Gilded Cage was a vivd and complex layered story with interesting caste and magic systems. It missed its mark with the handling of slaves. It doesn't challenge it. Also needs trigger warning for slaves and violence. Other than that, it's an interesting read.

IT was a pretty interesting book. It didn't blow me away, but it was a good read. Go ahead and give it a try.

I was interested in reading this book mostly by the look of the cover. NetGalley gave me the go-ahead, and away I went! It did start off slow, as Book 1's normally do. There was a lot of explaining background details and things, which was sort of blah. But it absolutely got better as it went on. I was okay with the main character Luke. And I normally am a fan of the "bad guy", so call me #TeamSilyen. I'm looking forward to reading Book 2, which comes out in September 2017.
#netgalley #ARC

Based on the except, it wasn't what I was expecting, but I enjoyed the story. Well thought out characters, and different POV throughout. Plus, the cover is amazing. 😍

Gilded Cage took me a few chapters to get into, but once I did, it was engaging and the world building was enjoyable, and I read most of the book on a four hour flight with very few pauses between chapters.

The world built in this book feels a lot like Harry Potter mixed with 1984. I could easily see this being some sort of dystopian HP AU fic, and perhaps that's part of the appeal. There are two groups of people, the skilled and everyone else. The Skilled are the ruling elite in this version of Britain, and there are indications that the awareness of Skilled people is approached differently around the world. Everyone who is not skilled must spend a decade of their life as a Slave at some point in the their existence, and the book begins with a family who is beginning their Slave time at an estate of one of the Skilled families.

It took me a little longer to get into the characters, but they grew stronger as the book progressed, and there are a lot of different ones that seem to have motivations that I feel will be really interesting going into book two.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley an embarrassingly long time ago and finally read it this summer, but do want to go and get my hands on book 2 & 3 which I feel like when you're dealing with a book that is a series, says a lot about the series right there. I'm interested and engaged enough to continue reading.

Overall I would recommend this book to lovers of fantasy, particularly those that enjoy a dystopian environment. It's unclear exactly when this book is supposed to take place because the world is somewhat different, but there are pieces that feel historical as well, possibly because of the way the world is set up.

I received an ARC of this book on NetGalley from Vic James in exchange for an honest review. I regret that I forgot to upload this review I found on my computer. Thank you so much!!

Plot: This plot checks all of my favorite boxes. It is a dystopian novel with a strict class structure, set in London! Just by that plot alone I was all in. There are the Equals who have magical Skills and the commoners who do not and are required to spend 10 years of their lives as slaves. This was a story about the abuse of power by those that have power.

My thoughts: I love this! This was a story about the abuse of power, slavery, a rebellious group, elitist people in power and taking advantage of the system. I like how it was all wrapped together with Luke being separated from the family and being part of the uprising was probably my favorite bit. This was not a new concept in YA dystopian novels, but it was very well done. Many of these type also try to throw in a ton of romance and that was not done here thankfully. It was a somewhat bleak world, with characters that were struggling but there was some hope there too. I really would love to read the next one too! It leaves it in such a place that you want to read the next one immediately. Really well done!

I really enjoyed this title and felt it was different than a lot of other fantasy books. The storyline was great and the writing was strong. I also enjoyed the different characters. I can’t wait to continue the trilogy!

I truly wanted to love this book, but I found that I loved the idea of loving the book more than I actually did, in the end. But I thought the author’s writing was very good, the story was just not for me.

DNF

I found this one pretty confusing to be honest. At first i thought it was a back and forth between the medieval past and the present, but that's not really accurate. It seems both times coexist? I don't know that aspect as well as trying to follow who was who and what time they belonged in, even though they all seemed to belong to the same past/present hybrid time really took me out of the story. Then you have dog-men, magic gates, a too-powerful family at the head of it all and you've lost me. I won't be continuing the series. On a positive note, I do think the author has a future, the writing style was great. I just think they have too many ideas and need to reign some in so they can tell a more compelling story.

In the Gilded Cage, there are those that have magic and there are those that do not. The ones that do take precedence over the ones without magic. There are some villains that you will find loving to hate, and one good cliffhanger at the end! Great first book to the series!

This is a dystopian world of slaves and Equals. Equals rule the land because they have magical abilities. Everyone else has to serve ten years of slavery. They can do it at any time of their life. Some do it early to get it over with, some wait until they’ve lived out most of their life. It doesn’t matter when only that they put in their time.



This book follows one family as they sign up for their term. Mom, dad, 18 yr-old Abigail, 16 yr-old Luke, and 10 yr-old Daisy. Abi makes arrangements for them all to serve on the Kyneston Estate, home of the Jardines, which should be a whole lot better than a factory town, a slavetown, like Millmoor. Except the orders are changed and Luke gets sent to Millmoor instead and the Jardines have personal issues of their own.



While this is a suspenseful read and a fascinating world, I can’t put my finger on why it’s not a 5 star read for me. The writing is pretty good and there’s multiple POVS, too. Maybe it’s the characters. While they are great I just couldn’t get invested in them. In any case, there’s suspense, a mystery, intrigue, creepiness, good guys, bad guys, and people with awesome and terrifying abilities. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, so it’s obviously going to be picked up in book 2.

I was so excited to read Gilded Cage when I first read the blurb and saw the cover, but I had difficulty getting into the story. I tried to push through it because the premise was exciting and unique, but I found myself unable to read more than a few pages before I became distracted by something outside of the book. I did try again a couple of times after that first time with no success, unfortunately. I'm sure many others will (and have) love it, and I hope to try another Vic James novel in the future.

I am hooked. I requested this book a long time ago on Netgalley, and unfortunately it was buried in a list of review books. I regret not getting to it sooner, but at the same time, the third book is about to be released. I can read all of them in a short period of time, without having to wait for the next book to come out.

This book is a fantasy/dystopian. England is ruled by those who have "Skill", it's a form of magic. They use it to subvert the underclasses into slavery. The book tells the story of a family who decide to do their ten years of slavery together. Unfortunately, the family is separated and all forced into their own "hell" of servitude.

The book is told from different points of view. It comes from the family and some of the "Elite" (those in power). I was enthralled by this book. It captured my attention and imagination. It shows what can happen when an individual or group of people work together to bring about change. There are some characters that you are left guessing where there loyalties lie. There are so many secrets.

I have ordered the second book and I am looking forward to digging into it.

This book is dark. The book contains violence and innuendo. I would reccommend to readers 16+.

Source: Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

This book was not exactly what I was expecting it to be when I started it, but I really enjoyed it. The twists were really interesting and the ending made me eager to dive into the next book. I really enjoyed the dual stories and the world-building was excellent imo. Though the concept was harrowing, it was nice to see that people in such a situation could find some hope and happiness despite all the evil happening around them. Most of the characters were very compelling (I could've done with less of the older brother because he was just kind of exhausting). The slight romance within the book was a bit...fast and slightly squicky (mostly just because of the circumstances).
Overall this book was a welcome surprise and I can't wait to read more about these families.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have to say that I was not expecting this story to be so amazing. I try not to listen to the hype on books because we go into the story with high hopes only to be disappointed. But I can honestly say that I didn't listen and WOOHOO! It was outstanding and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

I have seen the description of this book declaring it perfect for readers of Victoria Aveyard and Susanna Clarke. I think that is apt, as it is like Red Queen meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in a lot of ways. It is, however, arguably better than the former, and of course because it is YA it is more accessible and quicker-reading than the latter.

Set in an alternate modern England where a group of nobles possessed of what the book calls "skill" -- a kind of magical ability, passed down along bloodlines -- lord over everybody else. The nobles are called "Equals" and everyone else is called "commoners." By law, all commoners must spend a period of 10 years of their lives as slaves. We get brief mentions of how things are done differently in other countries, where slavery has been abolished for example (and I would have liked a lot more detail about this sort of thing, and how the story world correlates with the real world), but the whole of the action is based in fairly narrow slivers of England. Namely, a fancy estate on one hand, and a slave labor camp on the other.

We hear about "skill" more than we actually see it used, apart from some big showy examples, which is in keeping with the worldbuilding. Equals don't really have to use their "skill" to keep the commoners in line, because society has more or less accepted the status quo, and pop culture tends to romanticize Equals as glamorous celebrities. Daily life for commoners -- when they are not doing their 10 years of "Slave Days" -- seems much like our own, though it is hard to say because we see very little of it. The book opens with the Hadley family about to start their Days.

We get multiple Points-Of-View, some from Equals and some from Commoners, and we jump around between them in the finest tradition of, say, Downton Abbey. This fleshes out the plot in ways otherwise not possible. These are all vastly different people in different situations, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish the characters’ voices, especially Hadley siblings Luke and Abi (whose parents conveniently disappear for most of the book although they are ostensibly living and working with Abi on the estate the entire time). The Equals tend to be more complex, while the "good" commoners, as illustrated by the Hadleys at any rate, tend to be more monodimensional.


Of course we can't have a YA dystopia without revolutionary ideas. Here, the main plot centers on slave insurrection, and on attempts to abolish Slave Days. It is mainly Luke in the slave labor camp who finds himself in the middle of this, while Abi gets caught up in the dramas and intrigues of the ruling Equal families.

I obviously enjoyed this book. It can be a little bit clunky, and some characters are memorable while others I will forget by tomorrow. I also can’t recall if many characters were not white, which, given the actual demographics of modern Britain, is a little weird (and it could be that I am just misremembering.) I suspect that many of these rough edges will be smoothed out in the next installment. And after the cliffhanger ending here (which is big, but fortunately not the annoying kind where it feels like the book's been weirdly clipped off in the middle of the story), I hope to read that next installment soon.

I so do not want a series just now. The books plot was entertaining, upper crust have magic, bottom serves them for ten years. Yuck! Almost a Upstairs,Downstairs or Downtown Abbey, only viler. Maybe fans of those or Harry Potter will enjoy these books. Myself? I'll pass.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

Did not finish. I will not review this book publicly.

WHY DID I LISTEN TO GILDED CAGE BY VIC JAMES?
Gilded Cage by Vic James is a debut novel about a world in which some have magic and some don’t. What really sold me on reading this book was the sociology within. I am always one for reading books with complex societies. This book has got a society that is totally jacked up. When I saw that Gilded Cage was available at my library via Overdrive, I knew I had to borrow it. I like to ponder and think about things during my commute. This seemed like just the right book for doing that.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
So, Gilded Cage is a tale of two families so to speak. It is about the Hadleys and the Jardines. The Hadleys are an unskilled family – meaning they do not have magic. Everyone in Britain who does not have magic must commit a compulsory amount of time as a slave before they are considered a citizen and free. The Hadley parents, Abi and Daisy end up working for a magic family, the Jardines. The son, Luke, ends up at this work house which was not the original plan. The Jardines, FYI, are what are called Equals. There’s three sons and the two parents. One son, Gavar, has a daughter whose mother was a slave that died trying to escape. The Jardines and the Hadleys end up pretty intertwined, because of the Hadleys working for the Jardines. Meanwhile, Luke gets caught up in revolution.

HOW DID I LIKE GILDED CAGE?
This book was really good, but also kind of frustrating. I was frustrated at how awful life is for the non-Equals. We do see that other nations do not follow the same structure as Britain. There’s other nations where magic is outlawed, so they don’t have this compulsory period of slavery. I found myself really on edge too while listening. You see, there is a LOT of action in this book. Sort of. Like you find yourself just hoping everything is going to end up okay for the Hadley family. It’s really especially heartbreaking when Luke is separated from them. In all, Gilded Cage really does make you ponder.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
I listened to the audiobook of Gilded Cage at twice the normal speed. It is narrated by Avita Jay. The audiobook is 11 hours and 33 minutes long. Honestly, it flies by. Okay, true, I listened to it sped up. However, the story never feels slow or boring. I’d probably recommend reading it physically instead of listening as I didn’t retain as much of it as I could have. Yet, I did want to continue with the story via audio and after finishing put a hold on the sequel, Tarnished City.