All magic comes at a price, but love was never part of the bargain . . .
The look he was giving her. Serilda had never been looked at like that before . . . The intensity.
The heat. The raw astonishment. He was going to kiss her.
Cursed by the god of lies, a miller's daughter has developed a talent for storytelling - but are all of her tales as false as they appear?
When one of Serilda's stories draws the attention of the devastating Erlking, she finds herself swept away into a world of enchantment, where ghouls prowl the earth, and ravens track her every move. The king locks Serilda in a castle dungeon and orders her to spin straw into gold, or be killed for lying. In despair, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious young man to her aid. And he agrees to help her, for a price. But love wasn't meant to be part of the bargain.
A compulsive read, and as bewitchingly good as you'd expect from a YA bestselling author. You will stay up all night reading this.
Before I get into the review: THIS IS THE FIRST IN A TWO PARTER. Not mentioned anywhere in the information given. I probably would have read anyway, but still, it's always better to say these things upfront, I think.
I love a fairy story retelling. There are some really clever ones out there, and Marissa Meyer has written plenty, so we know she has the bona fides. I loved the language and the originality of this version of Rumplestiltskin. However, I thought that the tory has been stretched far more than it needs to - did it really have to be two books long? We've already had all three visits to spin gold. There's not a lot of story left!
Some of the gaps are filled in with awesome characters - the kids are amazing, in both of Serilda's homes. Some of the gaps are filled in with other characters from German folklore, who are presented with their original German names and no other explanations, which feels odd as the rest of the story is in English.
I'm never a fan of insta love, and when you add 'you're the only person I've been able to touch since forever' it really heads for 'weird' territory for me. I love Gild as a character, and it's fairly obvious how his curse will be broken, but the romance did not do it for me. However, I'm willing to be shown how wrong I am in the second part.
Overall a good read, but not without some issues for me personally.
Gilded publishes on the 2nd November, 2021, in both the UK (top image) and US (lower image). I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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