Georgia Kostopoulou

I have really missed the company of Severin and his team members, his friends if I may say, after “The Gilded Wolves” was over. Then I requested and got an ARC of “The Silvered Serpents” but I didn’t have the time to read it. I even got the hardback once it was out, this is how much I wanted to read this book. I’m so glad I finally found the time to go through it. I love them all and now I cannot wait to see what will happen in the last book!

The balance in that little group of them has changed after the events of “The Gilded Wolves”. It has given them time to think and try to understand the world and their current situation. Severin is very aware of their current situation and his own emotional state. So he gives everyone the time they need. That is until he finds a lead to his next adventure, his next acquisition. For this one he needs all his team members, all the people he trusts with his life and he cannot spare any one of them. He does his best and he gathers everyone around him again. They need to go through this last job all together.

“When the devil waged war in the heavens, even angels had to fall.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Silvered Serpents

This time they leave Paris and they find themselves far away, in the icy heart of Russia. There the find a heartbroken merchant, a hidden palace that is rumoured to be full of treasures and crystalline ice animals. And if that was all they found. The came across deadly secrets and a series of unsolved murders, all of which make Severin’s team wonder whether an ancient myth is just that, a myth, or something far bigger and worse.

“Most myths are just truths covered in cobwebs.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Silvered Serpents

First of all I have to say that this is one of the few sequels that captivated my attention even more than the first book. Given that I knew all the main characters from the first book, I have invested in them, emotionally, through each and every page I read about them, their past, their feelings and their lives initially in “The Gilded Wolves” and now in “The Silvered Serpents”. After the ending of the first book, it was difficult for Roshani Chokshi not to give more details about her characters. It would only serve the plot and would make the reader understand why she has followed that specific path in the second book. The guilt one felt, the need of another to make something of himself, the feeling of belonging a third one was craving, the longing of a fourth one to restore everything back to normality, whatever that may be and the necessity of a fifth one to live. They all became clear in the first pages of this book, but only because of what was shared of them in the first book. The character development was amazing, allowing the reader to get not only a glimpse of their personal struggle, but to read their souls like open books. See through all their flaws and weaknesses.

“What he had done had not looked like love.
But then again, love did not always wear a face of beauty”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Silvered Serpents

The plot was even more brilliant than the first book. The main characters all have a plan of their own, but they find themselves teaming up for one last job. One that they all expect to gain something from. Different angles give different perspective but they don’t fail to be a team and work as such. They will question their judgment till the very end, but sometimes the sacrifices needed for a higher cause, are not always being understood by everyone.

“Love did not always wear the face one wished it would.
Sometimes it looked downright monstrous.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Silvered Serpents