From the tags and description I thought this would be romantasy but found the romance to be very b plot instead of somewhat equal. I found the base concept really compelling but the execution somewhat lacking. The stakes just didn’t feel very high at times and I had a hard time connecting with some of the characters.

I need more sapphic fantasy like this in my life. It didn't lean too heavily into the romance which makes it a great fantasy in its own right but the romance elements fit so well and made sense in the story. Nothing felt forced or out of place within the world. The writing was strong although I think it could have been trimmed down a bit. I'm excited to see what else the author comes out with because this was a very strong book overall.

I loved this and can’t wait for the follow-up. It had the perfect amount of eeriness, violence, romance(ish?) and moral/existential complexities. The only thing I struggled with was the MC’s arc and how long it took her to stand up for herself. I would have liked to have seen it happen slightly sooner so she could leverage more politics to her advantage and start to “play the game.”

I think the themes were poignant and make any reader question what they would do if given the choice to bring someone back to life, faith, and so on.

Looking forward to supporting the full release of this and the next in the series!

I tried so hard to enjoy this book, but it was a chore to read through it. I dreaded having to open it back open for the sake of reviewing for an ARC because I just could not get into the story. I’m giving two stars because I believe the story idea and some of the writing was good, but overall it fell flat during a majority of the reading for me. Felt too drawn out and I couldn’t connect to a single character, so I genuinely didn’t care what happened to any of them.

Thank you Netgalley, author Marianne Gordon, and HarperCollins Publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐️- I wanted to like this book more, but I just could not get into it. Let me start off by saying that I absolutely adored the main character Helliver and her side-kick Elsevir. The story between Helliver and Death held my attention and every scene between them was beautifully written.

The part of the story that lost me, and was a large portion of book one, was the relationship between Helliver and Sullivain,the Princess of Rochidain. This was written as an intended enemies to lovers, but the lovers part fell flat. There were several instances when Helliver expressed feeling sympathy and her chest tightening when thinking or looking at Sullivan. The actions and words from Sullivain never displayed a genuine, redeeming quality.

All of that said, I enjoyed the world building, including religion, in this novel, but wish there had been more focus between Helliver’s relationship with death.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc which will be available 7/2/2024!!!

I am absolutely loving that we now have LGBTQIA rep in books especially in fantasy.

That being said this is a sapphic romantasy that is on the darker side. It reminded me of the Hades/Persephone trope and it delivers. Beautifully written, action packed story that I think will be well recieved by all.

*Side note that I received the ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Went into this book excited because I enjoy darker romance/fantasy books sometimes and was left a bit disappointed. It had a lot of promise and potential to be great, I just think that the pacing was a bit too slow (which made it hard for me to read consistently- took me a while to get through it) and it was a bit too political heavy. I also didn’t enjoy the relationship between the MC and the love interest- the set up for it and they way it progressed left a lot to be desired in my opinion- now with that said, there were elements I did enjoy, thus the three stars- “death” had such an interesting character and I would’ve loved to see that expanded. Would I read again? Probably not, but I don’t regret reading it.

This review is posted on my Goodreads account as well!

Queer Poltical Fantasy. If that doesn’t draw you in, I’m not sure what will, this story goes well beyond your typical romance fantasy. There is a battle of morals, of fighting who you are at a cellular level. This book is much more than its blurb suggests. Please give it a try.

This book was good! I really enjoyed the the unique take on how Hellevir had to pay to use her gift. Some parts felt a bit dragging, but I honestly think it's because the third person POV is not something I usually pick to read. I'm excited to see if there will be a book 2 to find out what happens to her and Death!

When a girl who can talk to animals and see natural spirits brings the queen’s granddaughter back from the dead, she is uprooted from her quiet life in the countryside and replanted in the busy seaside capital. Now Hellevir finds herself balancing the line between two deadly worlds— keeping the Princess alive as assassination plots threaten, while maintaining her bargain with the keeper of the dead to find him the spirits’ treasures in exchange for the souls she resurrects. A promising premise marred by the toxic power dynamics in the fundamental relationships and baffling choices that make the plot feel contrived. Hellevir may be a plucky heroine trying to do her best in a shifting political and religious climate, but she alone cannot carry all of the supporting cast.

I was stuck between 2 stars and 3 stars for this book...but what did it for me in the end I suppose is how often I had to "make myself" read this book. It's not that it was bad, just not my thing!
Let me explain...
Going into this book, you think it will be a romantasy/dark romance. It's not. It's a politically heavy book about a girl who can bring back the dead and the different repercussions this has on her life. Whether it's the crown using her, the church wanting to punish her, or her own mother wanting to kick her out of the house.
I loved the parts with death and he was my favorite character.
The fact that you think he's going to play a huge part in this book and then he's only there occasionally was a tough pill to swallow.
I also didn't understand or believe the relationship between H and the princess. Nothing in the entirety of the book makes Sullivan a likable character imo and seeing the moments that Hellevir is falling for her just felt unrealistic. There's falling for the morally grey character and then there is this.
Lastly it just felt very slow and repetitive.
HOWEVER... if you like books of this nature, it might be for you!
Lots of "witchy" type magic and I did genuinely love every interaction with death.
Big thank you to NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A queer, political fantasy mixed with a growing-in-popularity death-magic made for a good start. Questions of morality kept character development going and the dark atmosphere was there. But it fell flat for me, even with a mythological undertone. A bit disjointed from start to finish.

This reminds me of the Scarlet Letter and the Witch's Heart - which I love! The world-building and character development was interesting and clear. Hellevir lives in a Nordic-inspired court, and has the unique gift that comes with a heavy price. She has the ability to raise the dead, but the cost is her body and sole. This gothic story has a lower-stakes feeling, so this is an easy read. I will definitely check out the rest of the series

Hellevir has a special gift. She can raise those who have died back to life. But when Royalty learns of the power she has, her gift begins to turn into a curse as she finds herself bound to a beautiful princess,

The Gilded Crown is not a story of wrong vs right, good vs evil, or even life vs death. Instead, it’s a story of choices, decisions, blurred lines, grey areas, and questioning whether or not one is doing “what is best”. I loved this book for that. I loved that Hellevir was not a perfect paragon of strength and righteousness, often found in the heroines of epic fantasy novels.

Hellevir’s companion, the raven Elesivir, is a wonderful addition to the story and I’m looking forward to see how he continues to aid Hellevir in future editions.

Fantastic world building by Marianne Gordon in this first installment of the Raven’s Trade series. I’m excited to see where Hellevir’s journey continues in the next book.

The premise of The Gilded Crown drew me in instantly. Our story follows a girl, Hellevir, who has the ability to travel into the world of death and bring any living creature back to life. But like all things, her power comes with a price: for every life she brings back, she must give part of herself to death. When her power is discovered, she quickly becomes entwined in a dangerous deal. She must bring back the life of anyone the Queen demands, most importantly the Princess, or her family will suffer. The more lives Hellevir brings back, the more parts of herself she gives away, but for how long can she survive doing this?

The plot moved along very fast, which I really liked. More than the plot or even the main character Hellevir, I like the complexity of the supporting characters. The Princess Sullivain in particular was a morally complex and interesting character. She was a roiling mix of regret, guilt, and resigned hatred, The best part of her was how we got to know her more and more through her growing connection to Hellevir. Each time Hellevir brought Sullivain back to life, the girls' souls became more and more apart of each other to the point where Hellevir could sense Sullivain's emotions. This was a creative way of letting the reader get to know both girls.

Overall, the plot was very political and had decent mystery to it when it came to the laws of life and magic. I think anyone who likes the characters Nina and Hanne from Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse will like this book.

I found this to be a very unique tale of life and death. It moved a little too slow for me, and I struggled to maintain interest. The concept of a necromancer who loses pieces of her self, literally, when raising people/animals from death is a good one. It definitely had “Scarlet Letter” vibes to me. Won’t be continuing the series, but grateful to read this first book.

I salivated over this book! I hope everyone I know reads it and can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy for my book shelf!

3.5 stars, rounded up

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Hellevir can enter the realm of death. She can bargain with Death itself and raise the dead, but only at a cost. Soon she finds herself entangled with the royal family, tasked to bring Princess Sullivain back to life after each assassination attempt in the name of preventing civil war.

I thought this was a solid debut and a good start to a series. I appreciated how real this world felt and how firmly rooted in myth it was, as well as the magic system requiring Hellevir to give up pieces of herself in order to resurrect someone. I thought the side characters were interesting and I liked the way Gordon wove religion into the politics that Hellevir has to navigate. I especially loved the descriptions when Hellevir enters Death and seeing Hellevir have to come to terms with the consequences of her actions. The tension between Hellevir and Sullivain was well done, though I wouldn’t call this a romantasy by any means. I really liked how this ended, too, because it felt like this particular arc had reached its natural conclusion but there’s still much more to come.

Sullivain and her grandmother, the Queen, are interesting though I felt a certain distance from them and hope to see them more fleshed out in future installments. Though sometimes I found myself annoyed with Hellevir’s perspective on her power, I understood her point of view and thought her actions made sense for her character, though I did not feel that same level of understanding with Sullivain—and so while I thought the tension between the two of them was good, I also didn’t feel super compelled to see them resolve it. The writing was serviceable (at times there were bits and bobs that I loved! but I thought it was mostly fine) but sometimes I felt that the dialogue was stilted, which pulled me out a little bit. Still, I think this will change as Gordon writes more, and so I’m not super bothered that there were some technical quibbles with her debut.

Overall, this was a solid debut and start to a series that lays a nice foundation for an interesting world, and I will definitely continue reading.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I think that the premise of this book was very unique and interesting, and there was so much that could have been covered. The biggest problem was that it wasn't. The characters remain stagnant, and I never grew to care deeply about any of them. Hellevir is probably the most "likeable" character of all, but she doesn't feel like a real person. The characters feel like archetypes of people (the love interest, the evil queen, the girl who saves people, creepy Death), and I had a lot of trouble feeling real attachment to what would happen to them. Death, especially, could have been very interesting (though covered a lot in media and books), and there needed to be some sort of interesting twist or a stronger personality to him to make him feel compelling. But there wasn't. It played into the very traditional conception of Death (mysterious, maybe not completely bad, etc.). Hellevir's character also frustrated me a lot because there's not enough motivation supporting the actions she chooses to take. I forget that she's 21 years old because much of her dialogue frankly feels like an indecisive teen who's unused to her powers (despite having it for many years): she wavers in decisions of whether to save people or not (always opting to save them despite the cost to herself), but there's no explanation of the why behind it. She literally loses half of her finger to save these strangers, but there's no compelling reason why...besides the fact that she's the protagonist and is shown to be good at heart.

Also, Sullivain was so unlikeable to the point where I do not care about her. And I don't understand why Hellevir cares about her or keeps on saving her. There is literally no reason for attraction (again, how are you falling in love with someone who threatened your family). Sullivain is frankly a terrible person, and the only redeeming quality about her is that she is trying to be better and does not actively commit most of the horrible things in the book. But she has power, yet fails to speak up against her grandmother. Being complicit in atrocities is not a redeemable or attractive character trait. Also, she was involved in Hellevir's brother's death. (I'm sorry, but how do you love someone who was involved in your own family member's murder!) This was such a badly written queer romance.

Anyways, would give this book a 2/5 (it's not absolutely terrible, and I mean I finished the book).

Wow, this was such a surprise! I was interested in this plot, but it sounded fairly similar to some things I've read before. The quiet calm and POV of the main character who can raise the dead, Hellevir, made this book very special and I couldn't wait to sit down and keep reading, it really kept my attention.

Lots of thought provoking content about what we owe our families, religion, right and wrong - fantastic.