The Veil of Gold

By Kim Wilkins

Book Overview

When an ancient gold bear is found walled up in a dilapidated St. Petersburg bathhouse, researcher Daniel St. Clair and his frosty colleague Em Hayward set out for the university in Arkhangelsk to verify its age. Along the way they are mysteriously set adrift. Maps are suddenly useless. Lost and exhausted they turn north, sinking even deeper into the secrets and terrors of the Russian landscape.Daniel's lost love, the wild and beautiful Rosa Kovalenka, fears the worst when Daniel goes missing and resolves to find him. To do so will mean confronting her past and secrets that she has fought to suppress. The only way to save him is to go forward, where she encounters the haunted Chenchikov clan, a family with their own shadowy tangle of grief, desire, and treachery. In the unknowable, impenetrable Russian forest, Rosa meets an enigmatic wanderer who is full of tales and riddles of times past. Who might hold the key to Rosa and Daniel's future--or the destruction of their world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765320061
• ISBN13: 9780765320063
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.4" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

A little bit of urban fantasy, a little bit of folklore and a beautiful adventure!

Rosa has discovered an ancient golden bear in the walls of an old bathhouse her uncle is fixing into condos. When she feels a spark from the bear she thinks it is only her weak magic flicking due the ancient artifact. She needs to know more about the mysterious artifact and so Rosa calls in an old friend to discover more. Little does Rosa know that it will be the start of an adventure through the forgotten lore of Russia and a land filled with hidden dangers. This was a wonderful, stand alone novel. It was filled with a love, adventure, death and trials. I found the writing to be fluid and enjoyable but occasionally the story didn't move fast enough for me. Even with a few dull spots, the adventure more then made up for it. I liked Rosa and and ended up enjoying both the timid Daniel and icicle-like Em. I wish the villains could have been a little more developed, there was little character build up of them and so I didn't find them as scary as they probably are portrayed. I enjoyed the weaving of Russian mythology and that it didn't matter I didn't know the ins and outs of the myth to enjoy the novel. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a blend of modern fairy tales and ancient evils.