Series: The Gilded Wolves

Item: The Silvered Serpents
Rating: 5
Author: Arielle

BOOK REVIEW: The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) by Roshani Chokshi

February 27, 2020 / Arielle / 2 Comments

The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2)
by Roshani Chokshi
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Returning to the dark and glamorous world of her New York Times instant bestseller, The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi dazzles us with another riveting tale as full of mystery and danger as ever.

They are each other’s fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope.

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 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.

Review

*SCREAMS IN AGONY* AHHHHHH ROSHANI HOW COULD YOUUUU. GUYS GUYS GUYS. WTFFF. I thought the first book was *okay* hahahahahaha omg I’m dead right now, dead. It’s times like these where I consider myself an idiot for requesting ARCs that don’t come out for MONTHS meaning I have to wait for the next book EVEN LONGER. DON’T MIND ME ILL JUST BE OVER HERE FREAKING THE F OUT

P.S. I’ve been sitting on this review for so long because I wanted to wait for the cover to come out…and that was BEFORE the pub date got moved back to September. I’m crying thinking about how long we might have to wait for book three!!
—
*All quotes come from an unfinished copy and are subject to change.*

“I wouldn’t dismiss myths”, said Enrique quietly. “Most myths are just truths covered in cobwebs.”

I’m going to be straight up with all of you. I did not love the first book. If it wouldn’t have been for that ending with Laila and Severin and the information that was exposed about a certain someone really not being the heir, I don’t know if I even would have requested this ARC. Thank God I did. When I saw that I was accepted for it, something in me craved it. I immediately picked it up and basically didn’t put it down until I was finished.

This book, to me anyway, is a lot different than the first. It’s got an edge to it. Our main characters are REELING after the death from the first book and it has all but completely disbanded their once tight-knit group. Their grief throughout the entire book is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Characters are darker than they once were because of it, and some of the relationships are so strained that it almost makes it hard to breathe, thinking back to it. I don’t even usually like these types of books. I guess I must have been in the mood for something a little grittier than my usual fare.

“Be a light in the world, my Zosia, for it can be very dark.”

Because this book doesn’t come out until SEPTEMBER** 2020 and anything could change (I really hope it doesn’t), I’m not going to get into the plot. All you need to know is that their goal in this one is to find ~the book~ they’ve been wanting for a while now. They are lead to an extremely unique place to look for it and I enjoyed Chokshi’s ability do describe even the most simple of things especially in this instance. She has the ability to make everything seem so much more than it actually is which obviously adds to the magic and mystery of it all.

There were some twists that I certainly DID NOT see coming which is always a delicious thing. We learn so much more about our characters and their pasts and it helped me connect with a few of them way more than I had in the previous book. And then. The ending. THE ENDING. Holy crap, guys, it’s one of those endings where you can see it happening through multiple sets of eyes so you’re finding out different information at different times and I was literally yelling at my Kindle and my husband was getting upset with me because I wouldn’t stop to tell him why. Basically I’m almost kind of beating myself up over the fact that I’ve already read this because now I’m going to have to wait WAY TOO LONG to find out what happens in the last book. And I REALLY. REALLY. need to know.

. . .finally Laila recognized the shape and flutter of this ache.
Hope.
It felt like the flicker of newly made wings, thin and chrysalis-slick, dangerous in its new power. Hope hurt.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the chance to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.♥

BLOG TOUR + REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi

January 10, 2019 / Arielle / 4 Comments

I am so excited to be participating in this blog tour, introducing the first book in Roshani Chokshi's latest series, The Gilded Wolves. I hope you all enjoy this thrilling new heist adventure with a cast of lovable, misfit characters!

BLOG TOUR + REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1)
by Roshani Chokshi
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Set in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

Review:

Well I feel like I need to keep this short and to the point until it actually comes out! This was a good book. That being said, did I expect more? Kind of.

There were so many wants inside him that he doubted there was room for blood in his body.

At this point I honestly don’t know if I didn’t like it as much because I started reading it a few months ago, put it down and read a ton of books in-between, and then just now finally finished it. I do think that this might suffer from a case of the “people likened it to Six of Crows so my bar was set IMPOSSIBLY HIGH.” And I get that, it had a cast of misfit and awesomely diverse characters that came together to pull of a heist and that was awesome. BUT. I guess there was also a lot I didn’t get. Maybe it was because unlike Six of Crows, which is set in a completely fictional world, this was set in France in 1889 and I kept forgetting that. There are instances of people being treated a certain way because of their race or class and talks of revolution and things of that nature that had me pausing for a second. I just honestly have no idea what kind of a place France was during that time period. I do always feel slightly..guilty(?) too, when books are compared to a series that was hyped up so much and so loved by so many. I just want people to go into it knowing that yes, this DOES have some similarities, but it also is its own book with its own unique story and set of characters ready to be fallen in love with!

“Tristan, my love,” said Laila with dangerous calm. “If you get it the way of a woman’s battle, you’ll get in the way of her sword.”

EITHER WAY, this book has solid bones. The characters, like I said, were really diverse and fun and had hilarious banter with one another. A lot of things really intrigued me about them and I hope that we continue to get more back story on all of them, ESPECIALLY Laila..Also, the ending set the next book up in a way that I NEED IT *fans myself*. I need more Severin and Laila (the best kind of tortured romance, folks), I need to know more about last thing that was said about a certain someone being an heir or not..I just need to know a lot of things. So again, this wasn’t GREAT like I thought it was going to be, but it was really good and I will be 100% checking out book two. Her writing is as amazingly rich and vibrant as it was in her previous books and I still think this will get a lot of buzz and that a ton of people will fall madly in love with the characters, too.

“When you are who they expect you to be, they never look too closely. If you’re furious, let it be fuel,” Severin said, looking each of them in the eye. “Just don’t forget that enough power and influence makes anyone impossible to look away from. And then they can’t help but see you.”

Huge thanks to Wendesday Books and NetGalley for allowing me to honestly review this eARC! ♥ The Gilded Wolves will be out January 15th, 2019!

Giveaway:

✮ Enter to win a physical copy of The Gilded Wolves, that Wendesday Books has graciously offered to give away (USA only).

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About Roshani Chokshi:

Roshani Chokshi is the New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen, A Crown of Wishes, and Aru Shah and the End of Time. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Shimmer, and Book Smugglers. Her short story, “The Star Maiden,” was long listed for the British Fantasy Science Award.

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