The Golden City

I received a copy of this book from the author. My review states my unbiased reaction.

The Golden City is the sort of book that would make me go, "OOOH! WANT!" It hits on several of my sweet spots: historical fiction, a unique setting (1902 Portugal), magic, and selkies. The latter is huge for me. I love selkies and am delighted when I find shorts stories and novels that utilize them well. (For those who aren't familiar with selkies, they are fairy creatures of sea who can slip off their pelt to take on human form.)

This novel alternates between two perspectives: Oriana Paredes, a sereia, who has been sent from her sea people to spy on the Golden City; and Duilio Ferreira, a police consultant with his own genetic roots in the sea. Both show more feel like real, complicated people. I'm normally drawn to heroines the most, but there's something especially appealing about Duilio. He's intelligent and kind, and this even comes across in a scene that could have easily turned me off of the book entirely: he intrudes on Oriana in her bath to verify that she is indeed a sereia. That could have been all sorts of creepy, but Cheney handles it with a deft hand.

The plot is fast and fun as it develops historical Portugal with a magical twist. Magic is shown through selkies, sereia, and various human gifts such as foresight, and the villains, of course, have dark powers of their own. Cheney mentions otter-folk; they didn't have a role in this book, but I love otters and I'm curious about what she'll do with them in future books. The balance in viewpoints reminded me a great deal of Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer, another favorite read of this year. Both books have two narrators, a police investigator and a woman with special skills, and they work together within a historical setting to solve serial killings. I don't think this similarity is a bad thing, but I couldn't help but notice as I read and enjoyed the book.

The set-up for the ending is very well done here. I hoped the bad guy would be one person, it ended up being another, and Oriana plays a pivotal role in capturing him that I couldn't foresee at all. The last 100 pages were so intense that it drove me bonkers when I had to set down the book for the night.

Probably the biggest negative is that there are a lot of characters to keep track of. Family houses, servants, investigators good and bad, Duilio's large family--sometimes I was a bit confused about who was who.

In all, this was a delightful read that lived up to all my hopes. show less

The Golden City is a fantastic fantasy set in a alternative early 1900s Porto, Portugal, where people can have magical powers and selkies and sirens (known as sereia) live in hiding. Because for the last 20 years, non-humans have been banned from the Golden City on pain of death because the Prince believes that they are going to kill him. That doesn't mean that they aren't there though. Oriana is an agent for the Sereian government posing as the paid companion to a young socialite. But then, just as her charge is about to elope, they are kidnapped and left for dead in part of mysterious underwater art project known as the city under the sea that replicates one of the best neighborhoods of the city under the waives. Having gills, Oriana show more is able to escape, but Isabel, her only friend in this hostile environment drowns unleashing a kind of magic Oriana has never seen before. She had come to the Golden City to somehow avenge her sister's murder, so Isabel's death becomes just one thing Oriana has to fix in order to find peace. But now she is friendless, homeless, and rapidly becoming penniless, and justice is seeming ever more unlikely.

Enter Duilio, a young Portuguese man of leisure, who spends his time helping with police investigations while trying to figure out what happened to his mother's most prized possession. A seer, he knows Oriana is important and that something is wrong with the city under the sea. Together, the two team up to solve the mystery, but someone with a lot of power does not want their quest to succeed, and Oriana's superiors are putting pressure on her to return to the Islands. But these two are not going to quit until they get to the bottom of things.

I love this book. I love, love, love, love this book. Oriana is the best kind of strong heroine, flawed but determined. Nothing in her life has gone right since her mother died when she was twelve and her father was exiled for sedition four years later. But no matter how desperate her circumstances or hopeless she felt, she never let it get her down. And Duilio is her perfect foil, patient and understanding where she is impatience and temper. Together they make a great team. Every time I read it I discover something new to like. Wonderful characterizations and excellent world building, make you feel like there really is a place in Portugal where magical creatures clandestinely walk the streets and magic has the potential to change the world. Highly recommended to anyone who likes historical fantasy, strong female leads, or mysteries with a touch of magic. show less

I enjoyed this a great deal. Set in a highly mannered alterni-Portugal of the very early twentieth century, it has all sorts of wonderful elements: mermaids (well, sirens and selkies and even a rusalka who I liked the most) and dastardly plots that need foiling (like being trapped in the library with an unmarried gentleman!) and an absolutely smashing romance between the two leads, wherein they form a solid bond of mutual respect that's just dripping with UST, but impeded by constraints that are genuinely part of who they are.

There were times when there seemed to be rather too much inconsequential detail cluttering up the page, but in general, I enjoyed the ride a lot, and I'm looking forward to more.

Set in a convincing alternate-history world, the Golden City of Kathleen Cheney’s novel offers a wealth of history and politics and a convincing society of humanity and seafolk. Of course, the twain should never meet, each banished from the other’s lands. But there are always spies.

There’s twisted magic too in this fascinating novel, and there’s a pleasing mix of romance, mystery, suspense and curiosity. The tale flows swift and smooth as the tide, and the reader’s soon caught up in plot and counterplot; a lonely old woman longs for the sea; an eager young woman meets a cruel demise; officious politicians thwart police investigation; and a coolly convincing flavor of history pervades it all.

The author succeeds in creating show more romantic tension without twisting the tale to its needs, balancing plot and emotion beautifully, and creating characters who ring convincingly true, whether they’re human, sereia or selkie, rich or poor, devious or kind (or both at once). In fact, the author creates a whole city of characters, and keeps them clear to the reader throughout the whole of the complex tale.

The novel ends with hints of more to come, and is clearly part of a series. But the plot’s complete and readers who prefer standalone tales won’t be disappointed. A masterful tale, this one is highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was lucky enough to win a copy and I offer my honest review. show less

The Golden City is a book that may take a bit of patience to get into, but it ends up being well worth the time once the story gets going. It also stands out for being one of the more unique novels I’ve read this year, with its one-of-a-kind setting in an alternate Portugal around the turn of the 20th century and its rousing combination of subjects like dark magic and sea folk.

The book begins with an introduction to Oriana Paredes, a spy for her people called the sereia. As a member of a race of sea folk banned from the city by the ruling king, Oriana has been posing as a maid working undercover in a wealthy aristocratic household for two years, but has befriended the family’s lovely and vivacious daughter Isabel. When Isabel show more decides to elope to Paris, Oriana decides to help her make her escape by disguising themselves as simple servants. But before the young women could depart, they are abducted and left to die in an underwater trap. Saved by what she is, but at the same time forced to watch Isabel drown, Oriana is set on a course to uncover the mystery of a string of similar murders and seek justice for her human friend.

Ouch. I just want to say how surprised I was at how hard I took Isabel’s death. While it is revealed in the book’s description, I didn’t do much more than skim it before I started reading and so the beginning was still quite a shock for me. But it was a good kind of surprise. In just a handful of pages, J. Kathleen Cheney has established a realistic friendship between the two girls and made me care for Isabel and the prospect of her grand romance. And in a blink, that life was taken away. It was a very effective and impactful (not to mention heartbreaking) way to start the book, and it only worked this well because the writing was so convincing. At this stage in the story, I still had only a vague sense of the bigger picture, but I understood the desire for vengeance as the driving force behind Oriana’s actions. I seized upon it, looking to it as the backbone of this novel, despite all the questions still buzzing away at the back of my mind.

For believe me, there were questions aplenty. While overall I enjoyed The Golden City, it did take me a while to immerse myself completely into it. Books that thrust me into the middle of situation tend to have me at a disadvantage. Admittedly, I will also sometimes overwhelm myself by asking too many questions. Possibly the biggest blank for me was Oriana’s role as a spy. The goals of her mission were never really clarified, and I wasn’t sure what kind of information she was supposed to be bringing back to her superiors. The “City Under the Sea”, which is a massive underwater art show featuring replicas of the aristocratic houses placed there by a mysterious artist, was also another source of confusion for me. A project that is so grand and ambitious even by today’s standards would have plenty of buzz and investigation into it, but it seemed like much of the city took its appearance for granted.

In fact, it is the replica of Isabel’s house in the City Under the Sea which should have been Oriana’s water grave, if she weren’t a sereia. After extracting herself from the death trap, she finds herself adrift in a city whose citizens would arrest or do worse to her if they discovered her true nature. That is until she crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira, a police consultant who has secrets of his own. Like Oriana, Duilio is looking into the disappearances of servants from wealthy households, but he is also the half human son of a Selkie (mythological creatures said to live as seals in the sea but shed their pelt to become humans on land) and is also in the midst of investigating certain crimes against his family.

Which leads me to the main reason why I’m glad I found a book like The Golden City – Sirens! Selkies! I am always on the lookout for good books about “sea people” that aren’t rife with The Little Mermaid clichés or that don’t simply portray creatures like sirens as malevolent seductresses. Cheney does a fantastic job providing Oriana with personality and purpose, and I love the cultural, historical and mythological details she has worked into her world.

In time, something more than a business partnership develops between Oriana and Duilio, but the romance is in no way distracting or overbearing. The romantic elements, like the mystery elements, are well blended and balanced. It won’t be enough for everyone, but it was perfect for me as someone who prefers a more subtle and natural approach to romance, and the author teases the relationship between her two characters just enough for me to remain invested in seeing how their feelings for each other will be resolved.

In sum, The Golden City may start off slowly, but the payoff will come. Somewhere along the way, it just clicked. And most of the answers I sought were answered by the end of the book. If an alternate historical sounds like your thing, or if you’re intrigued by a story set in a unique place starring magical sea creatures as its main players, you may want to push this up to the top of your reading list. I’m looking forward to see what will happen in the next book of this series. show less

In The Golden City J. Kathleen Cheney paints a vivid alternate Portugal in the early 1900s. Seeing as I know nothing of Portugal's history I found the reading experience quite interesting. I completely attribute this to the fact that I wasn't caught up with historical details of places and names that I've encountered in so many other historical fiction novels. This totally allowed me to simply enjoy the feel of world, which a time period that felt familiar but unique. I loved how there was the expected treatment of women as the lesser more delicate sex in human society and yet roles for women seemed to be completely opposite when described for the sereia race, and again was different for selkies.

Read a post by the Author, J. Kathleen show more Cheney on The Things the Writer Isn’t Telling You (Even When We Want To)

Oriana is a serei​a, commonly known as a siren. I know when I say siren you want to picture a mermaid - I know that is what I pictured but is definitely not the case. She is living in the city acting as a spy for her people, she has made her way into the aristocratic circles as a higher caste of servant so that whenever she happens to hear information that might effect or benefit her people she can relay this information back to them. Oddly enough while that is her occupation she doesn't spend much time in the book doing any spying because of the kidnapping and death of her employer that takes place as the start of the book. Instead she spends her time investigating the death of her friend, one of the only people who knew what she really is.

During the course of her investigating she is sought after as a witness by a seer named Duilio Ferriera who also has seafolk heritage, though he is a half selkie (seals who can shed their skin and become human) not a sereia. He has always suspected that she was not human and confronts her about it. They end up making quite the investigative team.

I have to admit that while I seriously enjoyed The Golden City, things moved very slowly. Personally, I didn't mind this because I was enjoying the world, atmosphere and build of the characters personalities. But I could definitely see the pace being an issue for other readers. I think part of what caused the slow build was because it was a mystery but with little to no action. Given that essence of a mystery novel mashed with fantasy and smidge of not quite romance thrown in, it only had the occasional bit of action thrown in to spice things up from time to time. I enjoyed it this way because the experience for me was more about the mystery and getting to know these two unique characters.

If you're into judging books by their covers, this one was a great one but possibly a bit misleading only in that I think the cover fits the trend of beautiful girls in pretty dresses that I see frequently in fantasy books that are heavier on the romance side. Cover taste is definitely a very personal thing but also genre specific. I think most avid readers can spot a book in their preferred genres by glancing at the cover. I definitely found this cover appealing because it is gorgeous, and it does represent the book well in most aspects, it was only my learned stereotype that made me categorize it before I started reading. In a way that could work both for it and against it when readers go to pick it up. Hopefully, it will just work for it. Crosses fingers because I really want to see this series published to completion. So don't be fooled, while there was definitely romantic feelings developing on either end of the main characters Oriana and Duilio, romance was not the main aspect of this book. In fact, I was very pleased that it wasn't. Instead it was simply a side plot that was done very well. Hey, a slow build for me on relationships always works. I do anticipate we will see the relationship progress much more in the coming books.

Overall, The Golden City was a very solid fantasy debut. If you enjoy water based fantasy species then this is definitely one you will want to pick up. It was such a refreshing take on sirens and selkies that I seriously look forward to learning more about this world and I can't wait to see more of Oriana and Duilio! show less

I won a copy of this book in a GR giveaway.

3.5. This is one of those circumstances in which I really wish GR actually allowed half stars. I have to decide if I'm gonna round up or down. The book is better than others I've given 3 stars to, but I didn't like it 4 stars worth...

Anyhow, I'm pretty 'meh' about The Golden City. I liked the writing. The editing was fine. Finding it set in Portugal was a change from the regular US/UK based fiction one normally finds (though I've seen others comment it wasn't accurate, I don't know one way or another) and Selkie, Otterfolk and Seria were outside the norm magical creatures.

I even liked Oriana and Duilio. But I found them dull. Really, they seemed to exist in parallel plots that they then show more occasionally talked about. And they were so bound by social convention that there seemed to be no passion in them at all. And Oriana has to be the worst spy in history.

The mystery seemed shaky. Almost 50 people disappear and no one notices? I mean sure, employers might be oblivious, but did none of these people have families or friends that might report them missing? The great magic that was supposed to happen seemed questionable at best, though even the book admits that. And it all seemed to fall apart for no real reason at all. Oriana was still walking around as if no one was after her, and it didn't seem anyone was despite claims to the contrary. Sure, Duilio dodged assassination attempts, but it's Oriana that's supposed to be in danger, but I never once felt that.

And I was distinctly dissatisfied with the ending. It's not a solid HEA, which I don't always have to have, but it felt like something had been left incomplete. In fact, what it felt very much like was an obvious tie-in for a sequel, which irks me.

All in all, I would call this OK, not great but not wholly bad either. I'd read a sequel if I came across it for free or could borrow it. But I doubt I'd spend money on it. show less