**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Rory Power makes her adult fantasy debut with In a Garden Burning Gold, a high fantasy with strong political components. Readers follow shifting perspectives between twins Alexandros and Rhea. All of the Argyros children have gifts of power passed by blood. Alexandros turns the tides and sets the stars and moon. Rhea turns the seasons with the deaths of her suitors. Younger siblings Nitsos and Chrysanthi, though neglected by their father, have gifts of clockwork life and magical paints respectively. But the Argyros family is not the only family with such gifts and the balance of the territories rules by each such family is delicate at best and tenuous at worst. When Rhea struggles to kill her most recent suitors, causing a delay of seasonal change, this is enough to unbalance the tentative peace between families and Rhea's unapproved choice of her next suitor seems to be the final straw.

Rory Power's entry into fantasy is bold, complex, and handled with finesse. As is obvious from the introduction to this review, Power's world is incredibly intricate from the magic system to the cultures to the sheer amount of players in the game. Power was kind enough to include a Dramatis Personae listing to open the book along with helpful notations of who is alive and dead at the start of the book. Despite the complex interweaving of the featured families, territorial cultures, various gifts, and so forth, Power manages to introduce readers to this world without being terribly info-dumpy. Yes, we are sufficiently introduced to the world, but we see the world through the eyes of Alexandros (called Lexos) and Rhea who live such drastically different lives that we are able to piece together a pretty complete picture of the portions of the world Power wants readers to know. This was cleverly and skilfully done, particularly with a writing style that is accessible and digestible even for readers new to fantasy.

Perhaps it is due to Power's experience in the horror genre, but there is a brilliantly designed tension that hangs throughout the novel. There is always an obstacle with a twist with a new obstacle along with characters trying to manage political machinations in secret. It creates a forward momentum to the book that does not stop, making it a read you do not want to put down once you've begun. In addition, even the characters that are objectively unlikable are designed in a way that does not make them irredeemable. Nearly every character exists within the realm of morally grey, and with each shift of perspective you find yourself rooting for people even when they are at odds with one another.

I am eager to see what else Power comes out with in this world and in this genre and am glad to have had the opportunity to read this book early.