The Golden Flame deviates from the norm but I wasn't really ever into the story. It's a little too 'steampunk' for my tastes. I'm sure many others will end up loving it. That's the beauty of books.

Thank you Netgalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with an arc.

I loved this book! I thought that the world was built so well and it felt very real to me. The characters were well rounded and relatable. I loved Alix's struggles and felt like I could see some of my own anxieties in him. This was a great book!

3.5 stars
The rune magic system in this book is very reminiscent of Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett, but still well done. I enjoyed the dual point of views of Karis & Alix, it was fun seeing things through the innocent eyes of Alix. And I'm so thankful that the original two main characters, Karis & Dane, did NOT have a romance! Finally, a female & male can just be friends!! This was an interesting read & I would recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

*Review will be posted during blog tour date nearer to publication date.*
I Liked:

*World Building ~ I thought this world of Scriptorium and scribes was very creative and fascinating. I also enjoyed the history of the automatons. Runes are used as their magic system in this story and I thought it was interesting how it was used to control the deadly automatons in the past.

*Characters ~ This story is told between Karis and Alix but Alix really stood out for me more than Karis. Karis has walls, understandably so after being orphaned and separated away from her only family. Alix is also in a tough situation but for someone who should be untrusting of everyone around him, he was willing to help strangers.
There was growth for Karis though and that was nice to see. The secondary characters are great, I think they were all varied and added something to the story.

*Representation ~ I knew Karis was asexual but this is the first time I’ve heard of Aro which stands for aromantic. But I’m learning! So aromantic would be people who experience little to no romantic attraction. According to what the author said in reply to a question on Goodreads, Karis is both Ace and Aro. Yay for learning something new and for more of these representations in books so I can learn. Also there is a m/m relationship.

*Themes ~ story explored what family and friendship is (biological & chosen) and how far you would go to protect the ones you care about. Another subject that is explored is that of being controlled by others, enslaved by others by use of magic runes. Whoever had Alix’s tome could control him and I felt for him even though he was just an automaton.

Random Notes:
*If you love romance in your story – this may not be for you. I usually NEED romance in a story to enjoy it. This one didn’t have any and I still enjoyed it, so you may want to give it a shot.

*Karis’ goal in life was to find her brother, but I felt when she found him…he wasn’t as focused on finding her. I was a little bummed about that. I was hoping for this amazing reunion but, Matthias had his own life going on – I know he probably did that to cope with being torn away from Karis but I guess I was hoping for more.

Final Thoughts:
This story starts off with Karis, but in the end Alix’s journey won me over. This is a wonderful story about an unconventional friendship set in a fascinating world of magic runes, a history of automatons and the Scriptorium who wields a lot of power. Oh and there are pirates too…did I mention that?

The Quick Cut: An orphan girl goes to great lengths to find her brother. Chaos ensues when she accidentally brings a hidden automaton to life.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Inkyard Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Life is filled with unexpected moments and adventures. How you handle those moments can define whether you take full advantage of the moments you have or if you waste them. For Karis, she takes advantage of her find and runs with it.

Karis is stuck at the Scriptorium, working for the scribes there who are desperate to find a way to activate the automatons once again. All she wants to do is find her brother Matthias once again, the only family she has left. In her quest to find her brother's location though, she ends up finding a secret automaton and doing the unthinkable: activating it. Can the automaton lead her back to her family left? Or will it instead lead to more chaos?

This story I think will be well loved by some and bored by others. Unfortunately for me, I ended up in the second category. While this book had it moments of brilliance and excellent prose, too much of it felt boring and uninspired. A significant portion of my reading experience was speed reading to get to the next exciting moment.

A part of my reason for not enjoying this reading experience though is due to how much I disliked one of the leads, Karis. She felt inconsiderate and selfish too me, so each time I had a chapter narrated by her I just wanted it to end. Its interesting how much Karis and her brother are opposites.

The automaton Alix is the other narrator in this book and I loved reading his chapters. Alix is grappling with what he is while trying to fill in the gaps in his memory. His story is deep and fascinating and I wanted to see more of it.

A book where your opinion of characters will dictate your enjoyment level.

My rating: 3 out of 5

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this wonderful book! This Golden Flame is a YA fantasy novel set in a world the resembles ancient Greece, where the magistrate and his corrupt Scriptorium are searching for a secret that has been lost for centuries that will wreak havoc on the world around them. The central characters are Karis, an orphan girl who has been forced into servitude to the Scriptorium, and Alix, an ancient automaton who Karis finds and accidentally reanimates. These two, along with a whole cast of other interesting and fun characters, work to discover the secrets of their world and bring down the corrupt regime. While the plot itself has certainly been done before (girl finds ancient secrets and learns that all is not how it was presented to her by corrupt officials), the worldbuilding is spectacular and that alone makes the book worth reading. In addition to the awesome atmosphere, the characters themselves are all fascinating and complex. I especially love the fact that while there is some romance in the book, there is NO ROMANCE between the narrator characters or as part of the central plotline. This book has some great LGBTQIA rep, including the main character, Karis, who is ace, and her brother, Matthias, and his lover, Rudy, who are gay. This is truly an incredible work of YA fantasy, one of the best I've read this year. Highly, highly recommend!

This Golden Flame was an imaginative read with very good world building. The story caught my interest right from the start and the characters came across well, especially Karis and Alix. I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop, and all the characters had grown in some way by the end of the story. It's always refreshing to see a YA novel that doesn't place central importance on romance and also avoids the stereotypical love-triangle, and I enjoyed the LGBT representation in the piece, which was nicely shown without becoming the principal focus. There were some interesting themes explored, such as what makes someone a real, or worthwhile, person, and all up I think this is a YA fantasy that will appeal to many readers with its fresh approach, engaging story and compelling characters. It was a solid 4.5-star read for me.

(My review will go live on my blog on 1 February 2021, at which point I will also share on Goodreads and across social media.)

When a story starts off that the main character is forced into anything they did not choose for themselves I will always root for them but Karis is written in a way that you don't always like her. The other POV in the story is Alix, an automaton with his own thoughts and feelings. The world building was good but there were some parts that needed work. Take note there is no romance between the two main characters so if that's what you look for in a book this might not be the one for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for a honest review. These thoughts miss spellings and grammar errors are all my own.

Karis was separated from her brother and forced to become an acolyte at the Scriptorium. The Scriptorium is searching for a way to reanimate an army of centuries-old Animatrons. Karis inadvertently discovered an Animatron, Alix, in an abandoned cave. She powers Alix on only to learn that everything she had been taught about Animatrons may not be true, Alix is both intelligent and has feelings.

The synopsis and cover were definitely intriguing so I immediately requested a copy on Netgalley. I was a few pages in when I decided to read some reviews only to learn the main character of this book was aromantic and asexual. Normally, I like my books heavy on the romance with a dash of fantasy so I was a little afraid to continue on with the book. I put it aside for a few weeks but I eventually talked myself back into reading it.

I’m so glad I did! This book beautifully explored friendships and family. I enjoyed reading about Karis’ friendship with Alix, and what it meant to have a rather unconventional friend for their society and her friendship with Dane and how they could be friends with no expectations for something more.

The book is told from Karis and Alix’s alternating POVs and I think I would have preferred reading just one. Once Karis and Alix meet, they are together for the remainder of the plot so the dual POVs don’t actually provide any alternative stories. Instead, you receive each character’s perspective about the same events.

The actual worldbuilding could use some clarification. I’m still not sure I entirely understand the history of the Scriptorium, the use of scripts or the purpose of acolytes.

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

This was a good book, with lots of great representation in regards to sexuality, and even gender. I wanted to keep reading, and hated putting it down.
The major issues that kept this book from reaching five stars were a few annoying plot inconsistencies, and some character's choices and motivations. Additionally, this book is told from two perspectives, and I think it would've been way better told from only one.
Every time we switched to Karis' POV, I wondered what Alix was thinking and doing instead of her. Karis' development felt forced while Alix's felt more real and organic despite her being the human and him being the one made out of metal. Alix really captured my heart, and I cared a lot about him almost immediately. He was almost childlike in how he was described coupled with his lack of memory, and my first thought was to protect him at all costs. I never felt anything for Karis. She was constantly fighting against feeling emotions and yet felt a lot of them, resulting in a confusing experience for me, the reader, as she grew to care for her friend Alix while at the same time refusing to support him. She wasn't relatable to me, although I thoroughly enjoyed the lack of romance in this book due to her Asexuality. What I had hoped was that more time would be spent developing her friendships with other characters in place of a romance, but that didn't happen at all. She remained pretty isolated. I actually grew to dislike her as she prioritized herself over Alix.
Karis' family drama and love for her brother was a major part of her character, but I didn't like her brother when we finally met him. While she was too selfish, he was too selfless. He abandoned her in favor of a rebellion, which wasn't even shown to be a big deal and yet hurt me deeply on her behalf. Yet, she readily forgave him for no reason.
All in all, I adored Alix and this story, because it's his story. Watching him rediscover who he was and who he wants to be was a magical experience. If he had been the sole main character, this book would've been better in my eyes.

i enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the scifi elements in the book. It was a great plot.

Overall, the book was kind of boring and felt very much like it was lacking direction. The actions of Karis at the end of the book felt wildly out of place. I think that the idea of people and choice and what makes a person "Real" was interesting and worth exploring, but it got lost with a book that was just trying to do too much while not actually doing much at all.

“People aren’t meant to have commands written into their skin.”



⚜️As a child, Karis was enslaved by the Scriptorium and separated from her brother. Ever since then, her only goal has been to escape and reunite with her brother. Alix is an automaton who has been asleep for two centuries, and might hold all the answers the Scriptorium has been searching for. When Karis stumbles across Alix and manages to wake him up, the two band together to try and save Karis’s brother and uncover Alix’s lost memories.


Do you want to read a story about an anxious magical android and his asexual best friend trying to destroy a tyrannical government? Of COURSE you do! And that’s why you have got to read This Golden Flame when it comes out on February 2, 2021. Add this one to your tbr and get hyped, because it’s the real deal. This book is a great mixture of fantasy and sci-fi with strong characters and a ton of action! I can’t wait to support this book by getting a physical copy once it’s released. An easy and ecstatic five stars from me!⚜️

This Golden Flame had a lot of wonderful, unique aspects of YA writing. It reminded me a lot of LIFELIKE and brought up a lot of questions of what exactly it means to be alive, human, and free. Exploring a new world where each country has access to Script, the magic to create endless opportunities, one country uses it for war and creates automatons. When one of the best creators shuts down the use of Script and the automatons, the magistrate will do anything to get it back. Flash forward 200 years and you have our main characters trying to sort out the right and wrongs of history & save the country.

The main characters, Karis and Alix, are both very well developed in my opinion. The chapters are rotating POV's, which I always prefer, because you get a look into both their minds and personalities. Karis is a young acolyte at the Scriptorium, which she hates. She finds Alix, a sentient automaton (which is basically unique and unheard of). They embark on an adventure to find out who he is, what is he, and what his purpose is (because he was created in the before period). Karis is ace (heck yes, representation!) and Alix is basically a robot so there is very little romance in this book. Background characters are given romantic interests but it is NOT a highlight of the book, which I really appreciate. The YA standard is that there is always a romance and the main characters will always fall in love. It was nice to get away from that.

I wish this book was a series. I truly think the world was developed so well and thoroughly that it had the potential to go even more in depth and create a larger series. Of course, this is always up to the author, but I think it's a positive to note that the book was so interesting and the world so complex that I wanted more to it. Also, there is no info dumping. The author does an amazing job letting necessary background information join the story when it makes sense to, instead of spending most of the first 5 chapters just setting the scene.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this story from debut author Emily Victoria.

**Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

The author does an incredible job of world-building and breaks YA stereotypes by avoiding love triangles, or really any romance at all (other than between minor characters). It was refreshing to read a book where the main character, a female, doesn't make decisions based on romantic love. Instead, the focus is on family - chosen and biological - and what makes us "human". The author's inclusion of LGBTQIA characters was subtle and well-written - their sexuality was not treated like a "big moment", but instead it was simply another facet of their character.

I love that this book is a stand-alone, but would've enjoyed it as a series as well. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Here on Tallis the night is deep. Karis finds hidden runes. A patrol is close by but only Dane finds her. I like the name Karis. Dane is Karis's best friend. She wants to find out where Matthias has been sent. Dane was an orphan before he joined the militia. Karis is not attracted to Dane. I really liked Karis.

This Golden Flame was such a great standalone! I really loved the combination of fantasy and sci-fi that was reminiscent of Ancient Greece.
The two main characters, Karis and Alix, immediately captured my heart. Especially Alix, who was sweet and lonely and misunderstood. Karis, on the other hand, was fierce and determined, although sometimes standoffish.
The history of the Scriptorium was so interesting, and even though this isn’t a high fantasy, lots of time was spent on the intricate world-building.
I really enjoyed this book; I loved the characters, and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. 4.5/5 stars!

This book started off really strong in my opinion. Right from the start I was cheering on the main character, Karis, and was interested in finding her brother. I enjoyed reading from Alix as well, I found his story interesting and I wanted to know about his beginnings and his interests.

Sadly, the farther I got into this book the less that this became true. About 20 or so percent into this book it turned into a Pirate story and that took me by surprise but I wasn't too mad about because I was intrigued with Alix's feelings toward Zara. But, when it came time for Karis to finally reunite with her brother and he ends up having been kidnapped, I lost interest in the story.

We had figured out why Alix was drawn to Zara and the last thing that was dragging me through the book had been pushed back even further. And when Karis is finally reunited with Matti, she does something that, in my opinion, is completely out of character (or maybe I had just started to not care enough to actually notice her character change), and that is sell out Alix. I know that Karis did it for Matti but I really didn't like it and that was the final thing that really did it for me.

I think this story is very well written and the world was interesting to learn about, but the story just didn't hold my interest.

*a spoiler-free review will be posted to Goodreads closer to the release date.*

I really wanted to read this book, but the file formatting made the book illegible. I'll have to wait until the release. As this is no fault of the book's content, I'll rate a neutral 3 stars.