Not too much to say here except that this was  fun ride with Aru. I think that Chokshi did a great job with the adventure story-line while still giving a fun flavor to old stories that Aru, Mimi and the newest additions have heard about. We also had a great set-up into the next book as well.

'Aru Shah and the Song of Death" has soul sisters Aru and Mimi trying to track down a thief who stole the god of Love's bow and arrow. Coming across someone that they believe stole it, Aru and Mimi come across the third Pandava,Brynne. After being summoned before the Guardians, the three Pandavas are told either they find out the name of the thief who stole the bow and arrows or they will be banished and the Pandava cycle will have to start again. Boo is also not allowed to help them so the three girls along with Aru's next door neighbor Aiden all have to go and find the bow and arrows before time runs out. 

Of course the three girls have trouble ironing things out and working together and it doesn't help that Aru is a little jealous that Brynne appears to be best friends with Aiden, the boy that Aru had a crush on in the last book. Thank goodness that Chokshi doesn't do any of that love triangle nonsense in this book though. We have the three girls slowly learning to trust each other and figuring out more and more how their powers from the brothers work exactly. I thought that Chokshi did a great job with developing not only Aru but everyone else as well. 

Aru still doubts herself at times and doesn't feel that confident as a Pandava (very reminiscent of Sailor Moon). Mimi is still obsessed with good hygiene and Brynne seems obsessed with food. I thought Aiden was a nice addition and am interested to see where that whole story-line with his parents is going. 

The writing was very good and I laughed at all of the chapter headings. Some of the headings spoiled what was to come though, but still made me crack up. There is also a lot of pop culture references in this which made me laugh (Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Bollywood, etc.). The flow was very good and I enjoyed getting to see more of the world of the Pandava's in this one. 

The setting of the Night's Bazaar and other locations have always been my favorite part of this series and the other one that Chokshi wrote (The Star-Touched Queen). We get to see some old and new characters in this one which was good.

The ending left things nice and tidy with a hint of what the next book will be about.  I loved that this book was focused on the three girls becoming friends and also family and that Aiden was just all of their friend. Please no love triangle hint or jealousy in the next book. It's refreshing to just see a boy and several girls being friends. 

Yes! I can make this one fit. It's a physical library book and it's at home waiting on me. I need to finish this anyway because it's due soon and my library won't allow me to extend my borrow. 

In my last review I mentioned how I’m not much of a romantic and I tend to get bored with romance-driven plots. And then this book rocked up and was all, “I’m gonna make you a liar, bitch.” And then it did. And I’m okay with that.

You guys. I loved this soooooo much! It’s everything I love about mythology and fairy tales rolled into one nearly perfect package. I know I’m being vague, but if I try to get specific I will be here for hours gushing for paragraph after paragraph and spoiling the hell out of the whole plot. So instead I’m just going to nip the gushing in the bud and get to bed on time.

But seriously, this was soooooo good!

I don't have much to say except this is my least favorite Roshani Chokshi novel. I have loved her other works and have no interest in reading anymore about "The Gilded Wolves". Chokshi shines when she follows one character through a story and has them meeting others along the way. Heck, I loved her book "A Crown of Wishes" since in that one she followed a young man and woman. In this latest we follow I think 5 people. Every chapter lets us know who we are following now. This whole book was really about a heist and made me think about the Ocean's franchise (not in a good way) with two characters fighting feelings for each other. And we get information dumps galore to you want to beg for mercy to make it all stop. 

So we have four characters we follow in this book. They are: Severin, Laila, Enrique, and Zofia. I will praise Chokshi for including diverse characters with different sexual orientations. However, after a while it started to fill like she was filling out some unseen card to make sure that she had every ethnicity and religion represented and that's all the characters were for most of the book. I couldn't even tell you anything about Zofia besides  what her ability is and that she's Jewish. There was a lack of development with all of the main characters in this one along with secondary characters. 

It's a lot to read and take in and it seems the first part of the book is just devoted to how Severin found everyone and brought them together. And of course Severin is a tortured hero because he was denied his place in ruling his House. Everyone seems to have undying loyalty to Severin and be in love with him. Some reviewers noted that Severin and Laila are similar to characters who appear in Six of Crows. I can't comment on that since I haven't read the book, but a lot of people called it out in their reviews, so make of that what you will. 

We also have side characters like Tristan and Hypnos who were confusing by far, but don't merit (well Hypnos gets one) their own standalone chapters. Hypnos gets the last chapter in the book and it's only for someone to reveal something to him. 

I needed the characters to come alive a lot more in this one. And can we please stop with characters not being together for whatever stupid reason it is in YA books? Angst is getting old. Just have them be or not be and move on from it. 

The writing was so-so. All of the dialogue/banter was just eye-roll inducing after a while. Chokshi kept cutting away if one character (or two) were in peril to jump back to another character who would just go on about something and then wonder where characters one and two were. It kept messing with the flow of the book from beginning to end. 

The world building was beyond confusing. We read about forging, the Houses, different races/religions,rings, the Babel fragments, about how houses are inherited, and I just felt my eyes glaze over. Also this is a pet peeve of mine, if you tell readers how magic works in your book, you don't get to change it and or make it be unclear. I am still lost on how most of these people's powers work since at one point I think Laila had two separate powers. 

The book being set in Paris in 1889 was initially intriguing, but I quickly lost any love for that since it seemed to just be a means to an end. Unlike with the "The Star-Touched Queen" none of the places the characters go to seem real. I felt like I was in the Night's Bazaar when I read about it. It seems it should have been easy for Chokshi to bring Paris to life. Especially a Paris of her own imagining with magic. In book two, Chokshi really needs to explain the backstory to the Houses, people, governments, etc. much better. And I don't know if information dumps is the way to go or just have someone go "And in the beginning..." and go from there. 

The book included some illustrations of things the characters were seeing, and I just hard passed it all after a while. I just didn't care and wanted the book to be over already. 

The ending was a surprise though. We find out that one character's belief about themselves and what was done to them was totally wrong. That's still not enough for me to continue to read this book. 

So I thought I would never say this, but I am not enjoying this. This may end up a DNF. There is too much going on and we keep getting hit with information bombs throughout this. And there are so many characters and they all have unique abilities due to something called Forging. I am going to stick with it for a bit since I have loved her other works, but this seems like way too much information being thrown at readers with very little character development which makes me sad.

The book is going for a steampunk vibe taking place in the late nineteenth century Paris. I am usually down for that, but with the weird subplots for some characters, and I guess the main plot of Severin trying to get back his house's ring, I just find my mind wandering. And I don't want to smack Chokshi down for include diverse characters, but after a while it felt a bit forced.