The Gilded Wolves
by Roshani Chokshi
Publication Date: January 15th 2019
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Find This Book: The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1)
I was given an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
For context, I have previously read Chokshi’s hilarious mythological book, Aru Shah and the End of Time, so I had a lot of expectations going into reading this!
If you’re looking for a historical heist, this is the novel for you! Séverin Montagnet-Alarie has been exiled from a powerful order and spends his time taking back what’s his: the items of his inheritance that were taken form him upon exile. A job gone south forces him to take a commissioned job: stealing a Forged (magical) item from The Order he was kicked out of! Séverin and his talented crew get into higher stakes than ever before as relationships form and break under the pressure.
Set in 1889 Paris, the environment of the book and the outfits of the characters are absolutely fabulous- I’m sure so much research went into this book! The best part for me was that we were given a group of 6 characters, and they were equally given screen-time and were all well developed with personal histories and motivations. That’s hard to do in one initial book and I was blown away. I didn’t realize how attached I was to the character’s plots until I started rooting for [certain things] to occur. Our exiled hotel owner, a biracial friend from the past (a current Order-member), a biracial bisexual historian, an Indian dancer with a powerful touch, a genius engineer with a debt to pay, and our exile’s brother with the ability to Forge flowers.
The bisexual representation in particular was done quite tastefully, showing the character’s interest in multiple people and their past struggles with religion and family. As someone who identifies as bisexual, I was shocked and pleased to see this realistic experience in this novel, especially since the novel has only been marked as Historical Fiction and Fantasy so far. It’s nice to see an LGBT+ character in a book that doesn’t revolve around their sexuality. Going further, this character’s commitment to a person was just that, choosing a person to be with and not ‘choosing a gender’. Unfortunately, the latter happens too often, so I am over the moon about this character!!
Of course, this book ends with prophesized action ahead, and a big twist- I can’t wait for Séverin and the crew’s next adventure!
If you’re looking for a historical heist, this is the novel for you! Séverin Montagnet-Alarie has been exiled from a powerful order and spends his time taking back what’s his: the items of his inheritance that were taken form him upon exile. A job gone south forces him to take a commissioned job: stealing a Forged (magical) item from The Order he was kicked out of! Séverin and his talented crew get into higher stakes than ever before as relationships form and break under the pressure.