This was not a successful fae romantasy story. I have to ask was this story even sent for feedback from the editor? The writing style was very juvenile. It felt very disjointed, and I struggled to finish it. Another participant who jumped onto the train of trendy romantasy genre

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! I just couldn't get in the mood for this one, but I do love this author!

House of Ash and Shadow was fine, but many of the tropes felt overdone and repetitive. Would recommend to someone looking to stay within the magical school, enemies to lovers, romantasy ranges, but there are better reccommendations within those categories and it won't be a first tier rec for me.

I just do not think that Leia Stone is for me. Her writing comes off more MG than YA, and while, in a lot of books, I can look past modern writing, there is just too much slang that's only relevant now and will be incredibly dated in a few years.

DNF.

I did not like the writing style of this one at all. The structure felt clunky and the story moved at different paces with no constant flow. I also felt that the storyline was confusing and introduced too many plots in the beginning.

Unfortunately this one was not for me.

This is a great fast paced read filled with Fae and magic. The concept of being unable to be touched, even your strands of hair is interesting and I really felt for poor Fallon and her father. Add in a magic school, a love triangle with twin brothers, and dark shadow Fae and it's quite an exciting read. I'm looking forward to diving straight into the next book after that ending to see what happens next.

I feel like parts of this book were a bit rushed and skipped over stuff that i wished it didn't like Eden and her mum sleeping over. I thoroughly enjoyed the overall story though and i hope she finds out who her birth father is in the next book and what magical abilities she got from him. Yanric was 100% my favourite character he is hilarious.

Oh my gosh idk how I missed this but I read this a while back and absolutely LOVED IT. I admit, I didn’t read the blurb (I like to go in blind), so I didn’t realize it would be YA, but it was so fast paced and brilliant! I’m picking up the next book asap!

This book was amazing I couldn’t put it down was completely drawn in from the first page and hooked. I loved the characters the writing and the plot so sad it ended

I apologize for the late feedback, I thought I had already left a review, but apparently it never went through!
I really enjoyed this fast paced, intriguing fantasy! The characters were likeable and well written. The world building was interesting as well!! I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series and other books by this author!

Premier tome de la série Gilded City de Leia Stone qui trainait dans ma liseuse depuis un petit moment, j’ai passé un bon moment avec!

Fallon Bane est une jeune femme de 17 ans qui vit avec une terrible malédiction : elle ne peut être touchée sans que cela ne lui provoque de terribles douleurs… Un jour,son père tombe malade et elle va tout faire pour le sauver quitte à aller à Gilded City pour lui trouver un guérisseur… Elle va tomber sur Ariyon Madden qui accepte de l’aider mais qui va aussi bouleverser sa vie car il peut la toucher sans la faire souffrir et il va l’obliger à aller à l'Académie pour découvrir qui elle est vraiment…

C’est un très bon premier tome qui nous introduit un nouvel univers mais j’ai eu du mal avec certaines simplicités que l’autrice a utilisées… J’ai eu du mal avec certaines des réactions de Fallon mais au fil des pages, j’ai fini par m’attacher à elle… Je n’aime pas forcément les triangles amoureux et là, en avoir un avec deux frères, ça me laisse un peu sceptique mais on verra par la suite! La fin est vraiment surprenante et nous laisse sur notre faim donc à voir le second tome!

En bref, un bon premier tome malgré quelques simplicités

This is the first book of a series and it is a great start to it. It is a very interesting read and it keeps you wanting more. I'm curious to see what will happen in the next books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks/Bloom Books & Leia Stone for a digital galley of House of Ash & Shadow in exchange for an honest review.

Fallon has been cursed with unbearable pain any time anyone touches her. She goes through life knowing she will never experience things as others do. That is, until her father gets sick & she breaks into the Gilded City where she finds Ariyon, a fae with healing power, to come heal her father. Not knowing yet of Fallon’s curse, Ariyon touches her, but she never feels the pain that she normally does. However, after Ariyon finds out about her curse, he turns on her and turns her into the powerful fae who mean her harm. It is then that she is put into a magical academy where she discovers her family history and the dark magic that is inside of her.

This is book #1 in the Gilded City series and was a super strong start to the series! I have been on a fantasy kick lately & this one was fantastic. I am already ready for book #2!

Of course, Ariyon is the off-limits, tough hottie we are all going to love. Fallon was a bit annoying, though.

I will admit that I tend to stay away from YA that appears to be too juvenile. Unfortunately, this one snuck in on me. It was definitely written VERY juvenile, but I still enjoyed the story.

As long as you can look past the juvenile writing (if you’re an adult), I think it would be enjoyable. Further, I think 10-12 year olds would love it.

4 Stars, but I likely won’t promote on my IG.

I loved the build up and characters of this story, very easy to follow along and entertaining! This fantasy was easy to devour and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

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

3 stars ⭐️

House of Ash and Shadow, the first book in the Gilded City series, tells the story of Fallon Bane. Cursed since birth, any touch inflicts excruciating pain on Fallon. Isolated and lonely, she lives a secluded life with her adoptive father.
When her father is injured, Fallon ventures into the magical city seeking a healer. There, she meets Ariyon who breaks the rules by touching her – but to Fallon's surprise, it doesn't hurt. This encounter unlocks a new world for Fallon, as she is pulled into the magical city and learns a lot about family, friends, love and magic.

Overall, I thought the storyline was super unique and Fallon's curse and the fact that Ariyon can touch her without consequences was pretty interesting. I loved to see the story unfold and find out more about this curse and Fallon's heritage. A lot of enjoyable tropes like enemies to lovers and a love triangle can be found in this book.
Nonetheless, I felt like every chapter was super fast paced and rushed, so that it kinda felt like everything was happening all at once. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and not enough time to get to know each and every one better. For me personally, the love triangle just did not work out due to Ayden's lack of character. We don't really get to know him at all, his only personality trait is being the nice brother.
The modern day elements (like the brothers being in a band and playing guitar and organizing house parties) felt like they did not belong in this magical, fantasy world.
I realize that I don't really belong in this author's target audience but I can imagine young readers really enjoying this book.

Thank you to NetGalley & Leia Stone for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had absolutely no idea what was happening in this book. I understand that authors want to start off with some action to hook readers, but there does eventually need to be some worldbuilding involved. None of the characters were fleshed out enough for me to care about, so that didn't help either.

Solid YA fantasy full of dark magic, curses and enemies to lovers. I loved the writing style and House of Ash and Shadow is definitely one to add to your TBR if it's not on there already!

Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read and review. Onto the rest of the series I go!

After reading this book, I think I have to conclude that this author just isn't for me. I've read one other by her that also didn't connect, but I know that she's wildly popular with some so I wanted to give it another shot.

However, I quickly found myself struggling with the overall writing quality. Even for a young adult novel, it felt very juvenile. The vocabulary was limited and the style and structure of the prose was uninteresting. Worse, I very much struggled with the strange mixture of more formal, older-style language right next to extremely modern slang. Not only was this jarring to read (the slang in particular was not good, definitely of the sort that will age quickly and poorly), but it threw into question the entire world-building of the book. How exactly do these very different styles of speaking and word choice co-exist?

I also struggled with the main character. She seemed incredibly passive and rather weak throughout much of the story. Of course, not all leads need to be "strong women" in the conventional sense, but she seemed to be the worse example of the other end of the spectrum, especially given that I didn't see a lot of character development over the course of the book.

The plot and the romance were also incredibly straight forward and predictable. I guess I would recommend this to YA readers who are devoted fans of fantasy romance stories and who enjoy modern slang in their fantasy worlds, but even then, I feel like there are better books out there than this one.

This book is so easy to fall into and get lost in. After reading I immediately had to read the authors other works, as a bookseller I would recommend this book to people who have read SJM and the shatter me series.