Blog Tour: A Golden Fury Review

Hello, all!

I love fantasy and historical fiction, so when you mesh the two together, it's an automatic add to my TBR. Big thank you to Wednesday Books for having me as part of the blog tour for A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe!

Pub Date: 10-13-20
YA - Fantasy

Thea Hope wants nothing more than to step out of her mother’s shadow and make a name for her own in the alchemy world. The pair have been working together to create the elusive Philosopher’s Stone, but just as they were getting close, Thea’s mother banished her from their lab. Thea is convinced her mother just wants all the fame and glory for herself, but when she becomes ill and starts lashing out, Thea starts to believe there’s something more sinister going on. Then one night in a fit of rage, her mother destroys the stone, attempting to kill Thea in the process.

After this encounter, armed with her mother’s notes, Thea flees France for England to seek shelter and help from a father who doesn’t even know she exists. When she arrives in Oxford, Thea finds her father and a group of fellow alchemists are also trying to create the stone, and they refuse to heed her warnings on how dangerous it is. Instead, they steal her notes and are not above pulling out all the stops to force Thea into helping them, even if that means torturing the ones closest to her. Thea must face a difficult decision: either make the stone and most likely lose her mind in the process, or forsake the lives of those she loves.

I was very much drawn in by the premise of this. The practice of alchemy is so fascinating and complex and I enjoyed seeing how it was portrayed. The entire story is very plot-driven and action-packed right from the get-go. Every single character has a motive for wanting to create the stone and will do whatever it takes no matter the consequences. Especially Thea. She was such a capable strong-willed character and I liked how she never seemed afraid of conflict and did what needed to be done. That being said, my issue with this was that I felt not as much time and effort went into the overall character development as the actual storyline. All the characters felt very one-note so I had a hard time connecting to them, and ultimately, I wasn’t that invested in what happened to them. I definitely think this had a ton of potential, and there are some interesting moments, so I would still recommend if you’re a fan of historical fiction/fantasy.

Rating: 3/5

Comments

Popular Posts