"'What would friendship entail?' 'Well, on Wednesdays, we sacrifice a cat to Satan.'"

The Gilded Wolves has to be one of my favorite fantasy heist books of all time. It's angsty, it's funny, and it makes me feel stupid because I fail to solve literally every single one of their puzzles before they do...but I love it so much.
Books that feel like escape rooms are some of my favorites, which is probably why I loved this story so much. It's hard to explain the plot well because I honestly can't say I completely understand some of what happened but basically, it's a big heist story...except there's drama and intrigue and betrayals and a sort-of cult that wants to achieve immortality. Four POVs balance out the pacing with a fair mixture of drama, angst, humor, and action. There's always some puzzle being solved or some crime being committed. And the ending? Every time I think it won't hurt as much, and yet here we are. It just...it makes me so sad.
And I love the cast of characters as well too! Séverin is the leader of the gang, and he's bent on revenge in a Kaz Brekker sort of way...except I don't think he's as angsty? Similarly, Laila is sort of reminiscent of Inej and Nina from Six of Crows, but she's also so feisty and her backstory is quite interesting. Enrique is a historian with a great sense of humor and Zofia is an autistic engineer whose POVs are delightful to ready. I love their partnership so much. My favorite is Tristan because he's just an innocent, traumatized little bean and he just cares about his pet tarantula. I will say I don't love Hypnos because he kind of feels like a found family homewrecker, but that's just my opinion and no one agrees with me apparently.
If fantasy heists are your favorite or you're looking for an action-packed story about a found-family committing crimes, The Gilded Wolves is literally amazing.
4.75/5