The Gilded Wolves enchanted me and left me wanting more. Thanks to Netgalley, I got to read the next installment, The Silvered Serpents, in advance, and whew.
Buckle up.
- Title : The Silvered Serpents
- Author : Roshani Chokshi
- Genre : Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
- Pages : 416
- Own/Borrowed/ARC : eARC provided through NetGalley
- Publication Date : September 22nd 2020
- GoodReads Link /Synopsis :
Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumored to grant its possessor the power of God.
Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.
As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.
A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.
It is rare when I enjoy the second book in a series as much as I did the first one but I absolutely adored this installment of The Gilded Wolves Series. It was so atmospheric. It was beautiful. It was tragic.
A beautiful tragedy, if you will.
I will try for this to be as spoiler free as possible as to not ruin anything so if this sounds vague, sorry.
When the story begins we get a look at how the gang is holding up after the events of book one. They all have a lot on their individual plates as they deal with things personally. They are all grieving and dealing with the loss that happened in book one in their own way, while still trying to move on. But once Séverin acquires information about where the location of the Divine Lyrics may be, they come together at his request to hunt them down. They each have their own individual reasons for hunting this mythical item down. Adventure, danger, tragedy, riddles and hidden secrets come to light as they pursue their grand treasure.
Something that I really loved about this book was it gave a look at how differently people take to grief and protecting the ones they care for. While it strengthened the resolve of some to be able to protect and do what they can for those they hold dear, it also fractured the mentality of one of them who believes its best to keep everyone at arms length to prevent that same pain from happening again. Instead of taking comfort and sharing the pain with those around them that also shared the same pain, they retreated and withdrew from them, keeping them in the dark about a lot, which led to things that occur in this book.
This story also focused on the relationships/bonds that they all have with each other, whether it be familial or romantic, and I loved that. I loved seeing how each character made their choices and grew from them depending on their bonds. Some bonds were strengthened, others were torn apart and they all grew from them. These development in characters and their relationships just made them feel more real and more complicated.
Each character grew in the course of this books events. My favorite character had an epic moment in which I jumped up and down pumping my fist in the air as if I was Bastian in The Neverending Story and I can not wait until you all get to see that scene for yourselves.
The only thing I did not care for was the ‘love triangle’ and I use that lightly as it was all really one sided. I understand why and how it was used for the story but love triangles have never been my thing, so take that as how you would like.
Overall, Roshani took my heart from my chest, stomped it. Then mended slowly with tiny pieces of character development, especially in my favorite character but left it shattered once again at the end and had me crying because I have to wait another year before I can read the next installment to see where this all leads. The Silvered Serpents is a beautiful atmospheric tragedy and I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy when it’s released.
My Rating
Thank you again to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange of an honest review.
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