She does it again!

I have loved Olivie Blake's writing ever since "One for my Enemy" fell into my hands.
Now, this story is definitely far from a tragic Romeo & Juliet retelling, but it is just as fantastic, nerve wrecking and brilliantly done.

As the story of the three siblings unfolds, I couldn't help but form a connection with them. Even though they are definitely not the most likable characters with a questionable moral compass at best, the author made me root for them and question my OWN moral compass at times with her spectacular storytelling and perfectly executed character development.

She combines fantasy, family drama and the ruthless corporate world like it's the most natural thing in the world - blending these themes together almost seamlessly and creating a story that will have you gripping the edge of your seat the entire time.

This book is a breath of fresh air in my collection. It is a deeply vulnerable, honest and messy exploration of childhood trauma, the exhaustion of other people's expectations for you and how it affects you as an adult. Olivie Blake created characters that will hook their claws into the darkest corners of your heart and never let go.

This is my first book by Olivie Blake, and while I've wanted to read more of her work, I'm not sure this one is for me. I have no idea what was going on, despite the fact that the concept is really intriguing.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

This is a classic Olivie Blake story; it is kind of weird and off kilter, the world building isn’t really the point, the magic isn’t really the point. It’s about happiness, it’s about people lying to each other, about people being assholes but still loving each other.

If you enjoyed other Olivie Blake projects like Masters of Death or One for your Enemy, you would like this! I very much did!

4.5⭐

This was my first Olivie Blake book and now I can't believe I've waited this long. What wonderful insight on the messy nature of families, sibling rivalry and how the pressure of growing up as a "gifted" kid can totally mess with your sense of self worth and achievement as an adult. Pretty much all of the characters in this were terrible people - or at least they were imperfect people trying to achieve happiness through all the wrong methods.

Olivie is a master of character. Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh felt so real and each of their voices was distinct in its own unique way. Meridith is such a MEAN person but I loved her POV, her unabashed pragmatism and avoidance of emotion. Arthur is a clingy kitten at heart, and Eilidh was one of those people that pretends to be sweet and innocent so much they genuinely believe it themselves. Some of the thoughts these characters articualted such specific feelings that it had me saying "omg, yes!" Meredith and Lou in particular had me laughing a lot. This book is FUNNY

The magical was almost incidental as magic. It was useful to move along the character development and the plot (incentive to find Lou, and of course Meredith's company) but it could easily have been replaced with something non-magical and I don't think it would have made much of a difference. It was fun though so I'm not complaining.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First off, thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book. I’m a huge Olivie Blake fan and this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Sadly, the file uploaded for the book has corrupted formatting for me so reading the copy in this state is painful and I would not want to taint my experience of the book through a corrupted format. I have a copy preordered so I will elaborate on this review (if I can still edit it) as soon as I’ve read my copy after the release. I’m sure it will end up being a 5 star, based on my previous experience with Olivie Blake’s books, her continuously maturing story telling and prose and the general premise of the book. I hope to be able to read it very soon, I was super excited about the advanced copy.

First, I want to thank Pan MacMillan for the free copy in exchange for my honest review. I am very grateful and very happy.

“Gifted and talented” is about three siblings, Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh, whose father died recently and they must come together to find out who will inherit the Wrenfare throne. The thing about these siblings is that they have different magical abilities, that may sound like they’re helpful, but they’re not. At the same time, the Wren siblings are not the kindest people. In fact, they’re assholes.
Meredith is a fraud, Arthur is a people pleaser, and Eilidh is alone.
Who will inherit everything?

The other book that I read from Olivie Blake is “Masters of death” and I enjoyed it a lot! I think her standalones are the best, and I will probably read most of her next books. The truth is that i don’t know if i would have read this book if it weren’t for the guys from Pan. Thanks to them, Olivie Blake is on my “authors to buy” list.

“Gifted and talented” was a great book. It’s not for everyone, it’s a very character driven story, a lot of descriptive scenes, with awful characters, but great writing and engaging storytelling. It’s a book about dysfunctional families that don’t know how to make peace with their traumas and how to fulfill people’s expectations. It’s a very messy book and it’s hard to root for them, especially for the first 50% of the book. They have complicated relationships with their father, they don’t have friend and they have problems with each other.
I didn’t have a favourite for half of the book, especially when you find out about the events that happened in their past. But, with every new chapter, I started to care a little about them and I started to feel sorry for them. It’s not their fault that they are like this. Of course they can’t deal with their trauma, when no one showed them how to do it.

It’s not a book only about family. It’s about our world, about the future and how hard it can be to find happiness. To just wake up and find a reason to live, about the fact that we need people, we can’t survive on our own no matter how much we want to. It’s easy to say that the Wren siblings deserve everything that’s happening to them, but at the end of the day, they are only humans who are trying their best.
In the end, I actually cried while reading their thoughts and feelings.

I loved how Olivie Blake added everything together, the mystery around Lou and God as a narrator?? Amazing, so good. I gasped out loud multiple times because damn, what a great author! The unreliable narrator was so well done, it became one of my favourite tropes. Can’t wait to read more from her.

The magic was soft, each character had something different, and flawed, exactly like our protagonists. Which is intriguing, because I felt like their magic attract each other’s energy and attention. Like Eilidh’s monster is calmer when she’s with Meredith and Arthur.

“Gifted and talented” is a great book. I keep thinking about it now and then, about how much I loved it and how real it felt. I found myself in each character and it made me think about my life and my family. I started underlining some quotes and scenes, but I became so invested in the book, that I forgot to continue it. It’s one of those books that I want to reread. I think that no matter what I’ll read from Olivie Blake, this will remain my favourite by her. It felt very personal and it made me so sad near the end. It was so complex and emotional, some scenes hit me harder than others. It made me reflect about some decisions that I took in my life and about the paths that I didn’t take.
It was a great book. It’s possible you won’t love it, because it’s dense and you may find it boring because it doesn’t have a lot of action. But I say to give it a chance, the characters will annoy you and you won’t root for them in the beginning, but give them a chance. They’re only humans.

Again, thanks to Pan MacMillan for the free copy and to NetGalley for the free e-arc.

Well, who doesn’t love a dysfunctional family with daddy issues? Olivie Blake has knocked it out of the park again with her love-to-hate trio of recalcitrant siblings whose lives are unavoidably slammed together when their father dies unexpectedly. Each has their own personal ordeal they are facing before you add “family” into the mix. Corporate fraud, political candidacy, faltering extra-marital relationships and life-changing trauma make a stressful dynamic even more fractious. And then we add magic into the mix.
Brilliant, as always.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

Please note that this review is based on the physical proof the publisher kindly sent me after I was unable to read the digital proof due to formatting issues.

Gifted & Talented is another smash hit from a powerhouse in the genre.

I remember seeing the lofty pitch of Succession with magic and I was sold. This book lives up to its pitch with complex familial relationships and an examination of legacy, power and privilege with some majorly flawed people.

This is a book with teeth – satirical and sharp, making precise cuts at the topics it’s grappling with. Ultimately these are extremely privileged people who will not loose that much in the long run. Their status and power simply will not allow it. Yet, you get caught up in their neuorses and their grief and their shameless power plays. They are fairly despicable people and you love to hate them. I loved that we got to grapple with each of their headspaces (ish) and unpick a little of what makes each of them tick. They have been through a pressure cooker of a childhood and always felt the need for greatness and often achieved it, though with the immense support and resources they have at hand. Blake is not shy of showing this contrast on page, adding to that cathartic skewering. In particular, there is a narrative device Blake uses that made a smile break out on my face because of how twisted and appropriate it was. Without giving anything away, it very much suits the story and the tone that Blake is spinning.

I really enjoy Blake’s particular brand of fairly grounded speculative fantasy that heavily focuses on our characters but is interspersed with these fascinating details of the wider world. Here we get a good sense of magitech and its potential, but also the way it has become so normalised and commercialised. It is thought-provoking and interesting, but somewhat acts as the backdrop for this focused family drama. Of course it is the legacy they’re all fighting over and for and I enjoyed the smaller details Blake includes that hint at much larger politics surrounding this. These people are making moves that could reshape the world but they’re focused on their interpersonal dramas instead of thinking of the wider scale. Everything has always come easily to them and will continue to long after the final page of this book.

Gifted & Talented is a salacious, sensational and severely messed up story about people with the world at their fingertips as they grapple with unimaginable power.

Gifted and Talented by Olivie Blake is a compelling exploration of family dynamics, ambition, and the complex intersections of personal talent and inherited power. Following the death of Thayer Wren, a tech mogul with a reputation for revolutionizing modern technology, his three gifted children—Meredith, Arthur, and Eilidh—are thrust into a fierce competition for the inheritance and control of his empire. Each sibling carries their own brand of brilliance, flaws, and unresolved issues, making for a tense and character-driven read that keeps you hooked from beginning to end.

Blake’s writing is razor-sharp and immersive, capturing the underlying rivalry, resentment, and desire for validation that pulse beneath the surface of this dysfunctional family. Meredith, the accomplished eldest daughter, is the most outwardly successful, but her internal struggle with imposter syndrome is palpable and relatable. Arthur, the ambitious congressman, is running out of time to prove his worth, and Eilidh, the once-famous ballerina whose career was derailed by an injury, yearns for the validation she’s always sought from her father. These three complex, flawed characters are at the heart of the novel, and their interactions are a masterclass in tension and psychological depth.

The supernatural abilities of the Wren siblings—telepathy and electrokinetics—add an intriguing layer to the narrative, heightening the stakes of their personal conflicts and the broader battle for control of Wrenfare Magitech. However, it’s Blake’s exploration of the emotional toll that these abilities, and the expectations that come with them, take on the characters that makes this book so compelling. The tension between the siblings, each vying for their father’s approval and inheritance, is palpable, and the subtle psychological manipulation at play is both captivating and heartbreaking.

While the character-driven drama is excellent, the pacing does slow in places, particularly when the story veers into introspective or philosophical territory. At times, the balance between the action-driven plot and the deep dives into character motivations can feel uneven. That said, the emotional payoff and the unraveling of the Wren family dynamics make it well worth the read.

Gifted and Talented is a thought-provoking, slow-burn thriller that examines the price of success, family loyalty, and the crushing weight of unrealized potential. Olivie Blake’s keen understanding of human nature and her ability to craft deeply flawed yet fascinating characters make this a standout novel, particularly for fans of complex family dramas and speculative fiction. While it may not offer the high-speed thrills of some other books, it will keep you engaged with its compelling character work and psychological depth.

Okay this is the book perfect for the sci-fi fans! The author blends brilliantly the fantasy element with heavy and actual topics in which everyone can relate. I was hooked from the beginning and I’ve devoured it in a couple of days.
So many thanks to the publisher for granting me this opportunity!

Gifted and Talented is the latest release by Olivie Blake. It is set over the course of a few days and follows three siblings as they learn of the death of their father and the implications of his will. I really enjoyed this book. It is written with Olivie Blake's typical writing style which I felt worked really well for these rich, elitist characters and their thought processing. The characters are all somewhat unlikeable but I still found myself endeared to them and becoming immersed in their world for the duration of the book. Definitely recommend if you are a fan of character driven stories and enjoy Olivie Blake's writing style.

I enjoyed the deeper meaning that the story was trying to bring across. The expectations and childhood trauma that shape the way we are today as adults. The weight and struggle of having to live up to other people's expectations and wanting to prove oneself.
The fear of failure. The crushing desire to be successful, to make something of oneself. The relentless desire to seek out validation could very well be our demise.
I think this one will resonate deeply with those who have ever felt the pressure to be gifted & talented themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a copy of Gifted and Talented. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me and it took me a good while to get through.

I didn’t think there was that much going on in the book and especially the magic elements felt underdeveloped and unused and we really didn’t get a lot of answers to questions that a lot of readers will have in reading this.

The setup of the book could have been excellent but the characters and story were lacking in development throughout. I did finish the book hoping that it would pick up after 50% but unfortunately it did feel like a bit of a chore to read.

I do think that some of the characters have potential and are interesting and varied, but we don’t get to see that much development from this, especially with having to explore the story of all three siblings it ended up feeling unfinished and repetitive.

It seemed to be a long book considering the plot and what happened for quite a predictable outcome.

My copy also unfortunately has significant formatting issues which although I could tell what most words were so I was able to finish the book however some sentences needed to be missed due to no words and just lots of symbols instead. Certain letters seemed to be replaced by things such as ~.

Another Olivie Blake banger. The characters are complex but loveable with messy relationships and deep feelings.
It's a delicate style of writing, kind of poetic with an unreliable narrator. It's complicated but worth it.

The author has managed to write a compelling story that has elements of sci-fi and strong family problems. Her story is very character driven and compelling storytelling. This was my 1st book by this author but won’t be the last. Cannot wait to dive into the Atlas series by this author and her other works. If you have read from this author before I am sure you will enjoy this one.

olivie blake’s soooo back and she’s not alone because be ready to get to know our 3 siblings: meredith,arthur and eilidh and their story because let’s say that it starts all with the death of their billionaire father and they will reunite to read the will and see what it will brings to them :)

i would like to firstly extremely suggest to read this book to all the sci fi lovers and in particular to the fans of the umbrella academy because if u loved that series well u could like if not love this story! 😊

the writing as always was impeccable but u should know if u had read any books by olivie blake sand if u haven’t well u could definitely start and pick one while waiting for this one to be released!

the sci fi aspect was so well combined in my opinion with all the family drama and the the main characters personalities my interest was definitely picked while reading about certain aspects or interactions 😋 my favourites were the ones between meredith and arthur because they where the most funny and do i have to even mention about the characters/story development? well… it just confirms once again how blake’s mind and writing’s so good to encapsulates a lot of different aspects such as family drama,fantasy, sci-fi with mistery!

a lot of thanks to netgalley and panmcmillan for providing me the arc of this intriguing story in exchange for my honest opinion!!

In 'Gifted and Talented' by Olivie Blake, the death of the family patriarch, Thrayer Wren, forces siblings Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh into a battle for who will take over the Wrenfare Magitech corporation. All of them have been gifted with powers (magical and financial), but so far, none of them have lived up to their potential. Eilidh was once a world famous ballerina, but an injury to her spine leaves her depressed and in need of validation. Arthur is a politician who spends much of his time attending orgies and dreaming of a different life. Meredith is the older sister, with her own biotech company, but she is failing to deliver on her promises.

I have read most, if not all Blake's books to date. 'Masters of Death' and 'One for My Enemy' were fantastic; many of the short stories in her Januaries collection were innovative; and I devoured the first two books in the Atlas series. However, for me, this book suffers the same problem as the final Atlas book - it feels unplotted, over written and unedited. I know Blake has a particular style of writing, but when I have loved it, it was been when the plot was pacy. For me this novel felt too flabby. I may be in the minority with this, and that's okay, books are subjective things, influenced by the person and the time it is read. In the end I found reading this a bit of a slog, which is a shame, as Blake is a great writer.

I have read all of Olivie Blakes previous novels and I am in love with her writing.

Gifted & Talented was just an epic read in so many ways. I loved it thoroughly.

We are introduced to the Wren family, when Thayer Wren who is the CEO of Wrenfare Magitech dies, his three children will inherit the fortune. Things are not as easy as that though,

We meet Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh three very individual and quite special people. Each with their own issues and troubles. Gifted & Talented is about the race to see who will win when it comes to the dynamic of these three people.

Thanks to Netgalley, Olivie Blake and the publishers for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Olivie NUNCA falla, y a pesar de su manera peculiar de escribir sus historias siempre me calan el alma.

Puede escribir cualquier cosa retorcida y con moral cuestionable que ahí estaré

Ahh the complexities of life and the desperation to be liked and accepted by your parents.

Olivie Blake has done it again: given us a wholly unique novel with flawed and ‘you-wanna-hate-them-but-you-love-them-anyway’ cast of characters with a fast paced and engaging story, filled with humour and equal parts seriousness (some truly heart felt moments buried right between the ribs of the stressful actions of each stand-out side character—it’s gotta be done). A critique of the rich, grounded in reality whilst also filtering in magical metaphorical elements to make you go ‘wow, I like what she did there… WOAH… that was smart’.

We get God as a narrator (Capital G? You decide!) who shares with us the POTENTIALLY BIASED report of the chaotic and socially out-of-touch lives of 3 children of a recently deceased CEO. Their original goal? To follow in their father’s footsteps… but the real plot? I JUST WANT TO BE LOVED AND I WOULD AND HAVE DONE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO TRY AND FEEL IT.
They’re toxic and competitive and stubborn and idiotic but it just makes sense… Of course they are… just meet them and you’ll understand them straight away.

But trust me… This is one you want on your radar. Blake has a truly skilled way of making you care so much about such a complex cast of characters who you would PROBABLY hate in real life but you still root for them because YOU KIND OF RELATE… even though you are nothing like these nepo babies??? But who doesn’t want to be loved? To be seen? To be appreciated?

It’s extremely character driven but that’s the whole point, because it IS all about them… As well as the incredible cast of side characters who in a way are almost just as important as the siblings.

Oh and forget enemies to lovers… have you ever tried enemies AND lovers? OR Lovers(?) and Lovers(!) — Oh boy does this book STRESS you (blame God(?), who narrates this book in a way that keeps you constantly on edge but in the BEST WAY) but it comes together so well. It’s so expertly done.

Also the moral of the story is that pizza makes life significantly better, it’s proven by God.

THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY 😁 - (Written by Meredith Wren)