But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity--and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.
Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki--near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire's greatest threat.
Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she's ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be--not even Deka herself.
All of the talk about this book says that it's going to be THE fantasy debut of the year. I can see exactly why people think that.
This is a fantastic book. The world building is great, the characters are wonderful. I love the friendships that developed between the girls and some of the boys, and I hate almost all the adults, but I'm pretty sure we were meant to!
I did absolutely hate the fact that people were openly keeping secrets from Deka - genuinely, "I'll tell you later" keeping things from her. That's something I always hate, and even though I kind of understand why they were keeping secrets here, I still don't feel it was worth it.
But that's only a tiny part of this amazing, lush, wonderful story. I can't wait to see where Namina takes this series next, but I suspect this first book was only the tip of the iceberg.
The Gilded Ones publishes on the 4th of February, 2021 in the UK, and on the 9th of February, 2021 in the US, with the same cover in both areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment