Review: Gild by Raven Kennedy; a King Midas retelling

Gild by Raven Kennedy 

(The Plated Prisoner #1)

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2 

Genre: Adult Fantasy, Romance

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.

This is a King Midas retelling, but centres on Auren, the King’s favoured, and the only person he has ever turned to gold (not solid gold, he can do that, but everything about her, hair, eyes, blood etc. is gold-coloured).  He promised to keep her safe, and she is safe in her golden cage high up in his golden palace. She’s also very lonely. And bored.

I certainly enjoyed this book, even though the ‘a golden cage is still a cage’ message is really in your face. There is decent world-building with magic and kingdoms and the promise for more detail in future books. 

My favourite part of the book was definitely the main character. Auren had a shitty lot in life before being found by Midas, and she is determined to look on the bright side of every situation. Her interaction with other people is limited, what with living in a cage, but she finds ways to have fun, and I love her sass and sense of humour. 

“When I chose to hide away, I was barely more than a girl. Vulnerable. Battered. Scattered. Utterly sick of what the world had to offer.

So I hid in a cage, and I was content to do so. After the things I endured, I wanted it. I accepted the bars, embraced them, even - not to keep me in, but to keep others out.”

This book is definitely for adults only, a lot due to its language, but also the fact that the main character is a ‘royal saddle’. That is to say Auren is part of the King's harem, and there is a lot of talk about her shiny lady parts. C-bombs abound. You have been warned.

There’s also a bit of political stuff going on between the kings; wars, betrayals, displays of power and all that, and poor Auren gets caught up in the middle of it all. When Auren gets out the world all too quickly reminds her why she wished for the safety of a cage. Freedom isn’t so easy to come by for a golden girl.

I wouldn’t say the writing is amazing, but it was a fun read, and there’s definitely enough to intrigue me into picking up the next book in the series. Especially that cliffhanger. It’s kind of a double whammy twisty cliffhanger. Luckily the third book comes out soon!

Happy reading!

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