Gilded Wolves

My lasted Uppercasebox book was "Gilded Wolves" by Roshani Chokshi.

The plot (and characters (a bit) (more on them later)) reminded me a lot of "Six of Crows"....except if you add in 1889 Parisian beauty, the wonders of the industrial revolution, and magic.

We get to visit all the exciting places in the city of love: lavish gardens, extravagant palaces, the newly installed Eiffel Tower, the haunted underground catacombs. 

Séverin Montagnet-Alarie owns the hotel L'Eden. Besides that wealthy title, he's a treasure-hunter, secret-collector, and ambitious group leader. When a powerful societal organization, the Order of Babel, seek his help, Séverin bargins for the one thing, the one treasure, the one right he never imagined he could achieve: his true inheritance. 

So naturally, despite the threat of a slow, tortious death, Séverin forms a team of experts to help him do the impossible. 

My favorite part of this novel was the characters. Oh the characters. When the plot was failing to pull my in (just in the beginning (and mostly because I was sidetracked)), the characters and their personalities and the witty banter kept me.

Séverin loves his friends almost more than anything. He protects them with everything he can, no matter how difficult or stubborn they might be. He gives them asylum in his hotel, gives them a home even when he hadn't had one of his own in years. 

Lailia can touch objects and read their history. Her alter-ego is the city's famous dancer, a gift from her long-lost home in India that keeps her in the public eye, pulling secrets from heirs and politicians alike (to give them to Séverin, of course). But baking is her passion. Baking and being the mother hen.The only thing holding her back is a dark, sinister past.

Zofia is an engineering genius. Always covered in soot, her nickname is "the Phoenix." She's brilliant but a little (a lot) socially inept. Math and fire she gets. People and jokes? Not so much. She hopes this mission will finally pay off her debt so she can be free once again.

Enrique loves history. That's what he is best at. Studying objects, researching topics, and correcting people. He is part of this group, but doesn't feel he's part of society because of his skin color. He hopes this adventure will give him a family with the other Filipinos in the city, or at least allow him to go home again. 

Tristan lives for flowers. That's his power. Forging, creating, growing flowers. Flowers and his giant pet tarantula named Goliath. Tristan's the cinnamon roll of the group, too soft and pure for his own good. And that might be his ultimate downfall, the fact that he might care too much.

There's a host of other lovable (and detestable) characters, but I fear that by describing them, or even mentioning them, I'll accidentally spoil something. :/

And like a few of the other Uppercasebox books I fell in love with (I'm looking to you "The Dance of Theives"; "Ink, Iron, Glass"; and "Ignite the Stars"), it ended in a bit of a cliffhanger. "A bit" depends of your definition of cliffhanger and your ability to gauge the unraveling of upcoming plot lines. But according to my quick Google searches, there is talk of a sequel.

What's your favorite aspect of a good book? Characters, plot, setting, genre, etc.? 

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