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nightstitch96's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror and Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and War
emzvoice's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
An easy and enjoyable read. A protagonist torn between who she wants to be and who she’s forced to be. Solving riddles and confronting death, while coming to terms with the reality of life.
Very coming of age, for the protagonist and the princess. Both trying to figure out how to operate within their own confines and often making the wrong choices - but they learn and grow, or at least start to given this is only book one of two.
Fun read, sapphic and immersive.
Very coming of age, for the protagonist and the princess. Both trying to figure out how to operate within their own confines and often making the wrong choices - but they learn and grow, or at least start to given this is only book one of two.
Fun read, sapphic and immersive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: War
ofclumsywords's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book is not at all what I was expecting. The plot was what drew me to this book but after the first few chapters it fell flat. The characters were terrible and shallow, with barely any backstory to them. The romance was nonexistent with no chemistry between the supposed couple. Not to mention the world building, which had no history to the land or any other magic users besides the main character who could bring back the dead. This book was a complete disappointment and I am not even considering reading the second book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
ddnreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
For a debut, it's not bad but it's not exceptionally great either.
It started with an intriguing premise, cited from the description: Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.
Until she resurrected the heir of the kingdom, Princess Sullivain. You think with such a power she would have a better bargaining position. But no, the Queen blackmailed and threatened to hurt her family if she refused to be around just in case the princess was assassinated (again).
And the book becomes frustrated (at least for me). I'd love for Helevir to fight more, be more cunning, more so to survive within the kingdom. Stand up for herself. She did, tho and I love her for that. But in the end, love wins. She couldn't do anything. She would still do what the Queen asked for her no matter how ridiculous the number of princess' deaths that she had to ressurect.
Oh and I think she needed to be more considerate who to help. Like the way the princess acted made it not worthy (honestly).
What I like is her on adventure finding the clues to give the Death. She with her best friend raven. Her relationship with her father. This girl deserves better really. That ending is kinda hopeful.
Oh and in my mind her appearance is kinda horror the way she had to pay the price with her body and her soul. But I think the writing could be more atmospheric bcs sometimes I find it hard to visualise the people, esp in the kingdom. I do love the desc of Death's area and his demeanor, tho.
This is a suitable read in October. Horrorish fantasy with kingdom political intrict.
Thank you for the arc in exchange for honest review 🩷
It started with an intriguing premise, cited from the description: Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.
Until she resurrected the heir of the kingdom, Princess Sullivain. You think with such a power she would have a better bargaining position. But no, the Queen blackmailed and threatened to hurt her family if she refused to be around just in case the princess was assassinated (again).
And the book becomes frustrated (at least for me). I'd love for Helevir to fight more, be more cunning, more so to survive within the kingdom. Stand up for herself. She did, tho and I love her for that. But in the end, love wins. She couldn't do anything. She would still do what the Queen asked for her no matter how ridiculous the number of princess' deaths that she had to ressurect.
Oh and I think she needed to be more considerate who to help. Like the way the princess acted made it not worthy (honestly).
What I like is her on adventure finding the clues to give the Death. She with her best friend raven. Her relationship with her father. This girl deserves better really. That ending is kinda hopeful.
Oh and in my mind her appearance is kinda horror the way she had to pay the price with her body and her soul. But I think the writing could be more atmospheric bcs sometimes I find it hard to visualise the people, esp in the kingdom. I do love the desc of Death's area and his demeanor, tho.
This is a suitable read in October. Horrorish fantasy with kingdom political intrict.
Thank you for the arc in exchange for honest review 🩷
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Gaslighting
rheagoveas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Religious bigotry
alex_rosewood's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was a lovely debut. Dark and cold, oozing with tragedy that is only thrown into darker shadow still by the flashes of warmth and light scattered sparingly throughout. It's a deeply personal story set against a somewhat typical fantasy plotline that threatens to take the reins, but never manages to.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Body horror
sarrie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting
Minor: Torture