Review: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe
3 STARS || ARC provided by Netgalley + St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books || Amazon + Goodreads
A Golden Fury is both intriguing and frustrating. From the start we are introduced to the magical maddening world of alchemy and the hunt to create the Philosopher’s Stone. With Thea as our main leading lady and burgeoning alchemist extraordinaire, I thought for sure I was in for a delightful reading adventure.
First of all, I adore the cover for this novel. Adore. It’s perfect for the story and really encompasses what Samantha Cohoe has brought to life in these pages. Second of all, I quite enjoy Cohoe’s writing style. She’s very elegant in her prose and sucks you into the story quite easily.
The first 40% or so of this book, I quite enjoyed. I was intrigued by Thea’s progression, the alchemy and the madness, the historical setting. It was a historical with a fantastical punch.
And then.
Then it all went downhill. I detested the love story aspect of this story, so much so that the romance junkie in me would have preferred absolutely no love interest at all. I so desperately wanted to love this book, Thea’s decision making and the last part of this book bumped it down to a barely there – rough three stars.
I wouldn’t re-read this one for all the alchemical powers in the world, I will however be picking up Samantha Cohoe’s next novel. I look forward to seeing what she writes in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday books for sharing this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.
Synopsis:
Thea 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.
