, she forms complex relationships with her family, particularly her father and brother, Farvor, yet questions linger regarding their abrupt absence from her life for a decade.

Despite my reservations about some of Hellevir's choices, I found her character compelling and empathized with her motivations. The dynamics between her and Sullivan didn't resonate with me, as I struggled to find any redeeming qualities in Sullivan herself. However, I appreciated the character growth Hellevir experienced through her interactions with Sullivan, which added depth to her journey.

I particularly enjoyed the representation of LGBTQ+ relationships, especially the romance between Hellevir's brother, Farvor, and Calgir. However, the romantic entanglement between Hellevir and Sullivan failed to capture my interest, perhaps due to my inability to connect with Sullivan as a character.

Overall, the narrative captivated me with its original premise and the development of its diverse cast of characters.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. :)

This is an amazing book that will delight fantasy fans! I also just really love the cover, which I found striking.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC for a honest review.

I wanted to love this book. The premise of the story intrigued me and I kept wanting it to get better but I felt it overall became flat. It felt like two stories shoved together (a story of a low-born family moving to the city and the adjustment mashed with a story of a necromancer trying to hide resurrecting the princess) and then rushed at the end to leave open for another adventure. I was not a fan of the main character Hellevir and the forced romance to the princess. I wish we would have seen more of Hellevir's family as her father was brushed aside, her mother was deemed a mean woman and disregarded, but her brother had a beautiful story I wish to have seen more. Also I feel the man we meet in Death that gives riddles could have had more interaction but I can see if that information has been saved for the sequel.

I also found the world-building was not fully developed. The different courts are not explained enough and I kept getting confused at the court gatherings to remember which squire belonged to which family. Along with that, the timelines felt a bit too jumpy in certain chapters.

Dnf @ 16%. This book failed to grip me in any meaningful way. Already you see Hellevir throwing pieces of herself away for people who don't appreciate her, chipping away at little bits of her soul and seemingly trying to buy her way into their respect. I don't like an fmc who doesn't have a spine and does dumb things over and over again. I think this book might work better for a younger crowd who is still developing what it means to be yourself but as an adult novel, Hellevir is just very young and has a personality that goes with being young.

This book has such great potential. The premise is so incredibly intriguing and eye-catching. A woman who can bring the dead back to life through a "simple" deal and then follow her navigation of the lying world around her is a great premise. But, in my opinion, the execution falls a little short.

There are wonderful things in this book. The witchy magic used is brilliant. It felt fresh, and it felt natural throughout the entire story. The way the magic system was set up was easy to digest and there was never a time when it felt as if things were unreal for the world this was set in.

The world was a bit confusing, as I found myself confused about where things were placed throughout it. I might have missed details that explained the proper placement of people. The hardest part to grasp was that there was a world outside of the city, as it felt like things only happened inside it. From what I gathered, it was as if every important person was in that city and that city only. All of the nobles felt as if they were in this one city, and it was this giant city that housed the important people of this country.

The characters, while they started out well, just never seemed to change. The princess did terrible thing after terrible thing and it felt as if the reader was just meant to sit there and believe that she didn't do these things on her own. The protagonist put up with so much and there never felt like there was a true tie to why she stayed. There were points where I had to put the book down because she stayed around again after another terrible thing happened.

I enjoyed the politics of the book. They were backstabbing and there was enough left behind near the end for an excellent start for the next book to pick up at.

While there were issues present, there were still plenty of highs riddled throughout the book.