A GOLDEN FURY

I super enjoyed reading A Golden Fury, Samantha Cohoe's debut novel. It's been awhile since I last read YA Fantasy and this was such a fun way to dive back in. I was immediately drawn into the world of alchemy, and the strong female main character. I liked that Thea was smart and assertive - without being rude or even mean, as some strong characters can tend to be written. The storyline was really nicely paced and with enough obstacles to be really interesting but not frustrating. The novel seemed to fly by, and I was sad when it was over. Im hoping for a future sequel, I would love to follow along with a few of the characters!

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 a revolution looming, Thea is sent to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists. 

But 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.