The Gilded Crown

Do not judge this book for its romantasy looking cover. It is not a romantasy by any means, thank goodness.

My favorite books of 2024 feature necromancy and/or traumatized (and kinda toxic) princesses. This definitely met that criteria and, while not as good as those other books, I really enjoyed it nevertheless. 

I really liked the “magic” in this universe, where people can talk to spirits of various kinds and a small number of people can flit across the veil of death. I like how to bring people back from the dead requires bits and pieces of yourself, except in Hellevir's case, Death himself is looking for specific gifts (which is totally setting him up for some shenanigans in the future (especially if he is the Antlered King of lore)).

The major characters are decent. Surprisingly deep. Her family is complex, the Peers are your standard evil religious group seeking bigger and “better” things. The Queen is the mustache-twirlingly evil monarch character we've all become accustomed to.

Sullivain is...tedious. Their relationship/romance(ish) is very toxic and feels a little forced. Every single time she shows even a little bit of improvement she immediately backtracks and somehow gets worse than before. There are snippets of a decent person under her iron demeanor, but they are squashed time and time again. She has potential but she has a lot to atone for. Time will tell...

Death is really cool. I liked his whole thing. I'm immensely grateful that this isn't a romantasy because he would've been the inevitable love interest and I would've hated that so much.

I did laugh a little at the Odin impersonation Hellevir's got going on at the end of the book (eyepatch and raven). And she's ending the book with plans to wander. I swear to goodness if she gets a second raven I'm rioting.

It definitely feels like this whole book is a setup for a series. But I'm definitely gonna check out the sequel though. I want to see where it goes.