I am usually trash for a good retelling, and Rumplestiltskin is always a good story to get retold, however, Gilded did not stand up to the challenge.
I was originally drawn in by the storytelling aspect of Serlida's story, and the lore around the gods and myths in the world was interesting. But the rest of the story was just "meh", there was nothing in the book that made me want to keep picking it back up over and over again. Every time I put the book down, there was nothing besides my desire not to DNF another book, pushing me to read.
And with a story like Rumplestiltskin, that shouldn't happen. Rumplestiltskin is one of the most well-known fairy tales for a reason, it is an intriguing story and Gilded has none of it whatsoever.
One of my smaller gripes with the book - since most of them are spoilery - is that it is far too long and I do not see why it had to be a 512-page intro to a duology. Another gripe is that the cover and name of the book are TERRIFYINGLY similar to Gild by Raven Kennedy, which is a NA/Adult dark fantasy romance based on the myth of King Midas - while Gilded is a YA fantasy.
I was originally drawn in by the storytelling aspect of Serlida's story, and the lore around the gods and myths in the world was interesting. But the rest of the story was just "meh", there was nothing in the book that made me want to keep picking it back up over and over again. Every time I put the book down, there was nothing besides my desire not to DNF another book, pushing me to read.
And with a story like Rumplestiltskin, that shouldn't happen. Rumplestiltskin is one of the most well-known fairy tales for a reason, it is an intriguing story and Gilded has none of it whatsoever.
One of my smaller gripes with the book - since most of them are spoilery - is that it is far too long and I do not see why it had to be a 512-page intro to a duology. Another gripe is that the cover and name of the book are TERRIFYINGLY similar to Gild by Raven Kennedy, which is a NA/Adult dark fantasy romance based on the myth of King Midas - while Gilded is a YA fantasy.