A Golden Fury was a Goodreads win, so thank you to Samantha Cohoe and Wednesday Books for my advanced readers’ edition!

About Samantha Cohoe

Samantha Cohoe was raised in San Luis Obispo, California, where she enjoyed an idyllic childhood of beach trips, omnivorous reading, and writing stories brimming with adverbs. She attended Thomas Aquinas College, a Great Books college in California, and graduated with a BA in liberal arts. After studying Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School, she decided academia wasn’t for her.

In the midst of marriage, child-bearing, and the identity crisis that followed, she rediscovered her early love of writing and adverbs. In 2011, she moved with her family to Denver, where she currently divides her time between teaching Latin, mothering, writing, reading, and deleting adverbs. Repped by Bridget Smith of JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc..

(Taken from Samantha Cohoe’s website.)

A Golden Fury

1792 France

A teenage alchemist is on the verge of a life-changing discovery. But the cost may be her own mind…

With Europe in the throes of revolution, Thea Hope has never been closer to uncovering the ultimate prize — the Philosopher’s Stone — which would allow her to transform lead into gold and heal all wounds. But something so powerful could never go unnoticed. Ominous forces will stop at nothing to gain the Stone’s power. Thea must risk everything she knows and loves in a deadly race to make history.

My Thoughts

Phew! I was so looking forward to this one. Between the historical time period and the concept of alchemy, it was set up to be a stellar book. However, the “deadly race to make history” isn’t much of a race.

I’m not entirely sure how to phrase this next part. I felt that the book was three or four different stories. I don’t mean different perspectives either. This felt like four chunks of story with a resolution each time.

1. Thea and her mother in France.
2. Thea meets her father in Oxford.
3. Thea and Dominic and Will with the Germans.
4. Thea and the Stone. (Spoiler alert.)

It read with ebbs and flows. I would get really into a section only for that “problem” to resolve itself. Then, another problem was added, seemingly unnecessarily. It’s an odd thing to try and describe.

I will say that it was pretty cool seeing her talk about Lafayette and the French Revolution. Since I love Hamilton, it was a cool kind of crossover.

Now, I always try to remind myself of the genre. A Golden Fury is Young Adult Fiction, so I think middle grades. I definitely think middle grades would enjoy this! It’s fantasy and science all wrapped together. This is Samantha Cohoe’s first novel, which means she has a promising career as a writer. I’m interested to see what she comes up with next!

A Golden Fury publishes October 13, 2020.

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