#BookReview: GILDED by Marissa Meyer @marissa_meyer @FaberBooks

Publication: 2nd November 2021 – Faber & Faber

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.

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

Gilded is an engrossing and riveting story of magical creatures, ghosts, a cruel king, and fairytales with a fantastic and engaging heroine.

The protagonist is Serilda, a young woman with the gift of narrating stories of legends, murders, and sacrifices. Everyone in the village believes Serilda to be cursed and weird. No one believes her stories, except for the children in the school where she works as an assistant.

Once a month, during the full moon, the evil Erlking leads the hunt in which he captures children and magical creatures. And it is to protect two magical creatures that Serilda lies to the Erlking and tells him she can spin straw into gold. Her lie will cost her as the Erlking takes her to Adalheid Castle and orders her to spin straw into gold by the morning or she will die. Help comes in the form of Gild, a mysterious boy with no memory of his past and cursed to never leave the castle. For a price, Gild spins straw into gold, saving Serilda’s life, but the Erlking is not done with her…

Gilded is my first novel by Marissa Meyer and her writing style captured me and kept me glued to the pages. Full of stories and legends, dark creatures, magical places, and forest folk and with a fantastic cast of characters that includes a brave and determined heroine, a witty and adorable romantic interest, and a wicked villain with no conscience, Gilded is a compelling, gripping, and gothic novel of fairytales and legends I can’t wait to read more.

A huge thank you to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Renegades Trilogy, The Lunar Chronicles series, the Wires and Nerve graphic novels, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book. Her first standalone novel, Heartless, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. Marissa created and hosts a podcast called The Happy Writer. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters.