The Silvered Serpent

"She could not see her hope for what it was, nothing more than a silvered serpent."It was fun to return to this series again (even though I've forgotten most of the plot of the first book oops).Likes:* Enrique is now my favorite character. Followed by Zofia. These guys had great lines and were the most fun characters to read.* The different cultures and mythologies referenced were a nice touch. I liked it a lot.* Ruslan was also fun to read.* The name thing that Laila mentioned was something I was relieved to read because the name had been irking me since the first book because nobody these days in India names their kid THAT!* Saw the ending coming but it was still good.Dislikes:Nothing was too dislikable. I enjoyed this book. Though Séverin was annoying for 80% of the book and I wanted to slap him 🙃Favorite quote:"My death is not a service to his character, and I will not be a sacrifice simply for him to find peace of mind. He is not my responsibility to save."(This perfectly sums up why female characters should not be killed for shock value, or to give motivation to the man in the story!)Hopefully we'll get a new character in the last book. Looking forward to reading that.P.S. Also, I figured out why this book is dedicated to Nicolas Cage 😏 The first plot was straight out of the movie National Treasure! 😋

This a sequel to the Gilded Wolves and you have to read that first . The story continues from where it was left off . This book is full of drama , another thrilling mission and a lot of heartbreak . The book is left unfinished and I am eagerly waiting for the 3rd one .

Rep: Filipino-Spanish bi mc, Haitian-French mlm mc, South Indian mc, French-Algerian mc, Polish, possibly autistic mc“History is full of ghosts because it’s full of myth, all of it woven together depending on who survived to do the telling.”One thing that everyone knows about me is that I love two things the most (besides books, of course), history and magic. Combine those two together, and bam! you get The Gilded Wolves trilogy. I first read The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi back in January 2019, despite it releasing just before my finals (and despite the fact that the very day I started this book, my social science teacher told me to lock my books up till the finals ended, so as to not distract myself. Guess who did not pay heed to THAT stupid advice :p)Saying that I was enraptured would be an understatement. I had fallen perfectly, incandescently in love with this book (yes, a P&P reference) and its lovable crew of characters who I would 11/10 die for. The cliffhanger ending KILLED me and it was absolute torture waiting for almost a year and half for the next instalment. But boy, was The Silvered Serpents worth every painful second of every day!“When the devil waged war in the heavens, even angels had to fall.”The Silvered Serpents takes our gang to The Sleeping Palace in icy Siberia, Russia, in search of The Divine Lyrics, which they each view as a solution to their vastly different problems. At the beginning, we see how each of the crew members is affected by the events of the first book, and how each of them are dealing with it in their own way. Séverin has completely shut off and is haunted by his loss, but his love for the crew is immense. Laila’s days are numbered, and so, instead of being haunted at the hotel, she has moved out. Enrique is still in the pursuit of gaining the respect of The Illustrados, Zofia has returned to Poland to be with her sister and Hypnos, my precious, still wants to belong to the gang, wants to earn Séverin’s friendship. All of them have drifted apart and are leading their own lives outside of L’Eden, when Séverin brings them together for one last mission: finding the Fallen House’s treasure and The Divine Lyrics.“ He stared at her when she laughed, his eyes never leaving her face. “For you, I’d make anything real.”This book was darker than the previous one, and definitely more intense because the stakes are much, much higher. Where TGW was light and fun, this one is grimmer. There is this dark layer that shadows all their decisions. We still have the light-hearted banter and the quips to keep it fun, though. When I say I love this crew, I mean it. The found family trope has been done SO excellently in this one! All of the members feel like family to me, I feel with them, for them. The character development is done so excellently. Laila stood out as my favourite in the first one, but I fell in love with Zofia in this one. The bond between her and Laila is too PRECIOUS for words. I also loved Enrique and Zofia’s relationship and how it was portrayed. *chef’s kiss* SO BEAUTIFUL… Séverin is super misunderstood in this one (no, I don’t want to kill him….Well actually, I do, but I want to protect him too), but he is my bae, PERIOD. Someone please give him a hug from me, thank you. Hypnos cracks me up every time! He is the most precious and had me howling with laughter at so many points! Also, Séverin and Laila are my favourite book couple! I mean, the angst, the longing? So well done. The ending of this one KILLED me worse than TGW’s. The last 50 pages were so intense, I could NOT stop reading. I have no idea what will happen next, like I cant even take a guess… This book has dethroned TGW as my FAVOURITE book EVER, which I honestly was not expecting.“Why isn’t he going in?” muttered Hypnos.“Fear of dismemberment,” said Zofia. “If I were designing thief-catching mechanisms, I would have a device rigged to attack the first three people who entered.”Hypnos stepped behind Zofia. “Ladies first.”Let’s talk about the prose, because Roshani’s writing is PHENOMENAL. There were so many moments in this book, where I had to pause to just let the words sink in. Her prose is simply STUNNING, and I have a million highlighted sentences, that I keep going back and rereading. Her words are like biting into the perfect macaron: perfectly crunchy and sweet, with the most delicious raspberry jam filling (you’ll get the reference once you read TSS) and cute little feet, perfectly exquisite and wonderful!If you still don’t pick this book after reading my incoherent and entirely silly review, I will come and haunt you. JK, JK but I will never stop screaming at anyone and everyone to pick this series up! It is my mission in life, after all….A gazillion stars. With this book, Roshani Chokshi has proven that the curse of the middle book does not exist. TAKE A BOW, QUEEN!PS: Please keep my babies safe in the final book!PPS: Please include another history related quote in the third one! The first one technically didn’t have one, but the author’s note has the prettiest line of prose I’ve ever read!

I enjoyed this fantasy fiction book. Go for it.

The Silvered Serpents continues the adventures of her pack of damaged, dangerous, magical teenage treasure hunters in Belle Époque Paris, although it expands the canvas, with much of its action taking place in Russia. Like The Gilded Wolves before it, the book is both a fabulously twisty heist novel, and a deftly written condemnation of the iniquities of empire — the damage colonisation does to both the colonisers and colonised. The book never lets readers forget that the glittering beauty of this opulent period of European history is built on exploitation and bones. The quintet of characters at the heart of this series each represent (in terms of both their identities and experiences) the interplay of privileged colonising empires, and the peoples such empires exploited and harmed. None of this is heavy handed — but it's impossible to miss. Like all the best middle novels in trilogies, The Silvered Serpents ends on a cliffhanger, with multiple questions unanswered (and asking new questions of its own). I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the concluding novel.

An incredible sequel to the Gilded Wolves and so painful to read. The characters feel so real and their grief is aching, as well as their desire to save the people around them. The mystery of this one and the setting of Russia was gorgeous and the writing was beautiful. I read this in a day and can't wait to read it again before the last book in the trilogy is released.

If you enjoyed the messy feelings and emotional attachment you had to the characters and their relationships in the Gilded Wolves, you will love the Silvered Serpents.

The angst in this book was almost painful. I am requesting that in the third book all characters can be happy and content and no longer in pain of any description whatsoever. Thank you.

Fabulous story beautifully written