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Author: Raven Kennedy
Series: The Plated Prisoner
Series #: 1
Genre: romance, dark romance, fantasy, retelling
Age Group: adult
ARC?: no

The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.

Gold.

Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.

Even me.

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe.

Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.

Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.

Because these bars I’m kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I’d never left.

Review

First off, Gild is my new obsession. I am literally obsessed with it (and the entire series). I was a little nervous going into it, but I am so glad that I read it. It has quickly become one of my favorite adult indie fantasies. It deserves all the praise that it gets, and rightfully so! This book does come with a lot of trigger warnings, so make sure you check them out before you pick this book up, as I am sure some of them will be triggering. Anyways, aside from that disclaimed I will rec this to people who love complex characters, fae and SJM/JLA books.

Auren is a prisoner to Midas. (We hate Midas FYI. We do not stan). Auren’s sitaution is terrible and untennable. I wanted to throw my kindle across the room on SEVERAL occassions because Midas pissed me off so bad. He’s a great antagonist, but a terrible person. Do not like. Auren is a great character. She starts off reserved and very weak, she believes Midas in everything he does. THey have a past together which is slowly revealed. Auren has to learn to be strong after a traumatic even leaves her essentially stranded and alone among people that dislike her. It’s at this point the book turns around.

I will admit, I struggled to get through the first half of the book – but I pushed through and am so glad I did, because we meet some of my favorite characters later in the series.

I did enjoy the worldbuilding in this book, but it wasn’t all that fleshed out, it left a bit to be desired to be honest. I will say some of it was interesting, but at other times it was a bit confusing. I think it could have used more refinement.

What I really did enjoy was the writing. I love Raven Kennedy’s writing style. It made the parts of the book I didn’t like go a lot faster, but the book was continually on the move and the pacing was well done. The plot was as well, it kept me hooked until the end.

I’m stopping my review here because I binge read all three, and I don’t want to include spoilers for book 2 on this review. Suffice to say, I really did enjoy this book overall, even with the parts that I didn’t like.