An email entry that really touched my heart and my musings on it!

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A Golden Fury
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"The Stone Chooses the last alchemist, but woe to whom it does not accept"

 

The Philosopher's Stone, that ruby red stone that has been filled with eternal life, power, ability to create gold and making one wealthy. This stone has been covered by numerous authors in numerous veins. This stone is full of mystical lore. Ms. Cohoe's debut novel takes a deeper angle on the stone and the creation of it and the Curse that is said to be attached to the stone.

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe is a wildly fast-moving, grippingly entertaining fantasy about the power and desire that the mystical Philosopher's Stone can create in an Alchemist's soul.

Theosebeia Hope is a gifted daughter of a gifted, sought after Alchemist mother living in Normandy France in the middle of 1792 during the French Revolution.

Alchemy, according to the Oxford Language Dictionary is "the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir."

Thea's story begins while assisting her mother to create the Philosopher's Stone.

"She was an inpatient teacher at times, but a good one. A thorough one. And in turn, I was a good student. The best.

Until we were close to our goal. Then, suddenly, I was a rival. And my mother did not tolerate rivals."

Thea's life is starting to blossom with love for her mother's apprentice Will and her mother sends him away. Thea's mother is affected by the process of making the White Elixir, a step in making the stone. Her world blows up when her mother goes insane. It becomes full of hate, struggle, magic, and learning to navigate the world on her own terms all the while trying to right so many wrongs that have happened since her mother's attempt at making the Philosopher's Stone. There are many boulders in her way, so Thea has to decide if certain boulders would be easier to move, climb over, or let them stop her from moving forward. Is it all worth the soul tiring fighting?

Thea leaves France to search out her father, whom she has never met, who teaches at Oxford in London. She meets Dominic, her father's apprentice and the story gets more complicated and exciting from there.

I don't like giving away the story even when the book summary gives more detail. I find it kills the joy of experiencing a story for yourself so I will leave you to it. 😉

My review

Ms. Cohoe has written a smart, gutsy character in Theosebeia Hope. The supporting characters fit their roles perfectly and even though there are a few people that Thea encounters in her adventure of creating the Philosopher's Stone that you are driven to hate, you still wish that you could love them but can't.

The Plotline is brilliant. Like I said, many authors have used the Philosopher's Stone as part of a story, but never have I seen it don't this way. The twisting, edgy movement of the story gave me a few nightmares. I felt as if I was in Thea's head during the stressful times in her story and it wasn't a comfortable feeling. This book is perfect for October!

The emotional backstories are equally as compelling as the main story and I would love to have Ms. Cohoe do a continuing story on Will from the beginning of his life to after he escapes on the ship heading to Caen and beyond. I am hoping that the way the book ends that there is another story growing in Ms. Cohoe's soul that feeds off her debut.

A Golden Fury is a dark, Intriguing book that you want to read for the pure thrill and creepiness of it. It is a book that will drag you in, stir the blood in your veins, make you crazy, and then spit you out when you least expect it. It is wrapped up in a pretty bow at the end which at first left me feeling disappointed but then after rereading the ending made it feel right for so many odd unexplained reasons in this brilliant debuting novel.

As this is Ms. Cohoe's debut there are a few spots in the story that I wish she had delved deeper into even though they would've made Thea even more stressed out and one of them is of Ava. Maybe she could include that in a deeper dive of Will's backstory if she ever had the aching to tell it.

I even had a good giggle reading her acknowledgment page when thanking her husband, "To Caleb, thank you for not only supporting me but also for always assuring me that you wouldn't have if you weren't sure my writing was really good. You weren't nearly so enthusiastic when I wanted to get into sewing, for instance." 😂

Ms. Cohoe is a gifted writer and I look forward to reading any book that she cares to write.

Thank you Netgalley, Samantha Cohoe, and Publisher Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read A Golden Fury in lieu of my honest review.

You can buy Ms. Cohoe's book either at your Indie bookstore or here A Golden Fury. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Author, Samantha Cohoe
Credit Alison McQuain of Alison McQuain Photography

Samantha Cohoe, writes historically-inspired young adult fantasy.
She 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 currently lives in Denver with her family and divides her time among teaching Latin, mothering, writing, reading, and deleting adverbs. A Golden Fury is her debut novel.