Cover Image: The Silvered Serpents

The Silvered Serpents

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THE SILVERED SERPENTS picks up where THE GILDED WOLVES left off, in that world as dark as it is beautiful, but with characters forever changed from who they used to be, reeling from the final events of the first book. Things are different now: cracks are forming between relationships, friendships, that once seemed unbreakable. Chokshi masterfully explores the affects that loss and grief can have, and how they can manifest.

To say that THE SILVERED SERPENTS hurt is an understatement. It causes an ache that goes bone deep, a pain that festers before ultimately wrenching out your heart. And yet, you can’t help but lean into it, yearning for more.

What makes it hurt so much, of course, are Chokshi’s characters: Séverin, Laila, Enrique, Zofia, and Hypnos. Each so wonderfully developed and fleshed out and real, you can’t help but be invested in their stories. I loved seeing how their many relationships (both platonic and otherwise) progressed in the fallout of The Gilded Wolves. Seeing who was willing to do what for their individual goals, seeing who would dare to play god. They’re the characters you wish you could protect, especially since they’re all so very good at getting themselves in precarious situations.

THE SILVERED SERPENTS sees them whisked away on one final adventure, one filled with as many puzzles, secrets, and shocking revelations as there were in THE GILDED WOLVES. While the nature of that adventure lends itself to a slightly less immersive world, overall Chokshi’s plot makes for a tense read, the suspense building and building towards a finale that leaves you utterly in shock.

To be perfectly honest, I’m still struggling to put my thoughts and emotions into coherent sentences because I’m still reeling from the ending—an ending that took my breath away and completely destroyed me. I don’t know how I’m supposed to have read that ending and just…go about my day until the third and final book is released? Which really, I guess is a good thing. Because there’s no way I can go through life not knowing how everything ultimately ends.

I am prepared to be hurt all over again, in the way that only Roshani Chokshi can do.

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The overall feel of the book is different from The Gilded Wolves. Writing-wise, it was lyrical and beautiful but parts are quite repetitive. Literally repeating words as if I've read them for the Nth time. As for the characters, they all are distinctly different with a similarity towards wanting to get accepted by the people who're already loving them enough.

As stated, it felt quite different from the first novel. And although the characters were given a whole new perspective for depth, in entirety, it was lacking in texture.

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The Gilded Wolves very much reminded me of Six of Crows, and the comparisons continue here. There's such an element of grief here, as well as the feeling of doom and dread!

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A mix between National Treasure, The DaVinci Code, and Ocean’s Eleven.. so good! Does everyone love Hypnos as much as I do? A fantastic sequel!

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The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi is a sequel to The Gilded Wolves and once again we are following the team of Séverin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos as they embark on another quest. This time the team is in search of an artifact known as The Divine Lyrics which possesses great power. However, still smarting from a loss covered in the last book and pulled in other personal directions the team is not cohesive as they were last time which makes for some good reading as the cracks begin to show. This time the team goes international so we give to read of new locales in Russia. The introduction of new characters and the changing of relationship among the team keeps the book interesting. I will save Severin's obsession with the Divine Lyrics and absolution we're played up a bit too much for me but overall it wasn't a bad book and nicely sets up what will most likely be the third installment in the series. Anyone who enjoyed the first book in this series will likely enjoy this book as well.

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This was a very captivating novel, a great follow up to the first in the series. The author does a great job with character development, plot, and has beautiful diction.

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This story was an ok addition to the series. I felt it was lacking a little in something that I have yet to figure out. I did like the additions to the characters backstories. I didn’t enjoy as much as the guilded wolves but i will definitely keep reading the series.

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DNF. The first book was confusing to me but maybe I read it too quickly and I realized I don’t really have an interest in continuing the series.

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Loved it. I mean Roshani can do no wrong. This lush, rich, luxurious world she has created and the drama, intrigue is everything I wanted in this book and got wanted. The twists had me reeling. I wanted to slap Severin at times but damn his scenes with Laila were FIRE. I love all the main characters. Zofia and Enrique, my loves. Excited to see where they go in the third part. Will definitely be picking that up!

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I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

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This book is how you write a sequel! I absolutely loved The Gilded Wolves, but The Silvered Serpents took what happened in that book and ran with it! I can't wait to read the third book!

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Once Upon a Time, Wednesday Books put a few of their anticipated new releases on the Read Now selection of Netgalley and I snatched up a few that sounded interesting. Even though The Gilded Wolves was still sitting on my shelves waiting for me to read it, I picked up The Silvered Serpents. Unfortunately, when I read The Gilded Wolves in anticipation for this ARC, it settled firmly in that "it was a good book but I'll probably only read the sequel if reviews say that it really gets better." I didn't have the reviews, but I did have a commitment to this ARC. So bookfriends, I am here to tell you - <b>this series got better</b>. This book is darker, grittier, and deeper than it's predecessor and I'm just going to be over here waiting for the conclusion.

Some Bad Stuff happened to our characters at the end of The Gilded Wolves and the echoes of what was lost haunt the pages of this book. Séverin has changed utterly, become a reclusive shell of himself with the single minded focus to find the power he needs. He grapples both with morality and mortality, the power he could wield if only he could find it, and shifts deftly into an expanded anti-hero role. Where previously Séverin fell into the anti-hero vein due to their Robin Hoodesque view on acquiring the treasures of others, he's now somewhat of an anti-hero in his own group. He is more ruthless with maybe a little edge of low-key betrayal thrown in. Our other characters are also struggling, both with the loss and their own senses of belonging. The character arcs are HUGE in this.

There was a ton of action in this book and a lot of big reveals that left me wanting more. I can't wait for The Bronzed Beasts to be released!

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I had to go read The Gilded Wolves first as I hadn’t read it before and downloaded this one when it was available as read now copy.
The book is truly an amazing second in series YA fantasy. There was complete justice to all the hype surrounding the series. The cliffhanger at the end makes me pull my hair out because how long should I wait or will I be lucky to get the arc again?

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Absolutely beautiful part two of one of my current favourite heist series. Roshs prose is always beautiful and well done. I'm looking forward to seeing it and Aru Shah completed.

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Each person is beautifully broken in their own way and together they are something so much more. I love this series and how this group is a team and a family. The multiple narrators have the reader in on all the information while the players are blind to the whole picture. The cliffhanger has me itching for the next one!

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This was so so good. I expected to enjoy it quite a bit because I loved The Gilded Wolves but this book dialled everything I loved about the first one up to 10.

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While I loved Roshani’s first work I felt like this series just fell flat somewhere. Where I’m in love with the characters I feel like I’m missing that deeper connection and that prose I got from The Star Touched Queen. That’s one of my favorite books because of its eloquence and beautiful wording. I think we miss the prose when we jump between characters.

The ending though! Oh my gosh golly I need to know what happens next because I’m just sitting here going “what was that”!?

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This was a perfect continuation of the Gilded Wolves. I really enjoyed reading about these characters again and was immediately sucked into their world. It was packed full of adventure and friendship. I loved learning new things about the characters and feel like they are part of me now. I definitely recommend this one :)

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Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

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Where do I even begin with this one? The Silvered Serpents picks up shortly after The Gilded Wolves finishes and continues to explore the intrigue surrounding the Fallen House and a mysterious object said to grant the powers of God to whoever owns it. The quest for this object leads Severin and co. to Russia where they uncover more secrets not only about the artifact they're searching for and the Fallen House but about themselves/each other as well.

Everything that was good about The Gilded Wolves continues to be good in the Silvered Serpents. Chokshi employees her signature writing style and weaves a story that is beautifully written and full of evocative language and imagery. There were some scenes that were explained so well, in such exquisite detail, that I could picture them as clearly as though they were taking place in front of me. The writing is so well done that it almost becomes a character of its own and it really helps to bring the setting and time alive.

Where I would say the story struggled most is in the pacing. There was a good amount of action in the beginning and end of the book but it felt like a large portion of the novel was just the characters doing the same things, having the same thoughts and conflicts, over and over again and it definitely caused the book to drag. The book probably would have benefitted by being about 50-75 pages shorter or by adding some more twists/action into the middle of the story because as it was it felt like they spent too much time waiting for something to happen.

The only other thing I would say as a negative was that I felt it was fairly obvious what was going on from pretty early in the book. There were a few moments in the book that were clearly meant to be big reveals but they lacked impact because I felt they'd been telegraphed early on.

I don't want to sound too negative though because of course the shining star of this book is the characters! While I would have liked more hijinks in this book I'm definitely not mad about the more in depth look we got at the main gang/cast of characters. Zofia, Enrique, Layla, and Hypnos continue to amaze me. Each character is so unique, they have very distinct personalities and also very distinct insecurities/motivations which drive them throughout the story. Every time the POV changed I sucked into that character and what they were experiencing and I loved each of them so much but also differently. I really appreciated the alternating POVs because it really showed not only how they each see themselves but also how that differs from how they see each other. It also showed how Zofia must be protected at all costs.

Now you may have noticed that I left Severin out of my above paragraph and that is because in this book, Severin kind of sucks. I know that was intentional so I wouldn't say it detracted from the book exactly but it was frustrating because his behaviour really just made me want to shake some sense into him. However, Severin's character in the Silvered Serpents is just another example of how good Chokshi is with writing her characters; even when I wanted to shake him silly I was still rooting for him and (mostly) understood why he was doing what he was. I definitely look forward to seeing what happens with all of the cast but particularly Severin in the next book.

This book has a lot going on but ultimately I believe it was about love and how it drives the characters in all that they do, even when it may not seem like it. I love found family books and at its core that is what The Silvered Serpents is about so I would recommend this series who feels similarly. While it wasn't perfect I would rate it at a 3.5 overall and I will definitely be reading the next one.

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