Bumpy Oak Books

3 stars

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Roshani Chokshi’s newest book, The Silvered Serpents, is the sequel to The Gilded Wolves. Readers follow a group of characters in shifting perspectives who make up a found family, and they have a new heist in this installment.

I’m a sucker for heist books. I love found family. I love friendship groups where everyone has a particular role. I love world mythology and myth-inspired novels. In theory, The Gilded Wolves and The Silvered Serpents should be perfect for me. I like Severin, Hypnos, and Enrique. I like the diverse cast of varying ethnic backgrounds, queer representation, and neurodivergent representation. But I have to admit I have a disconnect somewhere with these books.

I had to reread The Gilded Wolves before starting this book, because I really couldn’t remember any of the story beyond the synopsis. This is incredibly abnormal for me as I can remember specific events from books I read in childhood. I blamed that on listening to the audiobook rather than reading physically. I’ve now read that book twice in two different formats, and I’m still struggling to recall what I read literally last month.

The Silvered Serpents had the same quality of just… lack of impact. I love both character-driven stories and action-based stories. I had no emotional investment in this book, and couldn’t be bothered when characters were in genuine danger. I felt the pacing was slow up until the last 50 or so pages, and my investment in the characters wasn’t strong enough to particularly care by that point.

And then the epilogue happened. And now I want to read the sequel. I want to love these books so much, and I just don’t. But sure enough I’ll be reading the next one I guess. I don’t even know how to feel.