The Gordian Knot

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

The post of Head Girl of Whitehall looks fantastic on anyone's resume. It places the lucky winner on equal terms to the staff, granting them authority, power, and responsibility that no other student can even dream of possessing. A student lucky enough to win the coveted post is destined for greatness. Everyone will want to know their name.

Naturally, Emily doesn't want it. 

But when she returns to Whitehall for her sixth and final year, she discovers that the staff has elected her to the post - and refusal isn't an option. Worse, the Grandmaster wants her to run his pet project - a formal dueling club - even though it's the last thing she wants to do. Reluctantly, she starts to carry out her new duties, unaware that deadly enemies are waiting in the shadows, preparing themselves to strike at her when her back is turned. Someone is spreading rumors about her, someone is sabotaging her projects, someone is weakening the ties that bind her to Whitehall.

And, as matters start to spin out of control, as the life and soul of one of her closest friends is thrown into terrifying danger, Emily must decide between carrying out her duties or walking away, knowing that either choice will cost her dearly...and leave her alone at the center of a deadly storm.

©2017 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2018 Podium Publishing

Gratuitous cussing

Gratuitous cussing
I love Christopher Nuttall but am disappointed in this book when he turned to gratuitous cussing.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Almost nothing happened

Too much of the story that happened took place off the page. The writer clearly forgot the cardinal rule of writing stories. A story is about challenge and change. No change happened because of the story challenge and all the real events around the challenge happened off page. If this had happened earlier in the series I would have abandoned the author. There's only one book left.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I should have just skipped this one.

it was the inconsistencies that made me not like the book. She keeps deciding something is vitally important, then completely ignores it! I felt like the entire book was being stretched out to fill space.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Didn't like this book at all

The first 9-10 hours of this book was very frustrating because it was all bad news and no good news. Its like one of those movies where the good guy gets his but whooped for 99% of the movie and then in the last second turns the tide and wins except even that is taken from you cause the book has a to-be-continued ending. The plot was very predictable except for the who that I couldn't figure out until it was revealed. But the entire time i Kept expecting more and this book just didn't even get close to meeting my expectations even without comparison to the other books in the series. This ending left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and it wouldn't be the first time I've quit entire series over a bad book/ending such as this.
This one sucked so bad i don't feel like listening to any audio books at the moment. I'm not sure how long that is going to last (days,weeks, months).

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Some good, some meh

It wasn't really great. Ít was different. It felt like 100 pages of fluff with abou pages of good reading. Slow and boring in some spots. Good in others. Not sure if to recommend or not.

not as good as previous books

this book was very disappointing compared to the previous books in this series. why all the F bombs too? it feels out of character

Mostly excellent writing, but a hiccup

The beginning and the very end are as good as usual, but alas, Emily's character regression and lack of expected development - as well as the corresponding repetition of text and style stain much of the middle of the book. She is contemptably stupid, seemingly for no reason except to maintain the same pattern and length of the previous books. I would rather he made the story half as long than make that blunder.

Great as usual

though I am starting to grow weary of her "sighs inwardly" wish he would mix up the statement with some synonyms, sighed to herself, or felt like sighing, or I dunno something else anything else. I feel as if it should be some audible drinking game.

Gordian NOT!

Firstly, I enjoyed the book overall, but I have to mark it down because it didn’t feel like any of the previous books.

Pros...
So, I guess it was exciting enough to keep my attention, and drew upon the previous books story in a decent enough way.

Cons...
I felt like this book was not written by Nuttall.
Emily seemed stupid instead of just aloof, which tainted the story.
There was a sudden and weird change in the conversational style, made most noticeable by the influx of cussing, which didn’t bother me but did detract a bit.
The story seemed to have gaps that were obvious as it was easy to see what was going on but there was no cross, so a lot of story seemed to have happened off page.


This was not my favorite book at all.
I was let down somewhat, even if overall the story was still good.

Gilbert’s performance was as good as ever.

Worth having in the library, but sadly, not one of Nuttall’s best, nor one of my best buy’s.

Get the Plot in Gear!

On its own, this is an okay story that shows how several of the main characters have grown and changed and sets up the next book quite well. The problem is that there is are so many loose end plot points from previous stories in the series that have barely been touched on, if they get touched on at all, since they were introduced. These include the dragon's cryptic warning when it drops Emily off at Whitehall, her oath with the faeries, the mysterious figures she briefly sees immediately after she defeats Shadye, and almost all of the prophecy the demon gave her at Mountaintop.

The series is becoming very drawn-out, and none of these really interesting plot points have been expanded on since Book 8. Overall the story here feels like it should be the main part of a larger story, rather than just standing on its own. There is nothing particularly bad about the book, but the fact that so many plot points have been left fallow makes me worry that the series itself is stalling.

Not what I expected

I was disappointed with this book in comparison with the rest of the series, in my opinion it was almost like the writer had finished about 1/3 of the story that would be expected from the previous books in the series and then fluffed it up to make a whole book.... I hope that he gets back on track with the next book!!