Saturday 19 September 2020

A Curse of Gold by Annie Sullivan

Curses and queens. Pirates and kings. Gods and magic. The final saga of a cursed queen, a vengeful Greek god, and a dazzling kingdom in the balance.
After barely surviving thieving, bloodthirsty pirates and a harrowing quest at sea to retrieve her stolen treasure, Kora finds readjusting to palace life just as deadly. Kora’s people openly turn against her, threatening to overthrow her as heir to the throne—a cursed queen who has angered Dionysus. When Dionysus puts out a challenge to kill the girl with the golden touch and burn down her kingdom, it’s not just her future on the throne in danger. Kora’s life and entire kingdom are now on contract.

As bold and brave as ever, Kora sets out to find Dionysus, the very person who is trying to kill her, on the mysterious disappearing island of Jipper. Kora has no other choice. If she wants to save her kingdom and have any chance at reversing her father’s curse, she will have to enter into a deadly game with Dionysus, the greatest trickster the world, or the underworld, has ever seen.

The blurb says this is the last one, but I hope it isn't, as there's a major thread left hanging, albeit with a hopeful end.

I enjoyed the first book of this series about a year ago. Although there's no recap, the author has managed to weave in enough reminders that I didn't feel lost when reading, and she's even managed to make them blend in rather than sticking out as exposition. It's tough to do but she's managed beautifully.

This part of the story delves deeper into Greek mythology and lore, featuring more gods and more squabbles and more items from the myths. I enjoyed reading Annie's take on them very much. This series is so clever and inventive.

Kora was a delight, and I enjoyed Hettie a lot. The guys were good, but this is really Kora's story. Lenny is amazing and Phibbs was great. Even some of the monsters were excellent characters, and I loved Kora's solution right at the end. Very clever and farseeing.

All in all, a really good read, and while I hope there's more to come, I can live with where it ended.



A Curse of Gold publishes on the 22nd September, 2020.

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