[Review] A Touch of Gold by Anne Sullivan

A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan

Series: A Touch of Gold #1

Rating: 3 stars 

Format: ARC

Published: August 14th 2018

Goodreads Synopsis:

King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide.
Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed.
Midas learned his lesson at a price. What will Kora’s journey cost?

The premise of A Touch of Gold sounds really cool - a retelling of King Midas? Never heard of that before.

Everyone knows the story of King Midas - well here, as he was turning everything he touched to gold, the first to fall victim to his powers was his daughter, Kora. He begged the god Dionysius to save her, but the gods have a way of convoluting their wishes. Now ten years later, Kora still has her gold skin and a secret.

This turned into just another rehashed pirate story! And pirate stories are cool and all, but it felt like there were too many elements to make this a good story. Or rather, there was enough of one element fleshed out to give any one plot point proper justice. There were pirates and their curses, there was King Midas and his daughter, Kora. 

I would have wanted more focus on King Midas and Kora, at least, the lore of the curses and more of the gods. There was a lot of catch-and-retrieving going on that made me wonder if they were going on a wild goose chase for all of the golden items of King Midas. The story itself is short - only 300 pages, and there were instances that certainly could have been fleshed. Again, no one becomes a proficient sword-fighter in a few days! I wish books would get that. 

And the book itself was a tad too predictable for me. I could tell where I was being steered, who was being deceptive, who was telling the truth. 

A Touch of Gold had all the makings of an exciting Greek mythology retelling, but unfortunately it fell flat for me.