Hey all, Sam here.
I hope you all have been having a wonderful weekend. After a few very nice days, a couple days of gloomy rain swept in and now it’s pretty chilly again. Actually, this morning I saw that we were getting a rain/snow mix. All I have to say is yuck, because I want those nice warm yet slightly breezy days back. They were lovely.
Anyway, I’m planning on a pretty lazy day, just some watching TV and some reading while curled up on the couch under a nice warm blanket. That seems like a pretty nice Sunday to me. Although…I probably should do some laundry, and possibly also some dishes. But…why focus on chores when there’s good books to disappear into.
Okay, I should probably jump into this review now, so I can get back to my reading and my writing and my binge-watching. Let’s get started.
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 the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.
But in Oxford, 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.
My Thoughts
Rating: 4.5 stars
I picked up this book to read in October 2020, during what was supposed to be my honeymoon, but due to the wedding being delayed (thanks pandemic), it was just a nice fall vacation instead. Anyway, either way I was going to be reading this book while enjoying the lovely fall weather in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio.
But this historical fantasy just felt like it was going to be one of those nice atmospheric stories that would fit very nicely in the fall, and you know, I was right on that. And honestly, if you are/were a fan of Kerri Maniscalco’s “Stalking Jack the Ripper” series or Allison Saft’s A Far Wilder Magic, then this might also be up your alley.
First off, let me say that I love this cover. It definitely gives off those historical slightly magical vibes, which drew me in.
I loved the alchemy aspect of this story, but I’ll be honest, I wanted more alchemy with this story. It did sort of fall into that teen angst drama romance. Look, I’m not opposed to an angsty romance; I enjoy them every now and again. But I didn’t expect that to become one of the bigger aspects of this story, because there wasn’t even a hint of it in the summary. Based on the summary I expected it to be alchemy and intrigue, with a little drama between Thea and her parents and some drama between Thea and the other alchemists.
This is probably a book I need to read again since it has been a couple years, but based on what I remember from this, I should also check out Samantha Cohoe’s other book, see how I feel about it.
Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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