Skip to content
  • Home
  • Review Policy
  • Linktree
  • Contact
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
Westveil Books

Westveil Books

& Other Hobbies

  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Jenna
    • Review Policy
    • Linktree
  • Book Blog
    • Book Reviews
    • TBR
    • Old Posts Archive
  • All Bookish Posts
    • SciFi & Fantasy
    • Horror
    • LGBTQIA+ Books
    • YA Fiction
    • Historical Non-Fiction
    • Misc Fiction
    • Misc Non-Fiction
    • Canadian Authors
  • Everything Else
    • Artsy Things
    • Rainbow Things
    • Other Hobbies
    • Neurodivergence
    • Chit Chat
  • Contact
  • Toggle search form
  • Lia and Beckett’s Abracadabra by Amy Noelle Parks – 4 Star Review Book Reviews
  • Kradak the Champion by Shawn Inmon – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Double Review! Vampires of the Daemonverse by Cee Bee Book Promos
  • 5 Star Review: Shut Up and Write the Book by Jenna Moreci Book Promos
  • The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson – 5 Star Review Book Reviews
  • Book Review: Astrid Falls by Andrew Cownden Book Reviews
  • Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Ad Hominem by Eric Gay – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to… – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Antithesis – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • The Isle of a Thousand Worlds – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews

This Golden Flame – 5 Star Book Review

Posted on February 3, 2021 By Jenna No Comments on This Golden Flame – 5 Star Book Review

First of all, I have a lot of people at HarperCollins to thank for ARC access to this title. I am on the HarperCollins Canada influencer list and attended an online YA preview event in December 2020, which is when I heard about this book. Everything about it excited me! From the title and cover design to the synopsis to the fact that a Canadian wrote it and it has so much LGBTQIA representation. The cherry on top is that publication day for this title, February 2nd, is my birthday! We were told at that event that we’d all be receiving a randomly selected ARC and I hoped it would be this one, but I ran off to NetGalley and Edelweiss to request the eARC anyway, just in case. My HCC contact Marisol Fokes helped arrange to ensure I was granted access through Edelweiss and I eagerly scheduled it into my reading list. Days later my NetGalley request with the USA team was also approved, and then weeks after when I had forgotten about those randomly selected print ARCs, a beautiful proof of this title showed up unannounced on my doorstep. Thank you! Thank you to everyone at HarperCollins who had a hand in permitting me to read this three times over, thank you to Marisol Folkes and the HCC Frenzy team for making me aware of this book in the first place, and thank you to Emily Victoria for writing such an amazing book!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

About the Book

This Golden Flame
by Emily Victoria

Published 2 February 2021
by Inkyard Press (HarperCollins)

Genre: YA Fantasy, LGBTQIA
Page Count: 384
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

My Review

My Rating: 5 Stars
Consider “liking” my review on Goodreads.

The Scriptorium plucks orphaned children off the streets and puts them to work to serve their goals, all of which funnel into the primary goal of awakening the world’s slumbering atomatons. Karis is one of those orphans, and she’s been studying the runes she copies for her masters to work with. Her brother was culled from this island’s group and sent elsewhere, and her one mission in life is to get off the island and find him. When Karis discovers an unexplored cave and within it finds an automaton like no other, and awakens him, she dares to hope that she’s solved all her problems. This atomaton can get her into the records hall and then off the island. What she didn’t anticipate was discovering that this Atamoton, Alix, is more than a mindless machine controlled by runes in a tome.

This book is told in the first person, present tense from two points of view: Karis and Alix. The discovery and awakening of Alex is the first major event which means we get to read Alix’s POV as early as the second chapter. POVs are consistent throughout a chapter and all chapters are labelled with the character’s name, so there is no confusion if you are reading a print or eBook copy. I haven’t yet listened to an audiobook recording (if one even exists yet) but I do believe the two characters have been given distinct enough voices that any skilled narrator will be able to make them sound different without too much struggle or resorting to pitch shifting their own voice (something I’m not fond of listening to.) I do feel that both POVs are vital to the story and that although I’d love to be in a few other characters’ heads, none of the others were needed. Two POVs is exactly what this story called for, and it was executed very well. Between the two I enjoyed reading Alix most, but that may be the hardcore SFF fan in me whose favourite Star Trek character has always been Data. I’m a sucker for artificial beings wrestling with their humanity!

The points of interest on the back of my print ARC include mention that this title is an #OwnVoices asexual representation story, and yes, can confirm, Karis is asexual. We also get other LGBTQIA orientations and gender identities (including a pair of gay lovers and a pirate who uses they/them pronouns.) I would like to praise this book and author for writing these representations into the book without making them major plot points and for having the other characters be accepting. As a demisexual she/they pronoun user, I absolutely love that! With all of that said, the ace element may have been a little too buried in the first half of the book. Having read that tidbit about representation before reading the book, I was looking for the ace character, and I pegged Karis early on for two reasons: I assumed (as was correct) that this book would not be delving into the sexual orientation of created beings with metal bodies so that knocked out one of the two POV characters, and although it felt to me as the reader like Dane might be feeling more than just friendship or perhaps brotherly kinship for Karis, all of that seemed to fly over her head. If I hadn’t been given the heads-up that there’s ace representation in the book, I would have simply assumed Karis wasn’t interested in Dane, specifically, up until about two-thirds of the way through the book when Karis privately reflects on her asexuality and spells it out on the page. This isn’t a bad thing at all, I did say that I appreciate that orientations and identities weren’t major plot points, but I mention this in case anyone daring enough to read reviews first is looking forward to the ace representation and might otherwise spend a lot of the book wondering when it’s going to show up.

I love the world-building and magic system in This Golden Flame! The world feels like an ancient Rome/ancient Greece inspired version of Earthsea, with humanity scattered across small islands. It’s both fresh and exciting, but also comfortably familiar, and I love that. The rune-based magic with the addition of a natural essence of magic (script ink) that civilizations past had figured out how to distill and use, but modern people have forgotten, is absolutely fascinating. It felt very alchemy inspired, but again in a fresh way. I also really enjoyed the fact that this book heavily featured a very polite crew of pirates!

Representation in this book: Asexual, Gay relationship, they/them pronoun user, low vision disability, orphan status

Content warning: mild knife/sword violence, threats of murder, orphan status, forced separation of siblings, situations that can be considered allegory for slavery

This book works amazingly well as a stand-alone, and if it remains a stand-alone I would not be upset …but I would also really like to hear what happens next!

.


Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Book Reviews, Featured-Old Tags:5 star review, arc, edelweiss, emily victoria, fantasy, fantasy adventure, five star review, harpercollins, harpercollins teen, inkyard press, lgbtqia, netgalley, this golden flame, ya, ya fantasy, ya fantasy adventure, young adult

Post navigation

Previous Post: Mia and Nattie – 4 Star Book Review & Author Guest Post
Next Post: Cover Reveal: The Place Below by Dan Fitzgerald

Related Posts

  • A Cat’s Guide to Travelling Through Portals by Chris Behrsin – 5 Star Review Book Reviews
  • Frostborn by Michael Haddad – 4 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Eden Lost – 3.5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Dr. Marsha & the Case of the Missing Hot Dogs & Marshmallows Book Reviews
  • Alex McKenna & The Geranium Deaths – 4 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • The Triumphant Tales of Rescue Dogs – 4 Star Review Book Reviews

Comments (0) on “This Golden Flame – 5 Star Book Review”

  1. Pingback: This Golden Flame – With a Book in Our Hands
  2. Pingback: Criminal Minds Book Tag – Westveil Publishing
  3. Pingback: Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky – 4 Star Book Review
  4. Pingback: Before We Disappear – 5 Star Book Review
  5. Pingback: Dead in the Water by Elizabeth Price [Tour with Excerpt]
  6. Pingback: Author Guest Post with Mark M. Bello, Betrayal at the Border

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

We migrated web hosts and we're still working on restoring images. Thank you for your patience!

Badges

Professional Reader
Reviews Published
80%
50 Book Reviews
NetGalley Beta Tester
Frequently Auto-Approved
Intellifluence Trusted Blogger
  • Archive Feed
  • Author Interviews & Guest Posts
  • Blog
  • Book Promos
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Talk, Tags & YouTube
  • Bookworm Things
  • Chit Chat
  • Featured-Old
  • Horror
  • Main Feed
  • SciFi & Fantasy
  • TBR
  • YA Fiction
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Original content © 2021-2025 Westveil Books | Submitted content rights remain with the rights holders.

%d