Book Summary
“By bestselling author Raven Kennedy, comes The Plated Prisoner — a stunning new fantasy series, perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout.
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.
The myth of King Midas reimagined. This compelling adult fantasy series is as addictive as it is unexpected. With romance, intrigue, and danger, the gilded world of Orea will grip you from the very first page.“
– Gild by Raven Kennedy (Amazon Preview)
**THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ENTIRE SERIES AS A WHOLE**
The Plated Prisoner Review
Initial Thoughts
I had a really hard time getting into this series. The first book is fairly slow at first and there is a lot of somewhat expositional dialogue both internally and externally to set the scene. However, once the action of this book picked up, I couldn’t put the series down. I stayed up until past 4am several nights finishing one book and immediately starting the next. When I finished Glint, the third book in the series, I was very disappointed I had to wait 4 whole months for the next book to come out.
Raven Kennedy has said that she still has a lot planned for these characters. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book, and this is easily one of my favorite fantasy series.
The Plated Prisoner Itself
The Plated Prisoner is a retelling of the story of King Midas. However, it’s not the King Midas that you knew when you were a kid. The book actually focuses on Auren, King Midas’ prized saddle (aka concubine). And without spoiling too much, without Auren, King Midas wouldn’t be famous for his hands that can make gold at all.
Kennedy does an excellent job of doing worldbuilding in this series without having too much of the story focusing on describing the setting. Each kingdom in Orea is extremely unique from the other. And, she does a great job of having the characters reflect that as well. Whenever you meet characters from different kingdoms, you can instantly tell that they are different from the ones you already know.
However, even though the characters are a huge driving force of this book for me, the plot is what really hooked me. There are so many twists and turns, and so many things I didn’t see coming. Furthermore, the biggest twist of this book so far comes in Gleam. Although, I am not sure if it completely make sense to me, I loved (and hated) finding out Auren’s real connection to Midas in this book.
I can’t wait to read more about these characters, and I can’t wait to see where Kennedy takes these books. I am very anxiously awaiting the release of Gold, the fifth installment.
Tropes
Some of my favorite tropes in this book were “Enemies to Lovers”, “Secret Identity”, and “Like Calls to Like”.
If You Like That, You’ll Like This
Since this is my normal genre, aka high fantasy, there are tons of similar books that I can’t recommend enough. If you haven’t read it yet, I definitely also recommend anything by Sarah J. Maas (especially ACOTAR) and the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
