My request on NetGalley was approved by the publisher, so thank you Wednesday Books / St. Martin's Press!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

My Rating: 3.75 / 5 🌟

Although I did enjoy the book for the most part, there were some that didn't really click well with me and sadly one of it was the story itself.

I do find the plot to be very interesting, especially considering it's a heist story but I think this story just fell flat for me. The story didn't manage to hold a consistent intensity throughout the book as a heist story would, and although there were a few moments where I was dreading to read what happens next, the lack of momentum did threw me off of the story a few times.

Despite that aspect, the characters truly stole the show for me in this book. Roshani did a fantastic job in creating a highly diverse group of characters, with their own distinct personalities and a clear purpose on why they're important in this story. None of the main characters felt off-place and I would definitely say the characters was the biggest reason why I finished this book.

The world built by Roshani was also captivating. Magic in historical Paris created the perfect atmosphere for the story to be played out from the start until the end.

Unfortunately, the writing in this book was not my cup of tea. She does used descriptive writing a lot especially when she's describing the magic or the surrounding of a particular place yet simultaneously it was also understandable why she had to write in this format. For me, I'm just not quite fond of this type of writing but it was just a minor issue.

Also, I want to give major props to Roshani for incorporating so much authentic history, culture and pure knowledge into this story. I could definitely see the research she's done for the story and how cautious she was to include such sensitive and real facts into her story. She did an incredible job including them while still managing to keep the story going by aligning the information so well with the story.

All in all, I really did have an enjoyable time reading this book but as of now, I'm still on the fence if whether or not I should continue this trilogy. And even if I do, I don't think I will pick up the next book right away when it releases.

This book reminded me of a YA Dan Brown novel or even the movie National Treasure. I loved the scheming and political plotting between the characters. There is less romance than compared to Chokshi's other novels, which was a nice change. Full of heists and solving puzzles, this book will keep you reading and wanting even more once you finish. I can't wait to see the furture installments.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi was a wonderful read. The characters are so fun. The story telling is so real, makes you believe you are in Paris and in those parties

I loved this author's debut and I really wanted to love this book but it just fell flat for me. I think part of the problem is that it seemed too much like some of the titles it's being compared with to the point that it felt derivative.

In The Gilded Wolves, we find an interesting twist to the Tower of Babel story, which meshes both magic and technology and set in the late 1880s in France. I must admit it was a bit confusing at times to keep up with how forged magic worked, but eventually, you get the gist of it. The story is told through multiple POVs, which worked well since it is a heist-type plot. The characters were diverse and interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the story through their different perspectives. It definitely adds depth to their personalities and makes their interactions more dynamic.

Severin and Laila's romance was turbulent at times, and I think Chokshi did a great job building the tension between them. You can't help but root for their happily ever after. Zofia and Enrique are an interesting duo and I'm curious to see what's in store for them in the next book. I want to learn more about each of their backgrounds, and I hope we do as the story continues. Hypnos was a likable character but tended to act rather childish at times. But, his personality was uniquely his and his behavior was consistent throughout the story. Tristan's character was not as developed as I would have liked. I think the most memorable thing about him was that he liked spiders and constantly worried about his tarantula getting fed. However, the ending did provide some insight into this.

Roshani Chokshi is probably one of my favorite authors. Her writing style is always so beautiful and has that poetic touch to it. I've read her Star-Touched series and can't recommend it enough. To me this story was a Six of Crows meets Indiana Jones- a heist mixed with historical fiction and magical artifacts. I am looking forward to the next book in this series!

Chokshi's lush prose translates beautifully to the sparkling world of Beaux Monde Paris! The Gilded Wolves is reminiscent of Six of Crows or the Ocean's 11 in that it's a story of a band of reluctant, brilliant misfits who have to come together to pull off one last heist! I adored this arc, and I loved the mix of personalities and motives that Chokshi brings together. I'm already on edge for a sequel. Thank you for sharing this title with me!

Six of Crows, in Paris, with solid real-world diversity. My biggest complaint was that one of the "twists" was telegraphed way too strongly.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. Everyone has been describing it as a heist meets Dan Brown, and ostensibly, yes, that's what it is. While I did like the heist aspect of the book and the puzzles, I was a bit let down by the overall execution. It felt like a book that was trying to do too much in the first book to help launch the trilogy.

On the plus, it was quite a diverse cast, but I don't think they were fully fleshed out. While the author tried to use the cast as commentary of issues that are often glossed over when we think of glamorized 1889 Paris, it didn't often succeed. The characters themselves as mentioned previously, weren't fleshed out enough for me to really care about them. Sometimes they didn't feel like they were more than the group they were representing - which is really unfortunate and plays into the idea that we aren't more than our most basic identities.

On the whole, I would recommend this book for people who like heist type books and intriguing puzzles and some decent world building. I wouldn't recommend it if character building is important. I am interested in finishing the trilogy now that I've started.

The book The Gilded Wolves is a YA heist novel. The story is set in an alternative Paris where there is a secret society with families with the gift of magic ( forging)who rule areas of the world . There are heads of houses who control their branches.
The group of friends are on a quest to find pieces of Magical pieces of the Tower of Babel. Loved the plot and the alternative POV. The group dynamic is wonderful. The search for the pieces had great clues and patterns which did remind me of the Dan Brown books and the friendships reminded me of the Six of Crows. The characters were very diverse and I enjoyed the character with autism , it was very accurate .
I liked the story but it did take a month to finish . It was slow and somewhat confusing in the beginning but towards the middle of the novel it picked up a lot and the story began to move faster. I finished the second half of the novel very quickly and enjoyed the adventure.
I would recommend the book , the story was great and the ending was exciting.

My thoughts:

OOOOOH MY GOD YOU GUYS. This. Freaking. Book.

I started the audiobook for The Gilded Wolves during a road trip through the southwest a few weeks ago and literally couldnt stop listening to it. The story completely ensnared me from the very beginning and I found myself listening to it every chance I got.. so like during showers and before bed and while i put makeup on in the mornings. I seriously could not stop listening! The narrators were INCREDIBLE and the accents completely made the book for me. Being able to hear the different dialects and tone changes made the listening experience next level for me!!!! I am VERY picky when it comes to audiobooks and this one surpassed my every expectation.

Not only was the listening experience pleasant but the book was ADDICTIVE. I felt completely attached to each and every character. Each personality was so distinct that it made getting to know each of them super fun! It has been a long time since I have fallen this deeply in love with a book and it goes without saying that I need more immediately!!!! ALSO DIBBS ON SEVERIN!!!!

This is a must read for fans of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I had to start this book three separate times to get into the heart of the story. The world building was very choppy for me and not as accessible in the very beginning of the story. Once into the plot, I loved the mystery, the historical and mathematical riddles and the friendships that tie this world together. I am intrigued by the setting and want to continue the story in the next book.

It seemed to get a bit muddled at points but I appreciated the characters even if I never quite understood what was going on. A strange mix of history, fantasy, and science fiction.

Honestly, it only gets two stars because I love Zofia and Hypnos.

I thought this was gonna be a cool, flashy heist novel, and I did like the parts where people were puzzling out...well, puzzles. but the rest was just blah. The plot was confusing, and when it wasn't confusing, it was boring. I felt that the magic system and the history of this alternate version of our world was a lot of info dumping right at the beginning, so by the time I got to a plot point where a specific element was important, I had forgotten what it meant.

This book feels very dreamy. It doesn't feel like there are any stakes because the writing is just. Flowy. And I usually like flowy writing, but this just didn't click for me.

I don't usually like regular historical fiction, so maybe historical fantasy just isn't my genre.

Set in a magical France, a series of uniquely qualified individuals take on the heist of a century. The Gilded Wolves tell a story about this special group of thieves is made up of people who all come with their own important motives and skill sets. The leader is a rejected heir to one of the most powerful families in the world, trying to get his future back, the chemist is a broken girl trying to make some money for her sister after fleeing prison, the historian is a revolutionist who wants to be respected by his peers, and the others run distractions with their own separate goals and plans.
I found this book moderate. I think many people could read it and fall absolutely head over heals for it, but I personally found that it was just missing a little something. I'm not sure what, but the spark just wasn't there for me. Maybe it was because the book didn't really go deeper or tie in the pasts and motives of almost all the cool characters, so none of them had a satisfying character arc. Yah, all I feel about The Gilded Wolves is that it has all the ingrediants of a great book, but for some reason the taste did not blow me away. Maybe it was an editor thing, because I've loved Roshani's other works, but somthing about this book just fell short of making me a huge fan. All in all, I give The Gilded Wolves the rating of FOUR STARS OUT OF FIVE!!!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Séverin Montagnet-Alarie was denied his inheritance to lead the House of Vanth, one of the four French houses in the Order of Babel. Now, he runs the Hotel L’Eden and “acquires” Order treasures that were taken away from him when his house lineage was declared dead with a team he has assembled: Tristan, who has an affinity for plants and is like a brother to Séverin; Layla, who has the power to read objects and tell what has happened to the people touching them; Sofia, who has an affinity for fire; and Enrique, a historian. Séverin and his team enter into a contract with the leader of House Nyx, Hypnos, and Séverin is promised his inheritance if he can find the required artefact Hypnos requests.

This book hits on a lot of points: racism, LGBTQ, autism (not diagnosed since this is set in the 1800s, but the behavior makes it very likely), magic, colonialism, Biblical stories, mathematics, mythology from multiple colors, the garishness of the wealthy, and on and on. At no point, however, did it ever feel overwhelming; it all built into making a great story. I would have liked to have known more about how the Forging works in this world, but maybe that will come with the second and third books in the series. I am looking forward to the sequel!

I could not get into this one; I carried it around with me for a week, going one or two pages at a time but never truly becoming immersed. I know it's petty, but I really struggled to see these characters as teenagers, and every time their ages came up I had a major moment of disjointure, and felt pulled out of the story by my disbelief. On the one hand, I'm conscious that it's possible for teens to have experienced hardships early in life that make them mature more quickly than the average, but I also have a problem when it's teens pulling off seductions and running internationally renown hotels. They just felt like ... thirty year olds, maybe? Even thirty is incredibly young to be running a hotel. ANY hotel. Yeah, yeah, magic, etc. I get it. It just didn't work all that well for me in this particular instance, and that's on me, not the author.

Thank you Netgalley for the review copy!

1) The Gilded Wolves is a luxurious fantasy adventure that I badly want to be in. Sweeping mythology mixed with blasts of adventure. Caught me at the beginning, lost me for a little in the middle and then captured me again at the end.

2) All the characters are my children now :') AND I SHIP ALL OF THEM! Well all except one... And I would be lying if I said I loved them all equally because there's that...one. And also who could make prouder and tear up more than Laia????

3) Everyone is a Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw!! Okay, so that's just in my opinion, maybe Roshani Chokshi thinks some of these characters are Gryffindors but on my eyes none of them were. (And it was so refreshing not to read about annoying Gryffindors lol.)

4) I applaud not only the cleverness of the five POVS but how excellently they were all weaved into the story and with each other/together. The fact there's such a sharp difference between each character's pov as well meant that not once did I confuse anyone or wonder again who's pov I was reading from. I never got tired of a character and wanted to skip to another character's chapter NOT ONCE. Every character's POV was gripping and exciting and so cleverly weaved around every other character AND the plot!

5) I JUST REALLY WANT THE SECOND BOOK OKAY! My heart yearns for the second book. I need it like I need water. Like I need AIR!

First off thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin`s Press for providing an e-arc through Netgalley. Unfortunately, I wasn`t able to read the book before publication. I tried reading it and found it hard to immerse myself. I ended up purchasing the book later to read it.

This novel is a confusing one for me to review. I am not sure how to start it and because of that, this review is going to be very informal and hopefully, I am able to express how I feel about it.

The Gilded Wolves is set in 1889 in Paris, it features a group of individuals that feels very similar to Six of Crows. We are thrown into the world at the beginning with an overwhelming explanation of a secret society they are somewhat a part of. This information is very important for the whole story, so make sure you are paying attention while you read. I was very tired while starting this book and I feel like that impacted my enjoyment and understanding of the story. I was left feeling confused and not entirely sure where the story was going or what was happening. One of the main things that kept throwing me off was the similarities between The Gilded Wolves and Six of Crows. I kept imagining characters and characters from a different book, that didn`t have anything to do with the writing, that was more me confusing books again. This happens from time to time.

It sounds like this is a negative review, but I honestly really liked the book. Even with the confusion in some parts and a bit pacing issues, I put the book down and was looking forward to the next one. So let`s get into what I liked about this book. The writing was amazing. I know that contradicts how I said it was confusing in some parts. Even being confused in some parts it is very easy to see her writing was amazing. I love her writing style, it is descriptive and very lyrical. Very beautiful writing. One of the best parts for me were the characters. They had such personality and each one had a backstory or a purpose other than the mission they are on in the story. Some of the characters were more developed than others, but I am interested to see how that changes in the next book. While reading you could tell that the author put a lot of work into the story, each scene had meaning behind it and it felt like everything was written with purpose.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you liked her other novels or Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

I really love Six of Crows- and I got a real SOC feel from this book. I was kind of hesitant, even though I have enjoyed this author's other works- but my friends convinced me to give it a go and it did not disappoint.

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I've been slowly easing myself into books I wouldn't normally read and I was very excited when I received his novel. I heard that it is reminiscent of Six of Crows and even though I haven't read that book yet it's definitely on my TBR list. I have heard many great things about the author and her past works so I was immediately intrigued by this one.

This book is set in 1889 during the Exposition Universalle which is a fair that features displays of cars, diamonds, and a human zoo. While this book tended to lean more towards historical with a touch of fantasy, I still really enjoyed it and the characters. I got a little confused at times as the characters were building up and what their relationships were with each other but as I got further into the book it made more sense. There was a few areas of massive information dumps that I had to slowly read to not get confused (spoiler alert, I still did) but overall this was a really great book. I absolutely love the cover and how the author was so detailed in everything. The only complaint I have is the ending, that was an interesting cliffhanger and now I feel I have to read the second book in the series to figure out what the heck is going to happen next.