The Gilded Survivor

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review upon completing my read through.

As someone who has only a basic understanding of Spanish from high school, I had my worries about the use of both languages within the book as I've had difficulties with other books. However, Mera did a great job of using it to elevate the dialogue and provided context clues without giving us a direct translation. I felt this was an artistic choice that worked to the advantage of the story without distracting from it.

I found the FMC to be enjoyable. Often in this realm of books the FMC is too much of an underdog, too beautiful, too perfect. Carmen is instead not beautiful, strong but not perfect, and is instead more human like us readers. Her flaws are presented to us, but not in a way of being “perfectly imperfect”. Overall, she felt more real that FMC of similar books in this genre.

Overall, I felt the characters exuded a depth to them that is hard to find in fiction these days and the story was set up in a clean and bold fashion. As a lover of fantasy, I enjoyed this new take on a dystopian reality with blood magic and dysfunctional caste system. I look forward to the next book and finding out what happens next!