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.

I'd like to begin by thanking Wednesday Books and NetGalley, for approaching me to host a book review tour. I was provided an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Golden Fury was a departure from my usual reading habits. I'm not a fan of historical fiction/period pieces, and on the surface, A Golden Fury encompasses both of these. Set against the backdrop of Normandy, France, during the height of eighteenth century Europe (and subsequently, the French revolution,) the novel introduces to Thea, a budding alchemist. Or, as her mother would be quick to assert, an alchemist's apprentice. When the publisher originally approached me via email to pitch this book, I was admittedly skeptical. My experience with historical fiction usually consists of 'heaving bodices,' and appallingly outdated tropes/language surrounding women protagonists. Fortunately, A Golden Fury leaves those tropes exactly where they belong: in the

The premise was interesting enough to pique my interest, and I was happy to pledge my support and commitment to a publisher I've worked with frequently. While A Golden Fury introduces a capable, intelligent, and iron-willed protagonist, and I applaud Mrs.Cohoe's innovative twist on the legend of the Philosopher's Stone, after a quick reread to refresh my memory, I've unfortunately had to revise my original rating.

While A Golden Fury was an enjoyable read, there were several pitfalls and missteps throughout the novel that prevented me from truly immersing myself in Mrs.Cohoe's world.


Writing quality/readability - 3/5 Mrs.Cohoe isn't a bad writer. Far from it! The descriptive quality of her writing does a wonderful job framing the atmosphere of the setting, and vibrantly captures the rising tension of the time period. The imagery in A Golden Fury is evocative and easy to picture. The issue isn't the writing itself. However, from a stylistic/mechanical point of view, the novel falters. The pacing was the epitome of my biggest issue with historical fiction, in the sense that it was unbearably slow. It takes roughly a third of the book before the main conflict - introduced in the early chapters of the novel - actually goes anywhere. This was slightly jarring as well, since we abruptly switched from an otherwise glacial sense of pacing to a frenzied, high octane rush through the rising action and climax that, frankly, felt bizarrely out of place, in comparison to the rest of the book.


Plot - 3/5 The novel introduces us to Thea, an intelligent, willful young woman who, thanks to her scientific and alchemical knowledge, lives and works under her mother's shadow. Her mother, a powerful and well respected alchemist, is feverishly obsessed with the rumors and mythology surrounding the fabled Philosopher's Stone. With Thea's help, she manages to create the coveted formula that will allow her to construct the stone, giving her the fame, power, and recognition she craves.

It's a process that costs her mother's sanity. Forced to flee the countryside as civil unrest sweeps the country (and following a violent confrontation with her mother, Thea soon finds herself out of her depth at a men's college, where she struggles to be seen as capable as the male students. Facing sexism, betrayals, and a race against the clock to find a cure to her mother's madness, A Golden Fury provides a fun historical romp.

The issue is that separately, one or two of these elements would make a solid novel. All of them is frankly overkill. This novel has a lot going on. While this isn't inherently a bad thing, Mrs.Cohoe seems to struggle with deciding on whether she wants to focus on romance, magical realism, or history. As a result, much of the novel's central plot gets lost in translation. It reduces much of the plot down to predictable tropes. (I am once again asking, "are the straights okay?")

While a fresh twist on an old, slightly overdone myth, there were too many unresolved plot points to warrant a higher score.

Characterization - 3/5 Thea is, on the surface, a likeable protagonist. Relatable, even. She's resourceful, classically educated during a time most women were not, ambitious, and willful. It's a pity, then, that she's prone to so much introspection/navel gazing, replete with the "shrinking violet" stereotype. What I'm trying to say is, her personality is inconsistent, which undermines what Mrs.Cohoe was trying to accomplish with a strong central protagonist.

While the dynamic between Thea and her abusive, controlling mother was admittedly interesting, it didn’t save it from being the same tired YA rehashing of "you aren't truly a badass unless you have mommy/daddy issues." Hardly progressive. Disappointing, if I'm honest. Unfortunately, Thea's character seems to mostly center around a power imbalance; Thea and her mother, Thea and her father, Thea and her manipulative love interest.

That hardly bodes well for an independent protagonist. More concerningly, it sets an uncomfortable precedent for Mrs.Cohoe's future works, and sends a disturbing message to an audience mostly compromised of young women. Not even Thea's love interest is spared from an inconsistent personality, and unfortunately, devolves into a manipulator and villain.

World building - 2/5 Mrs. Cohoe didn't have to do a lot of work, here. It's historical fiction, after all. Much of the groundwork for the setting and culture has already been laid. So the last minute introduction of high fantasy elements, including demons, seemed weirdly out of place. Unfortunately, see point A: not a lot of work was done in this respect either, re: expanding on or explaining the inclusion - or the lore of - these supernatural elements.

As a result, the inclusion seemed rushed, jarring, and disjointed.

Overall, while I can't deny that A Golden Fury had fun and, at times, interesting elements, it wasn't enough to salvage it from its missteps. I'm grateful and honored for the chance to host a bookblog tour, but ultimately, this is my first and last foray into Mrs. Cohoe's work.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

I waver between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. On the one hand, it was very well written and interesting. But it didn't end in a way I loved. The thing is, though, I can't really think of another way it could have ended--anything else wouldn't have fit and would have felt forced. And it's not that it ends badly; it just wasn't perfectly happy. So 4 stars it is, I guess.

Something I liked was the concept of magic in this book: it wasn't free--it took something from the user. To clarify, this book was not a book like Harry Potter or others that are straight-up, obvious fantasy. It was more science fiction that delved into a little magic when it involved the Philosopher's Stone. The characters were a little surprised and reluctant to call it magic, but that only made it feel more real and more like it took place within our own world.

The characters were pretty well fleshed out, though most of it was in personality. There were physical descriptions of them, but they were brief. These characters were complex like real people; they changed in a believable way and remained true to who they were at the core. Each character had good and bad, and I appreciated that there was no stereotypical villain. To be honest, my like and dislike of various characters shifted around throughout the book. And typically I would be a bit angry with how one character in particular turned out (so frequently I feel like authors alter a character's nature from the beginning of the book to the end in order to make him or her a villain, but I don't feel like it stays true to the character). However, in this case, I honestly feel like the character remained as he ever was, and something about him made me uneasy the whole time. I didn't want it to be the case, but I knew it was. I liked seeing the growth Thea (17) made throughout the book and the changes in her priorities. I don't know how old Will was, but I suspect from comments he made that he was at least a few years older than Thea. Dominic was likely about Thea's age, perhaps a year or two older.

Note: Off-page torture. I can't think of anything else.

When I read the description, I knew this book was going to be good.
The story draws you in within the first few pages. The way the characters are interwoven makes reading easy. There was no bouncing between different points of view where you couldn’t understand what was going on. The author gave these characters some depth which makes you want to keep reading. The main character you are rooting for all the way through. I hope there will be another book to continue the story.

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe is the story of Thea Hope and her journey to create the Philosopher's Stone, the mythical object that can turn things to gold and also heal ailments and make a person immortal.

Thea’s mother has been allowing her to train under her as an alchemist but all of a sudden her mother bans her from the lab and starts to show signs of sickness, a sickness that soon turns into a madness and her mother ends up destroying the thing both of them have been working so hard to achieve... the Philospher’s Stone.

After this event, Thea is sent to live with her Father, a man who doesn’t know she exists, who also happens to be an alchemist trying to achieve the same thing Thea and her mother almost succeeded at. And thus begins a dangerous journey full of people trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone but still needing the one vital thing to make it work, the one vital thing that Thea happens to have. But what happens when no one believes Thea when she says creating the stone will cause a sickness?

I truly enjoyed this story. I loved the characters, the plot, the timeline, literally everything. The authors writing flowed together very well and that made this story such a quick and wonderful read.

Thea is a strong main character but she is a little too trusting, too hopeful, and that comes back to bite her in the butt. She does learn from her mistakes and figures out that her mother might have been harsh but she was right about the guy she chose to give her heart to being not exactly who he appeared to be. Because of this, Thea finds herself in many sticky situations.

In the end, I believe Thea made the right choices for herself and the people she cares about. This story was beautifully written and I am so glad this book was on my radar. I can’t wait to see what the author writes in the future. Oh, and most men are scoundrels, that is all.

Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.

I’m not an expert in alchemy fiction books but what I’ve read so far, this had to be one of my favorites. Yes, as you read this review you’ll notice I’ll have a lot to say but I liked the plot. It had enough action and adventure to keep me on my toes to read more. There were some twists I saw coming but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Once we enter Thea’s world she’s betrayed by her mother and sent to her father who doesn’t want her—scratch that—too embarrassed to see her because of his position at a University.

However, Thea is the only one who can make the Philosopher’s Stone so her father can’t push her away entirely. It made sense in the time of the seventeen hundreds, women were considered weak and only good for housing and babies. I liked how the author made Thea stand out but in a way where it didn’t feel forced. The writing itself was easy to read considering we’re talking about alchemy and all these terms but I found it simple and flowed well.

Personally I felt as if Thea’s character hadn’t developed all that much. She was likable, confident, diligent and quick from the start so I hoped the author didn’t change her all that much. However, her feelings toward Will, her longtime crush came in the way so many times it put me off. I’d rather much preferred her father than Will. I wished she could’ve seen past Will’s act to see who he really was. If she had been as smart with emotions as she was with alchemy then I would’ve liked the ending a bit better…

Dominique on the other hand was my favorite character from the start. I just had this feeling about him…that he wouldn’t turn me down. He too could be a great alchemist one day. He stuck by Thea’s side through thick and thin. I wished she would’ve seen it—him sooner and realized that he was worth it more than freaking Will!

As I write this, I realized that the young adults were much more mature and at risk than the actual adults. Then again, this is young adult fiction lol…When I mean adults, I’m referring to Thea’s father Velacott and Valetin…well not so much him. Her father was the main reason why she had people on her tail for the stone. If he had manned up and showed off his daughter instead of shoving her away he could’ve learn from her for a change. He could’ve been the father she needed all those years ago. Yet I liked the development of their relationship throughout the entire story. It made the situation of father-daughter more realistic. In the end I sort of liked Valetin and wished we could’ve gotten more out of him in terms of past and present. Yet Valetin played a crucial part in showing Thea who Will really was. He seemed like a loyal friend who stuck to his word.

The romance in this story irked me because I liked the plot so much for its action and adventure. Thea gave Will so many chances that it became tedious and predictable that he wanted the stone all for himself no matter who or what he had to do. On his freaking death bed he still thought of himself while Thea still thought of him. Ugh…love.

I’ve thought about this review a lot because of how the book ended. I’ve read past reviews and agreed with quite a few when they’ve said that the book fell short. The ending wasn’t as expected… and not in the good way. There was so much build up for this stone then it ended in a flash with half the characters looking as if they’ve had much more to say. The ending was bittersweet in a way, there are pros and cons to it. I won’t dive into them as I’d highly recommend this book after giving it four stars.

I had to think long and hard about this review, and I've come to the conclusion that A Golden Fury was a perfectly average book. It wasn't mind-blowing, but it certainly wasn't bad. It could also just be me. I read a lot of fantasy, so finding ones that stand out has become hard.

A Golden Fury follows Thea, a very determined alchemist who needs to create the philosopher's stone to save her mother. This takes her on a trip to Oxford, and eventually London. There isn't a lot of action in this book, and it feels like we keep waiting for the story to start.

There's a lot of travelling and a lot of talking, neither of which are my favourite. The audiobook narrator did a very good job of keeping me engaged. I think if I had to read the physical copy I would have been a little bored.

Overall the writing and the side characters weren't bad. Thea's father annoyed me to no end (seriously the only thing he was capable of saying was "Thea" over and over again). Dominic was by far my favourite, and Will can just go to hell.

I think this is a great fantasy standalone for beginners or for someone who just wants a fun, easy read.

*Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
I honestly thought I could power through this book. Sadly, I had to DNF this book at 20%. I did not connect with theain character. The whole premise of alchemy and a girl trying to make a name for herself in a male dominated field was what drew me in. However, the MC fell a bit flat. Despite her adamant decrees of not wanting to be like her mother (who always looked down on people not of "her status" whatnot) she does exactly that! She meets a young man and immediately comments on his accent and how it's "surely of the lower class"......ummm okay who died and made you Queen? And as someone who was bullied by the way I spoke English when I was younger...that was just to hard for me too swallow. I was hoping to power through this and that's why it took so long for the review but I don't think I'll be picking this book back up.

Thea and her mother have found the secret to creating the Philosopher's Stone, but when her mother is driven mad Thea is sent away to Oxford to meet a father, who doesn't know she exists, but events unfold and others are on the hunt for the secret she holds and so begins a wild alchemical ride that readers will never forget.

Wow! I forgot how much I loved books with alchemy or scientific related plots. To be pulled into a debut novel so quickly is such a rush and Thea's story once it began didn't slow down until the final page. Although A Golden Fury is standalone, I feel like there are some doors left open for more books within this world. I would love to read the journeys of some of the side characters like Dominic.

A Golden Fury was a fantastic debut and I cannot wait to read more books from Samantha Cohoe.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it just fell flat for me. It maybe a great read for someone else, but not me

Thea, the main protagonist, is a very interesting character. Her strength, tenacity and heart made her a great lead. I love historical fantasy and there was a lot of conflict that kept me interested and made it hard to put the book down.

Thea, the main protagonist, is a very interesting character. Her strength, tenacity and heart made her a great lead. Unfortunately though, I didn't fall in love with everything in the book. I found myself struggling with some of the relationships (Thea and her parents) and the pace of the story, which I had some trouble keeping up with at times. It must be said though that I did enjoy the premise. I love historical fantasy and there was a lot of conflict that kept me interested. However, once I was finished reading I didn't really give it much of a second thought, it just didn’t leave a lasting impression.

This was a really fun read! I'm late to the party to get into this story, but I'm glad I did. I would recommend this to my book group to read for sure.

Not really for me. It felt rushed at times and I honestly just could not get into it. Overall, eh. The characters were one dimensional and the story just did not live up to its potential

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that stunning cover? I love the colors on it and honestly it made me want to read this book even more than the premise!

This is one of those books that you devour in a day.

This book totally started out strong. You meet Thea and automatically know she is not happy with her mother. Her mother comes off as horrendous and cruel right from the start and you are rooting for Thea to get away from her. I mean, she is keeping Thea away from the only person who has every encouraged and cherished her the way she deserves... he just happened to be the apprentice of her alchemist mother. They have been writing letters back and forth and she knows she will see him again.

But Thea is more mad about the fact she and her mother were so close to creating the legendary Philosopher's Stone when her mother locked her out of the laboratory! She did this to take all the credit for herself when she KNOWS she was a key player in the creating of it as well! Little does Theta know that creating such a whispered-about item takes more than just smarts, but it also might take your sanity.

I really enjoyed reading from the perspective of Thea. She is strong, worried about herself and doesn't take no for an answer. She makes some pretty questionable decisions. As I mentioned before, the story started out super strong, but then it started to linger. The romance felt a little forced to me, and towards the end you find out why but the journey there wasn't for me. She felt a little love-struck with Will and I all I felt between them was her worry and desperation to be with him.

Dominic on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air. I loved that he kept trying to get Thea to see the bright side of things, even when there was basically nothing bright to see. Thea just... she just got on my nerves in a few parts. Which, she is a flawed character so that is to be expected, you know?

The writing was absolutely lyrical. I am not usually a big fan of historical fiction, but Cohoe makes me want to try more with her descriptions and the way she weaves sentences together

This is my first book read of this author so I’m not familiar with her writing style. I totally fell into her written prose for it’s truly magical lit storytelling. Unfortunately some of the elements of the book I couldn’t really connect with: the love triangle and the rape. I think the romances took away the beautiful backdrop and the main storyline. It’s still a great read for definitely with check out the authors other novel.

This book provides a fresh perspective on the Philosopher's Stone and alchemy, with a beautiful, lyrical narrative. I particularly appreciated Thea's strong main character perspective. It was an interesting read with a well balanced combination of historical reality and fantasy intrigue. It is certainly an exciting book with some good characters.

I did feel like after the first half of the book the dynamic changed and it felt a little slower in terms of pace, but it was still a very enjoyable read. There are some fantastic subplots running through the book with lots of family drama, betrayal, and that's without the curse of insanity should anyone try to make the Philosopher's Stone!

I wanted to like this story a lot more than I did! It was interesting at times but ultimately just not for me.

This book was really good. It exceeded my expectations. I loved the character development we saw and definitely think it deserves more hype

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy of A Golden Fury by, Samantha Cohoe. I gave this book a 3/5 stars. I overall really enjoyed the story, it was quickly paced and the magic system was unique. For a while I personally have been feeling estranged from YA fantasy, and thats why this is a middle of the road book for me. It has all the same trops that all YA fantasy have, but the core of the story was quite fun! It was a quick read and I will continue to read more from this author.