Gilded by Christina Farley

Gilded (The Gilded, #1)

by Christina Farley

Sixteen-year-old Jae Hwa Lee is a Korean-American girl with a black belt, a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows, and a chip on her shoulder the size of Korea itself. When her widowed dad uproots her to Seoul from her home in L.A., Jae thinks her biggest challenges will be fitting into a new school and dealing with her dismissive Korean grandfather. Then she discovers that a Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she's next.

But that’s not Jae’s only problem.

There's also Marc. Irresistible and charming, Marc threatens to break the barriers around Jae's heart. As the two grow closer, Jae must decide if she can trust him. But Marc has a secret of his own—one that could help Jae overturn the curse on her family for good. It turns out that Jae's been wrong about a lot of things: her grandfather is her greatest ally, even the tough girl can fall in love, and Korea might just be the home she's always been looking for.

Reviewed by Chelsea on

3 of 5 stars

Share
I’m not sure how I feel about this book. A year ago I would have loved it but now that I know a lot more about Korea it felt really fake. It felt like the author maybe visited Korea once and just did the bare minimum research. Only the very basics of South Korea were mentioned and I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to learn anything new. If you’re new to South Korea it’s a decent starting point but honestly you could do much better. Plus it didn’t even feel like we were in South Korea and I often forgot it took place in Seoul.
Besides the disappointment the plot wasn’t too bad. I liked that it played on some Korea folktales but it was very predictable and typical. The whole book felt rushed and the characters could have used some more development.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • Finished reading
  • 2 October, 2018: Reviewed