Thank you to Wednesday Books for inviting me to the A Golden Fury blog tour! Can't wait to share this shining new dark fantasy. The Book and its AuthorThea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness. While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists. But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die. Samantha Cohoe writes historically-inspired young adult fantasy. She was raised in San Luis Obispo, California, where she enjoyed an idyllic childhood of beach trips, omnivorous reading, and writing stories brimming with adverbs. She currently lives in Denver with her family and divides her time among teaching Latin, mothering, writing, reading, and deleting adverbs. A Golden Fury is her debut novel. ReviewFirst off, I just have to say the premise is fascinating. I’m a future chemist, and as many of you might know, alchemy is the historical predecessor of chemistry. Lead into gold and all that. So to see it used as the premise for a YA fantasy… sign me up! A Golden Fury is more of a lower-stakes, higher tension read in terms of expectations, and it has a good reason to be a standalone: I simply don’t see the plot having anywhere else to go from here. Heading in, that’s two things in this book’s favor: one, we need more STEM YA! (This is *barely* STEM, but I’m hoping we can make an exception) and two, standalone fantasy! We love it!
I won’t say too much about plot for fear of spoiling this book, but let’s just say that although slow at times, A Golden Fury’s storyline really gives readers a chance to sink into the science and embrace the atmosphere in France and England. There are lots of fun political sidebars for you history nerds to dissect as well, if you’re into late 18th century England. I also liked the inclusion of Oxford—any fantasy nerds will recognize it as a popular setting for books (His Dark Materials, The Bone Season) as well as the schooling-place of fantasy’s 20th century greats (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis). Thea, our lead character in A Golden Fury, is driven by her love for alchemy and also a desire to succeed on her own after a lifetime of hearing her flaws picked apart by an accomplished mother. She has the knowledge to complete the Philosopher’s Stone, but is put off by the curse that surrounds it. Nevertheless, as we can tell from the synopsis, circumstances intervene and she is forced to try regardless. Thea’s narration is easily my favorite thing about this book. Her desire for support and admiration is so understandable—I totally get why she opens up to so many people, and it hurt every time to see her rebuffed. Further, many of those people end up depending on her help later, so Thea becomes even more fascinating when you watch her making decisions about balancing her own life with those of her friends and family. Lots of readers might say this is a plot book, but no. It’s a character study, and you can’t tell me I’m wrong. A Golden Fury is also a study of madness. What happens when making the Stone pushes Thea past her brink? How can she save her friends and family from their own minds? Are some of them even worthy of salvation? Again, another thing that makes Thea’s narration a true gift to this world. She teeters on the edge of unreliability because of this induced insanity. Sometimes, I was quite sure what she’s imagined and what’s real, but other times, Cohoe pulls a big reveal and totally tricked me! My main problem with the novel is a significant issue, but didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I just didn’t feel emotionally attached to anything in the world. Everything was going perfectly, and I really could have loved this novel and 5-starred it, but it just didn’t make me want to tear my heart out in that delicious way some books have. I’m still recommending it, of course, given how fascinating it is, but I personally wasn’t struck with lightning after reading. 4/5 stars for everything else—plot, characters, alchemy!
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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