The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)
Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.
To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.
Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.
Author: Roshani Chokshi | Publisher: Wednesday Books
Rating: 4/5
“Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.”
The Gilded Wolves is an exciting, pull-off-an-impossible-heist-to-save-the-world story with multiple POVs. So, basically, if you liked Six of Crows, this is for you.
The premise is the Order of Babel, an organization that has existed throughout history and protected the world's Babel fragments, which give society the power to Forge (basically, create via magic). It's said that the Babel fragments originated with the biblical Tower of Babel, give a piece of God's creation powers to those who possess an affinity for it, and pretty much allow society as they know it to exist. Threaten the fragments, and you threaten society.
In the book's present-day, there are two families belonging to the Order who protect the West's Babel fragment — but there used to be four. The "fallen house" tried to get too close to God, too powerful, and so they were pretty much taken down by the rest of the families as punishment. And then there's Severin's house, which was taken from him and declared heirless when he was a kid.
Now, along with four others, Severin needs to get his house/status back and pretty much save the world from an unknown enemy who's apparently after the West's Babel fragment.
I loved that all the characters were so diverse, including in nationality, religion, and orientation. They all have rich backstories and important plots. The writing truly made you care about them, which is also what's so great about Six of Crows.
I did feel like there were some things in this book that were explained a little too conveniently, discoveries that were played off as natural conclusions but felt kind of like a long shot, and a bit of a rushed climax. It also came with alllllll the cheesy YA lines, my favorite being that Severin's eyes were "the color of sleep" with the ability to recall "nightmares or dreams." (I still love it though.) So not the best writing I've ever read, but still really exciting and engaging, and I can't wait to read the next one!