A review by ofliterarynature
The Gilded Wolves, by Roshani Chokshi
3.0
TLDR: mediocre secret society fantasy heist, might be improved by more books. DO NOT GET THE AUDIOBOOK .
The obvious fantasy-heist comparison would be Six of Crows, which I must admit I don’t remember much about, but where that group is almost too good to be believable, these guys are just, so bad. Why are they considered top notch thieves, I can’t understand how it took them this long to get caught?
And speaking of the characters - i really wanted to like them. I did. Not the mc, because frankly I’m so tired of moody broody angsty male leaders and he didn’t have anything unique to contribute. But some of them have really fascinating backstories and personalities - it’s just too bad that the author chose one defining feature for each and then bashed you over the head with it. REPEATEDLY. If you saw my progress notes you might know that the “sexual tension” was absolutely the worst and nearly drove me to drink (and I don’t drink), but that’s just how this whole book works.
I could definitely go on about world building too if I wanted, but I’ll wrap it up here lol. I think it didn’t quite fulfill its potential, but a strong second book could really raise it up. If you liked it at least a little bit, it might be worth continuing the series.
The obvious fantasy-heist comparison would be Six of Crows, which I must admit I don’t remember much about, but where that group is almost too good to be believable, these guys are just, so bad. Why are they considered top notch thieves, I can’t understand how it took them this long to get caught?
And speaking of the characters - i really wanted to like them. I did. Not the mc, because frankly I’m so tired of moody broody angsty male leaders and he didn’t have anything unique to contribute. But some of them have really fascinating backstories and personalities - it’s just too bad that the author chose one defining feature for each and then bashed you over the head with it. REPEATEDLY. If you saw my progress notes you might know that the “sexual tension” was absolutely the worst and nearly drove me to drink (and I don’t drink), but that’s just how this whole book works.
I could definitely go on about world building too if I wanted, but I’ll wrap it up here lol. I think it didn’t quite fulfill its potential, but a strong second book could really raise it up. If you liked it at least a little bit, it might be worth continuing the series.