I think most readers of YA fantasy will like this one – I did! 3.5 stars. TLDR: A lavish heist and adventure fantasy for readers of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Ryan Graudin’s Invictus or Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Some of the characters were a bit hard to keep track of - when the villain was ultimately revealed, I was like…who was that again? The end also felt super rushed and disjointed, and I think several of the plot points and character developments introduced might have made more sense at the top of the next book. I think a this book may also improve upon a reread. There will obviously be a sequel, and I’ll definitely give that a go when it comes out in something like two years. This one was much closer to an Aru read for me, although I do find that the rich prose reads as purple on occasion. I’ve read a few other books by this author, one that I hated (Star Touched Queen) and one that I enjoyed (Aru Shah). The other thing that I really liked about this book is that the cast is very diverse in race, ethnicity and sexuality and that the author makes commentary about important, relevant issues such as colonialism, racism, and immigration.

Overall, though, the author manages to blend religion and science and math, which is really no easy feat. The world building was cool, although it occasionally felt convoluted. Magical extravagance abounds, and I had the best time imagining the various rooms, secret chambers and tunnels. Each scene is more lush than the last, and our characters’ surroundings are brought to life in the most whimsical of ways. Set in late 19th century Paris, the trappings of this book are dazzling. Where Six of Crows is gorgeously bleak, The Gilded Wolves is exuberantly lavish. The thing is, though, I loved Six of Crows, so I really ended up enjoying this book too. It felt like I was reading really incredible fanfiction on occasion. I mean, there are character analogs (Severin is fairly close to Kaz, Laila is like a Inej/Nina hybrid), and aspects of the plot are pretty similar as well. Normally I end a review with my complaints, but in this case my main issue is also a positive so we’ll just start there! This book is quite similar to Six of Crows. I enjoyed this one, though it isn’t without its flaws. So when a secret society, the Order of Babel, approaches him and promises him his true inheritance in exchange for an artifact, he agrees to find the artifact along with his crew. But folks from two of the other three houses stopped him from assuming the mantle of head of House Vanth.

As the sole heir to the House of Vanth, leading it should be his birthright.

The gilded wolves book 4