The Gilded Crown was a bit of a… chore to read.

It looks romantasy, but thankfully it’s not. It’s about a girl who can enter the realm of death and bring people back. The concept is interesting, right off the bat, but the follow through is a bit here and there. It was more.. political than I expected. Religious, too.

The main thing that brought the book down was that I couldn’t connect to the characters at all. And I couldn’t find it in me to become invested in the relationships or plot. It’s lacking a certain spark.

Hellivir is sort of bland. It becomes a little annoying how willing she is to do things for others. Selflessness isn’t bad, but it’s questionable how she’s willing to give up so much of herself without more of a thought or remorse. She knows she’s a finite thing, but she keeps making odd decisions. I feel like we don’t get to know her deeply, and it makes rooting for her as a main character difficult.

Sullivain isn't a great love interest. She’s rude, cares only about herself, and doesn’t seem to be bothered that Hellivir sacrifices so much for her. In fact, most characters aren’t concerned or grateful when Hellivir performs her skill. So there’s barely a motive for the main character to go around saving people. And the motive isn’t strong enough for readers to become invested in saving these characters.

As for the special power Hellivir has… you’d think she’d be regarded with a bit more respect. Which makes me question how the magic system even works. Milandre mentions some capability of doing something similar, yet not as powerful as Hellivir’s raising the dead. No one else has powers as potent. The system is vague and confusing, making it less impactful than it could be.

I think the whole Death concept is great. Death as a character really is the most intriguing, in the beginning at least. Probably, he has the most interesting tie to Hellivir. In contrast to her mentor and family, who I couldn’t grow to like. Especially the mother…

The worldbuilding was odd to me because, despite there being a lot of background, information, and complexities revealed about the setting, it still didn’t feel like it was a living, breathing world. There was certainly a vibe, a good, dark, mysterious one. And the prose did good to support this, being symbolic and deep. It only fell short due to the plot and characters.

Overall, The Gilded Crown is a gilded story — covered in gold, but dull on the inside.

This is a good debut from author Marianne Gordon. The book centers around Hellevir, who can walk in death and bring people back to life. When she brings her mother back from the dead, her mother is startled by what Hellevir is capable of. Sensing her mother's discomfort, Hellevir moves in with the town's midwife/herbalist. While there, the Queen brings her granddaughter who has been poisoned and demands that the herbalist raise her. When Hellevir raises her, the princess Sullivan, she traps herself in a deal with the crown.

Hellevir leaves the town she grew up in and joins her family in the capital. Her mother is still wary of her, but her dad and brother are so excited to have her back. It's genuinely sweet the relationships Hellevir has with her dad and brother. From there, we get into the bones of the plot where Hellevir has a promise to raise Sullivan any time she dies in order to protect her family. At the same time, Hellevir makes a deal with Death to bring him treasures in a trade for raising the dead.

I thought the world-building felt really organic and described the history and religion of the book clearly without being a giant info dump. I wish there had been more info or history about the beings Hellevir was interacting with for the treasures. However, I think that leaving out that information set up a good plot for the next books in the series. I also loved that the queer characters in this book simply existed. There wasn't really any discussion of persecution or exile for being gay. I love a book where queer characters just are.

There were a few confusing plotlines for me. Like, were the treasures good enough for Death that Hellevir wasn't losing more pieces of her soul? Or were they just stand-ins for her limbs? I thought that was a little confusing. I also thought there should have been a little bit of a reveal about what the Onastian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) symbols meant. It was described over and over without actually giving any descriptions or meaning. I get that it sets up the next book, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out more. It just felt like for how good the world-building was, some of the background lore made no sense and could have been fleshed out more.

Overall, I thought this was a solid book, and I'm excited to see where the series goes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book had a lot of potential with many promising elements. I enjoyed the opening chapters and the tone that they set, which is reminiscent of dark folklore. Death is the most interesting character, and his relationship with Hellevir is the most compelling. The rest of the story felt underwhelming. There was room for so much more tension, yearning, conflict, and suppression between Hellevir and Sullivain. Sullivain herself felt like she had no depth, and she easily could have been a more intriguing, morally ambiguous character instead of her flat characterization. Other characters were also one-note and didn't add much emotional impact to the story. I was extremely frustrated with most of them during the last 2/3 of the book because of their annoyingly hypocritical actions and assumptions. Key pieces of Hellevir's motivation appear to be missing, although this is briefly addressed towards the end. A key part of the plot, which seems like it will also be a main focus in the next book, is not fully explained, so it feels random and aimless. With all that being said, I think the political and religious backdrops were done well, and it does seem like the sequel will have the direction that the first is lacking. I am looking forward to reading more of Hellevir and Death's interactions; the folktale feel of this book is my favorite thing about it.

This is an intriguing book. I really enjoyed the premise and the writing style. The romance felt slow, like it was desperately trying to be enemies to lovers because that’s what is popular right now. However, it didn't deter me enough to want to steer me away from the series entirely. I think the pacing was strange, but once I got into the story it was good. I’m curious to find out if that’s typical of the authors work, or if it’s because it’s the first book in a fantasy so there has to be slower world building stuff going on.

However, due to my review being 3 star, I will be holding off on putting it on Goodreads until later to keep from bringing the rating down.

So, let's talk about "The Gilded Crown" by Marianne Gorden. Picture this: a Nordic-inspired court drama with a side of magical herbalism and a sprinkle of death communication. Sounds intriguing, right? Well, that's what I thought, too, until I dove into the pages and realized it's like trying to juggle flaming torches while riding a unicycle – ambitious, but a tad chaotic.

At first glance, I thought it might be a romantasy. Don't get me wrong, the cover is beautiful, but I am not sure if it fits the story.

The story kicks off with all the promise of a grand adventure, but somewhere along the way, it loses its footing. The characters, bless their hearts, are about as captivating as watching paint dry on a rainy day. I mean, we've got mean royals, a protagonist with more issues than Vogue, and Death himself, who's about as intimidating as a fluffy bunny. It's like the author threw all these ingredients into the pot but forgot to stir.

Another thing is that, for some reason, I could not connect with the main character of the story. As much as I tried, I didn't find anything interesting about the main character. There was also zero spark with love interest.

Despite its shortcomings, "The Gilded Crown" isn't without its charms. Gorden's writing is like a warm hug on a chilly day – comforting, even if the story itself leaves something to be desired. And while the plot may stumble and trip over its own feet at times, there's a glimmer of potential buried beneath the surface. So, if you're in the mood for a fantasy tale that's equal parts ambitious and befuddling, then give it a whirl. Just don't expect it to be a smooth ride from start to finish.

The Gilded Crown is an enchanting high-fantasy book about a girl who is forced into the twisted world of politics when the Queen finds out she can raise the dead and forces her to resurrect the murdered Princess. Now, Hellevir must keep the Princess alive and find the assassin before the cost of dealing with Death grows too high.

I loved this book! The magic system, setting, and animal companions made it feel almost like a dark fairy tale, and the writing was excellent. The characters were complex and had complicated relationships with one another, and there was a big focus on family and friendships. The plot was by far the strongest aspect, though. The political intrigue was well-built, including a dark and corrupted but also complicated monarch, and betrayal and assassins and whatnot. There was also some wonderful worldbuilding and history, with some fascinating religious conflict thrown in for fun. Altogether, extremely well-written, especially for a debut!

I only have two real critiques: one is that the romance fell a little bit flat for me. It was marketed as a romance, so I guess I expected more, but even then, I didn’t really root for the relationship as I was reading–and I couldn’t fully explain why! It just wasn’t there. The second thing is that the interactions with Death got very repetitive and boring after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it was a super interesting magic system! But they just kept having the *same* conversation, and certain events felt anticlimactic because of it.

Besides that, this book was amazing! I was expecting a standalone, but the ending proved me wrong, so it will be interesting to see how the author stretches this into a sequel. I look forward to it. Altogether, I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy magic-focused, fairy-tale-feeling high-fantasy!

I received an advanced copy in exchange for my review. This is my honest opinion I am giving voluntarily. This was beautifully and well written and I highly recommend. It is third person but it mainly follows the fmc, with one chapter towards the end that follows her brother. It is YA and it reads more high fantasy. Be warned there is no happy ending! It has an open to possibilities end. I will say the only downside was it gave way to many details, as for example a room or a busy street but somehow never what someone looked liked. It was easy for me to skip over those parts and find what was important. With that aside I loved this book and I can't wait for everyone to start talking about it.

Interesting storyline and had good political intrigue. I love a good, dark fantasy book. I just didn’t connect with any of the characters.

didn’t know what to expect picking this book up as I had not read from Marianne Gordon before but I was blown away! This is an incredible fantasy book and recommend to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Gilded Crown follows Hellevir, a young woman who can speak with Death and raise the dead. The premise was fresh, and the world building was multi layered. Much of the book is set at court, with a Nordic inspired seaside city as the backdrop.

I enjoyed Hellevir’s relationship with Death – not romance, not exactly friendship, but a rather high-tension business relationship. It was a new take on an old trope, which brought out a new side of Death in fantasy stories.

Hellevir’s relationship with her main love interest does not have much tension. Sullivain’s character never grew on me, and I didn’t want to support their romance as it was quite sudden and toxic. Sullivain’s lack of personal growth and the fact that she hurt and threatened Hellevir on multiple occasions with little to no repercussions made it difficult for me to believe Hellevir’s infatuation with her.

I liked the political and religious themes throughout the book, but I did find most of the characters hard to appreciate. The characters I was most interested in or attached to either ended up dead or having a downward character arc. I will likely read the sequel because I am interested in what Hellevir will do after she leaves the capital city, but I do hope the pacing is faster.

DNF at 23%

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the world and the world building but the characters fell flat for me. I loved the concept for the book and it's disappointing on the execution. I tried multiple times to pick the book back up but it's a no from me.

dnf @ 45%

I really loved the concept, but this one just didn't work out for me. The world building is compelling enough, but the characters are so cardboard and their motivations so illegible that it's really hard to form any connections.

I would love to read more of this author's future projects because I think these are issues of a debut novel, but still, this one unfortunately didn't work for me.

DNF 37%

I really wanted to love this book as the cover (prior cover) and synopsis grabbed my attention. The issue is that it didn’t keep it.

It starts off with Hellevir and her first encounters with death and I was onboard for a little bit. Then I was getting confused by the characters, world building and plot. This book was boring. It didn’t held my interest most of the 37% I read and what I did catch didn’t make sense. There are too many names mentioned but not enough explanation for me to understand this world. This reads like a YA book instead of an adult.

I can’t believe Hellevir and Princess Sullivan are supposed to be love interests. Sullivan so far seemed to be selfish, uncaring and unlikeable. She couldn’t care less of the sacrifices Hellevir has to make each time she brings someone back from death. Seemed like the start of a one sided love or a toxic relationship. I actually prefer her relationship and conversations with Death. That would have made a more interesting story. Her relationships with her father, brother and even her raven were the only ones I liked.

I wish Hellevir was more selfish. I get she feels if she can bring someone back she should but that is not true. She is the one that has to pay the price each time. The people she brings back seem to be ungrateful mostly and unworthy of her sacrifice. She needs to say no or should have listed to Milandre and kept her mouth shut. I wish she had more of a backbone to stand up for herself.

This book had potential but felt flat overall for me.


*Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to net galley and Harper Voyager for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Gilded Crown had an interesting premise. A girl that can bring the dead back to life...for a cost. I loved when Hellevir spent time in death. I loved the atmosphere of this other world and the death character himself had a lot of intrigue around him. This was the saving grace of the first half of the book and most of the reason I kept reading when things got boring.

The author did a great job of evoking big emotions in me, as a reader. I was so angry at some of the main characters at the end and frustrated with Hellevir herself at some points near the end. I think the writing style has a lot of promise.

Overall this book was promising and definitely set up for more in the series at the end. I had a good time reading it, but I think it was too slow, too much of the time for me to keep reading any additions to the series.

Hellevir, a highly spirited, adventurous, innocent girl that we meet in the opening chapters, takes along on a journey of her life and her relationship with Death. As morbid as it sounds, her accidental discovery of the world ruled by darkness, where she seems to find the dead, becomes a familiar world to the reader as we tag along on the journey with Hellevir. Growing up in a more rural setting, fate brings her simplistic way of life to a crashing end when she meets the corpse of an assassinated heir to the throne of Rochidain, Sullivain, and resurrects her. This resurrection, costs Hellevir in more ways than one, and brings her to the Crown’s epicenter. Here, Hellevir is reunited with her family, and is expected to be the Sullivain’s lifeline, while simultaneously unravel the riddles set out by the being she refers to as “Death.”

Marianne has created a character who resonates deeply with her readers, and one cannot help but empathize with Hellevir’s anguish, pain, fear and love. It is no small task to weave such starkly contrasting worlds that Hellevir travels between. Surrounded by the lethal politics and characters, all of whom are on the greyer side of morality, we cannot help holding our breaths as our heroine dances a tantalizingly dangerous game with the new world she is a part of. The Gilded Crown seeps in to our minds with an ease that speaks to the incredible talent of the author. A five star read!

4.7 / 5.0

This absolutely blew me away. Dark fantasy? Yes. Political intrigue. Yes. Death magic? Yes. Slow burn and super cat-fish ending? Yes and Yes.

This is a debut and I cannot say how much I think this should be in a sub box. Please? Pretty please? I’ll be keeping my eye out for the release (hopefully with a SE/LE release) and for the next book. The characters are complex, the world building developed, and the plot is so captivating. I especially liked the magic system and the cost equality to the magic users.

Overall, very good and worth it. Recommend to anyone into dark fantasy romance.

Until Next Time,
MC

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC for review.

This is definitely a dark fantasy and the world building was really cool. I loved that there was a lot of political aspects to this book and the main characters. The only thing that took me out of the story was a couple perspective shifts at the end of the book. Overall an intriguing, compelling, and well written debut. 3.75/5

DNF 36%

First thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC of this book.

While the writing in this is extremely solid and the world created was pretty lush and interesting, the story itself is pretty flat. I’m all for the concept but it doesn’t really feel like much is happening and it feels quite dull.

Perhaps I am just not the target audience for this book. I think there are some out there who will enjoy it, but I just got bored and couldn’t connect with the characters.

This was beautifully written and delightfully complex and I especially enjoyed the raven conpanion. I liked the amount of political intrigue and thought it was excellently paced.

**I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley and Publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review**

NO SPOILERS! The Gilded Crown is a Dark Fantasy that follows the story of a girl, Hellevir, who can talk to Death. Not only can she talk to Death, but she can bargain to bring back souls to the living. However, having souls returned always comes with a cost, and each time Hellevir resurrects someone, Death keeps a part of her. Raising the dead is not an easily kept secret and after Hellevir brings the only heir to throne back to the living, her life takes an irreparable turn.

This book is written in the 3rd person, almost exclusively from Hellevir’s POV. I would say this is a medium paced book that maintains a good pace throughout without any major lulls in action. The writing is lovely and easy to follow and the dialog is mostly natural throughout. The chapters are a good length.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. The scenes with Death are my favorite and honestly Death might be the best character. These scenes are beautifully written and thought provoking, Hellevir’s relationship with death is one that makes you consider death as well. For as much as I like death though, Sullivan (princess) and her grandmother are a different story. I didn’t find either character very likable and the relationship Hellevir develops with Sulliven is more like Stockholm syndrome than anything else. Towards the end of this book, I feel that there may be some hope for Sulliven in the future…but time will tell. There is also an interesting family dynamic in this book.

This book has unique magic, an interesting cast of characters, religious tension, difficult family dynamics, selfish royalty with political scheming, a naive main character and questionable romance. Overall, the ‘romance’ is questionable at best. The main thing that kept me reading through this book was Death and his world. I would give this book a 3-3.5, I’m a mood reader so it depends on the day. Will I read the next book in this series? Probably, but time will tell.