Gild

Gild is book 1 in the Plated Prisoner Series by Raven Kennedy. It is wonderful and horrifying all at the same time. Wonderful because the world building and character development was great. Horrifying because Auren literally lives in a cage. The more I read, the more horrified I became for Auren, and I think that is part of what makes this a great book.

I really felt the despair and hopelessness coming off Auren in waves throughout her time in the cage. It was such a good depiction of emotional abuse and an extremely controlling relationship. I mean, the book starts off with Auren being made to watch Midas have an orgy with his royal saddles (another term for harem)!! What a fucked up guy he is, and I love it so much.

Midas was written so well, another golden man who appears wonderful but is actually horrible inside. Hidden behind his golden persona lies an absolutely wretched man, thriving off manipulating and controlling a woman for his gain and her capture (aka protection in the book).

I mean her nickname is his favored, his precious. He has people travel from far and wide to look at her and he parades her in front of them like a prized trophy.. like holy shit I am offended for her. Poor Auren doesn’t even know how bad this is, she has been manipulated so much.

My favorite characters in Gild are Digby and Sail, hands down. I love them so much! I really loved the interactions between Auren and each of them as the book went on, it was so sweet.

Gild has a lot of misogynistic, horrible, disgusting men, and while it was awful to read about what they said and did, I think it added another layer to the book that made it better. The differences between the awful men and the good men were starkly obvious. While I wish no person ever had to endure SA of any kind, I think Auren’s fear of it upped the tension in the book and made me more invested. I did not want that to happen to her or any of the characters, and when they were in danger of it I could not put the book down.

Finally, towards the end we meet the Fourth Kingdom’s army, along with Rip – the commander. Can’t wait to read more of him….

Overall, Gild by Raven Kennedy was a great start to the Plated Prisoner series, and I am diving straight into the next one. I would recommend this book for sure!