The 14th book I read this year was Gild by Raven Kennedy, the first book in the Plated Prisoner series. I’ve heard lots of people talk about this series on Tiktok and since the first book was in the Audible included library, I decided to give it a go.
An attempt at summarising
Auren lives in a gold cage, everything in this palace is made from Gold, turned that way by the King, Midas. Everything, including Auren herself. She is the King’s ‘favoured’, which is why she lives in a giant cage built into the walls of the palace, so that she is kept safe and no-one but Midas can touch her. Unlike the other ‘Royal saddles’ she is never given to visiting courtiers to enjoy, until the opportunity for an unmissable alliance is offered to Midas, in exchange for one night with his gold touched favoured. Betrayed and hurt, Auren protests until the last moment, a part of her truly believing Midas might betray her like this. When it turns out to be part of a plot, Auren is relieved but also cant shake the little pit in her stomach regarding the King she always trusted to take care of her. When he goes away to war and finally sends for Auren and the other saddles, they must make the dangerous crossing through the icy mountains but since its her first time outside in 15 years, she decides to revel in it. Things quickly go wrong, however, and Auren is forced to face dangers that make her think maybe she should have loved her cage a little more.
My thoughts
Um, I really couldn’t tell you whether I disliked or liked this book to be honest. To be blunt, it was a little too rapey. Yes, the exploitation of women is a fact of life, but, a large part of the plot involved the character in one situation or another where sexual assault was a clear and present threat/ the current plot device. I still don’t know whether Midas is the love interest or not.
The world building is semi-interesting but still not fully explained even though I have literally finished book one, presumably because of the secrets about the main character but I think that was just a little lazy writing.
I don’t know, I kind of want to know where the story goes but I am really not a fan of any book that confuses ‘dark themes’ with ‘the outright abuse of women as a plot device’. Plus, in an attempt to show how sheltered the main character has been in her cage, we make her sound like an absolute moron a lot of the time.
There’s some people who really properly love this book but I don’t know if this another cases of Tiktok betraying me…
Antonia Bernardin 