I usually read on my Amazon Kindle, but this time Sherry from Mad Tea Book Club informed me of something I couldn’t resist. It was a signed version of Gilded by Marissa Meyer!
Okay so the cover is also exquisitely beautiful. Somehow I didn’t even see the dark eyes until I finished reading it. I took another adoring glance and realized there’s our wicked king staring at me right there on the cover. Yikes.
Gilded was deliciously dark and with a distinctively “Grimm” vibe. I’m a big fan of Marissa Meyer’s writing; I love the Lunar Chronicles (I even wrote a fanfic of it). She takes on a poetic tone that I find very suitable to the whole atmosphere. Take Heartless, for example. The only downside is she can get a bit repetitive with the internal monologue of her protagonists. The beautiful writing made up for it though.
Plotwise, it is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin with several other German fairy tales meshed in. So far she seems to stick pretty close to the main structure of the tales, so there isn’t much of a surprise. I did wish with all my heart that in a sudden twist the romance would be between Selene and the Erlking, but after the Erlking’s last atrocious acts, that hope was dashed. Gild’s character is alright, though Gild and Selene’s chemistry seems rushed like those old Disney movies.
All in all, Gilded was an enjoyable retelling told by a fabulous writer. It turns out that Gilded is the first book of a duology, and you bet I’ll be reading the sequel, Cursed, too when it comes out.
