i felt kinda meh about it, but that could just have been my reading slump.

Im thinking that cus I really liked the plot and characters but could not relate for some reasdon

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe is a young adult historical fantasy standalone novel. The story in this one takes place in the 18th century, 1792 starting in Normandy, France then onto London with the characters dealing in alchemy.

Seventeen year old Thea Hope wants to become a legendary alchemist and has been studying alchemy under the instruction of her own mother. The ladies have been working on creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone and Thea knows that they are getting close. However, Thea’s mother proceeds with the experiments without her and is cast into a world of madness.

Thea is then sent to London to live with her father, a father who she has never known and who does not know her. Thea’s father is a professor at Oxford and Thea soon learns that there are alchemists there that will do anything to get their hands on her mother’s notes and the stone but Thea quickly learns that the stone is under a curse and is the cause of her mother’s insanity.

When I first saw A Golden Fury I debated back and forth on whether I wanted to pick it up or not with my pickiness when it comes to fantasy reads. More often than not I find things that keep me from enjoying the books, mostly with slow pacing, not enough action or reminding me of other books. This time however I actually found myself enjoying this one with it’s mix of all involved, being historical and taking on alchemy and tossing in some romance to the mix as well. I liked the protagonist in this one and was engaged with the action so I’m coming to the conclusion I’m more a standalone fantasy reader than series it seems.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I received an eARC of A Golden Fury through NetGalley probably 12 months ago now & never got around to reading it! My review is finally here though & while I enjoyed majority of the aspects of this story there was a couple things that I didn’t love. So, let’s jump in!

The plot was enjoyable for the most part. At times it did feel a little choppy but overall it was a fun, fast paced & interesting plot that kept me interested throughout the story.

The biggest downfall of the book was the main character. She didn’t feel like she developed much throughout the book & was overall pretty passive. I know this book was set in a time where women tended to default to males for decisions & such more so that now. However, I just wanted a little bit more of a badass independent female main character especially considering Thea’s accomplishments in this book!

I did enjoy majority of the other characters though. To some degree some of them were more fleshed out than Thea even. There were some that developed well throughout the story & I enjoyed seeing that progress.

The writing was probably my favourite part. Even though I didn’t love the MC & the plot was sometimes a little confusing I flew through this. I was engaged in the story the whole time. I also really enjoyed the world that the author created. Philosophers Stone stories can sometimes be repetitive but I didn’t find that with this one. The rules & magic system behind the philosophers stone that the author brought into the story was really fascinating.

Overall I enjoyed A Golden Fury but I think it could have been a bit better with some character development of our main character. This is the authors debut so hopefully she will improve from here! I’m interested to give her next novel, Bright Ruined Things a go when it releases in October this year. Hopefully it will bring together the aspects that I loved & what I think needs a little improvement! Fingers crossed.

I couldn’t wait to read this book. I had seen tons of buzz on social and the description was exciting. I most liked the idea of a woman finding a way for herself in what was at the time a “man’s world.” Young alchemist Thea has worked alongside her mother, learning the craft of alchemy from the time she was young. What Thea thought was a close bond between them is shattered when her mother destroys the magical Philosopher’s Stone they had worked to create. Thea must flee France for her safety and meets her father for the first time. Trust must be built and is not easily forged between the two. A romantic relationship with a longtime love is also not what it seems and Thea must learn to guard her life and her life’s work as danger comes at her from many sides.
A richly told story with a feminist perspective.

Thank you for an early copy for an honest review. I loved that it had a historical setting. I loved the family and friendships in this book. It felt a bit rushed in some places, but overall I enjoyed this read. Our character Thea was smart and strong in my opinion.

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

YA fantasy at its best. In this golden age of YA fantasy these books can be a dime a dozen so an author often times needs to hit it out of the park to be remembered and draw back its reader. A Golden fury did that. While I feel it started out slower it kept drawing me back as I yearned for more.

This book had so much! Family ties, duty, clear aspirations, strong women and intriguing characters. Love and betrayal follow Thea as she races to complete the Philosopher's Stone.

I enjoyed this book so much! It was a refreshing read and definitely had one of my favorite book vibes.

I was in love with this from the moment I started to the moment I finished. A fantastic fantasy I wish wasn’t a stand-alone.

Thea Hope, an alchemist who has learned from her mother, yearns to create the white elixir, which turns any metal to silver as well as the philosopher’s stone. Unbeknownst to her and the many other alchemists attempting the same feat is the darkness lurking within the task itself.

Thea was an interesting character, with depth, who did not need a man to save her even though this would be common in a book set in this the time period. While she was assisted, and hindered, by several men along the way, the author made her successes and failures believable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Review to come. Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Publication Date October 13, 2020
#AGoldenFury #Netgalley

This book was wonderful from a historical fiction point of view. If you like Stalking Jack the Ripper, I highly recommend you read this one! The characters and history were rich. It's about the philosophers stone and alchemy, which is a topic I have loved since my childhood. At times it was a little slow, but overall I did really enjoy!

I liked the premise of this book. I was intrigued by the focus on poisons and alchemy, having recently finished the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness--I was ready for more alchemical magic. However, I ended up getting lost with the plot and the writing. I got so bored and confused. I didn't make it 30% of the way and DNFed it. I won't be reviewing this.

DNF @ 15%

I was really excited for this book, but I just couldn't get into it unfortunately. It was way too slow and my mind was drifting off while I was reading this. It's too slow paced for me, which is definitely not for me. But the characters do seem amazing along with the world, so if you can get through the pacing, I definitely recommend this!!

Over halfway through and I just didn’t understand the purpose to this book. There is no direction and I’m failing to understand why so many accents and made history when everyone keeps dying.

Okay so I REAAAALLLLY liked this one. First of all, I think it's mostly because I am OBSESSED with Stalking Jack the RIpper, but I found Cohoe's writing to be in a similar style at Maniscalco's in all the best ways. Cohoe's writing was lyrical and intriguing and it made me super invested in Thea's quest to find / make the philosopher's stone. For as long as I can remember... probably back to my middle school days where I watched Fullmetal Alchemist every night, I have been fascinated by the idea of magic alchemy. In FMA when the two brother's use alchemy at a young age unaware of the consequences looming over them, I assumed it would work similarly in this novel as well. I immediately felt attached to all the characters in this book, rooted for them, cheered for them, and by the end was mostly satisfied by the ending. Part of me is sad that this is a stand alone, but I also think it works perfectly as a stand alone.

If you are a fan of really and truly great writing, a kick-ass heroine, and a riveting story about a girl's quest to create the most elusive alchemist's stone in history- then this is surely one you'll want to add to your TBR! Thanks again to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this review copy!

Unfortunately, this book was taken off Netgalley before I had the time to read and review it. Maybe I'll have the chance to read and review it in the future.

I was really happy to find this one to be a fun and exciting read, but where it fell a little short was that some of the characters felt a little without dimension. The book is very plot driven, which I did really enjoy and it did suck me in with that component. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept the momentum of the book up and I did really enjoy the premise and tackling of issues that faced women in the time it is set (and some that are still prevalent today in different ways). I have to say the writing was really compelling and well crafted and I would definitely write more from this author since this is their debut.

I loved the feel and vibe of the book. It perfectly captures what it was trying to show and made me want to read it.
I also loved the characters, they were all well fleshed out and interesting to read about!
Really enjoyed the book!

This book was a bit slower-paced than I'd like, but holy moly it was awesome. The atmosphere, the alchemy, the character relationships- beautiful.