I received this book in exchange for an honest review - for a full review check out my YouTube or Goodreads account

This was a surprisingly enjoyable novel. The blurb came off as a bit confusing, but once the story began, you can't help but follow along.

I’m cleaning up my Feedback bookshelf and trying to give reviews for past books I’ve read. I know I read this when it came out - I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads back in 2017. I RARELY give out 5 stars, so it must have been a good story. Thanks for the advanced reader copy!

Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts: Book 1) by Vic James

386 Pages
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey
Release Date: February 14, 2017

Fiction, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Magic, Slavery

Luke is sixteen years old. He returns home from school to find out his parents and older sister, Abigail have made plans for the family to enter their ten years of slavery. They are posted in positions for an aristocratic family. When they are picked up, Luke is told there isn’t a position for him, and he must be sent to the slaver quarters. The aristocrats have skills that they can use over others. They can control their actions and remove memories.

The setting is in Great Britain but in a dystopian time. The book has a steady pace, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This is the first book in the Dark Gift series. It ends in a type of cliffhanger leaving readers wondering what will happen next. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

I took me a while to review this book because I wanted to keep trying. I was so in love with the premise! I was ready to love it but I didn't!

The ideas around magic disappearing, the southern gothic setting of New Orleans with its occult circles, witchcraft, voodoo, family relationships...

However the plot moved too slow for me and there were too many characters and none felt like the MC I should care about.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. I found this book an interesting read. I don't think it is for everyone but i felt that any readers that enjoy dystopia novels and science fiction will enjoy this novel.

ARC provided by the Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Gilded Cage is set in a dystopian world. I'm giving this book 3 stars.

Things I loved: interweaving viewpoints, well-done world building, a range of personalities and character types, cliffhanger at the end that makes me scream.

Maybe the romance was underdeveloped, but that's a small quibble in an otherwise interesting and unique YA fantasy.

Ultimately, I DNF-ed this book at about 35% because the character dump and world building were too much for me. I had way more questions than answers, and I couldn't keep anything straight. Usually once I'm past that initial introduction, the world will be made clear to me, but I never found that in this book. Although, since I DNF-ed this title, I do not feel comfortable rating this a single star, so I'm going to leave it at a 3 because I cannot judge the entirety of the book. I think its a neutral spot.

I have mixed feelings about Guilded Cage, by Vic James. The summary sounded amazing. Once I started reading, I just couldn't get into it as much as I had been hoping, until a bit later in the book. I think all of the different POV's in the story make connecting with the characters a little difficult for me initially and I also felt that the author saved the best parts of the story for the latter part of the book when the skills were explored more. That being said though, this was an utterly unique and carefully crafted world that I found so interesting.

The magical, ruling class with Skills are the elite 1%. Everyone else is required to do 10 years of service (essentially slavery) with one of the magical families. The Hadley family starts their 10 years of service for the Jardine family, who happens to be the most powerful family around, though their son Luke gets sent to a miserable slave town to do his service. The story evolves from there. There are a lot of political undertones and if you take away the magical aspect, this is actually quite a complex book that one can derive a lot more from than just the basic story. Regardless, it's a power struggle, an uprising, and an entertaining one at that.

An intriguing and page-turning fantasy adventure, Gilded Cage introduces a world where the ultimate one-percent, magic-wielding elite, control everything in a twisted version of modern-day Britain. Dark, fantastic, following the misadventures of a single family, the novel leaves us wanting more at the end.

An interesting story of using magic as a form of payment. This was a neat story about a family losing their finances and sending the children off to work. With little control over their choices in life they are sentenced to serve but end up divided.
I enjoyed the world building in this dystopian story, with a story unlike any other.
Recommended for fans of fantasy, YA and a bit Gothic.

This book was quite a dark YA fantasy set in modern-day Britain, but with a twist. Those in power control everything, including magic; those without, have to give 10 years of their lives in indentured servitude. Overall, I liked this book, and the characters were overall enjoyable. This book wasn't what I was expecting, and I can't wait to continue the series to see what happens to these characters.

3-3.5 stars

In this dystopian Britain, about 1% of people have Skill, which is a bit like magic. They have all the fame, power, and prestige. The rest of the people are forced to serve 10 years of slavery at some point in their lives. The Hadley family decides to serve theirs all together. 18 year old Abi is able to get them assigned at the estate of the politically powerful Jardine family where her parents serve around the estate, she works in the office, and 10 year old Daisy cares for the heir’s illegitimate baby. However, 17 year old Luke is separated from the family and sent to Millmoor, one of the crowded, disgusting slave towns. The Hadleys learn more about the elite Equals and their powers as well as people who are working hard to end the slave days. But can they succeed against such powerful enemies?

I couldn’t put this book down! It took a few chapters to really get into it, but then it was impossible to stop. I appreciated that the exposition often fit naturally into conversations between characters rather than just narration. I like books with different points of view, and this one did that well. Occasionally it went a bit too long without checking in with a certain group or perspective, but overall it was pretty well-balanced. You really care about the main characters and what will happen to them next. The plot was engaging and well-paced. Some of it was unpleasant to read, but it wasn’t overly graphic or gory. There was some mild to moderate language sprinkled throughout. It looks like this is a trilogy, and I’m dying to find out what happens next!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ebook.

The blurb of the book sounded so good! And it started off strong, then there was a lull and picked up and up and down and up and down. It took me some time to get through it. Overall I think I liked it even though at times I was read for it to be over. Glad I got a chance to read it, but would I read more of this? Maybe not.

An easy, enjoyable teen read that blasted through because I had to know how it ended! And there is more to come! I really liked this book and you will too if you are suffering from lack of Leigh Bardugo, Sarah Maas, and Holly Black.

This was one of my first requests on this site, and I thoroughly enjoyed the worldbuilding of the novel. Vic James reinvents modern aristocracy and magic with this world, and I can't wait to read more.

Gilded Cage is set in an alternative version of Britain where ordinary people must spend 10 years of their lives in brutal servitude. As the saying goes, "Do your slave days too old, you'll never get through them. Do your slave days too young, and you'll never get over them." Luke and Abi are part of an ordinary family from Manchester, and their parents sign up the entire family so they can get their slave days done under the impression that they'll all be sent to a comparatively cushy private estate. But whenLuke is unexpectedly sent to one of the worst slavetowns and the rest of the family's cushy assignments are unexpectedly dangerous, things will never be the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed this despite my initial skepticism about its Wattpad origins. There's some great political intrigue and alternative history. A number of the characters are complex with shades of grey. I eagerly finished the book in less than a day and am most of the way through the second.

I DNF'd at 50%. This dragged on way too much and did not keep my attention at all. I loved the concept but in the end I just didn't feel invested in any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.

Interesting read. This fantasy tale was very good. The characters were well developed. Would check out more books by this author.