Review of Raven Kennedy’s Gild & Glint: A Journey of Betrayal

Gild & Glint ♥ Raven Kennedy ♥ The Plated Prisioner #1 & #2

Published December 2020 ♥ Originally Independently Published by Raven Kennedy

Published October 2021 ♥ Originally Independently Published by Raven Kennedy

❥ Fantasy Romance

❥ King Midas Inspired

❥ Enemies to Lovers

❥ Slow Burn

❥ Captor & Captive

❥ Mature Themes including Rape & Abuse

❥ Completed Series

Book Three Review : Gleam Review: Uncovering Secrets in Raven Kennedy’s The Plated Prisoner Series

Book Four Review : Glow Review: Thrilling Journey Through the Plated Prisoner Series

Gild & Glint Review

When I read Gild by Raven Kennedy last month, it was just okay. There was nothing overly exciting about it, but the potential to be something great was there. After reading Glint, Kennedy’s overall story is definitely better. I think it would have been even better if Gild & Glint were one book. Gild is told from the perspective of Auren, King Midas’ gold touched favoured little pet. I had a love-hate relationship with Auren. She’s weak as fuck and I loathe weak female characters.

But it was hard not to like Auren.

Kennedy wrote Auren with a great personality & amazing qualities. You want to be friends with her, and not just because she has none. It’s not until Glint that we really start to get to know Auren. In fact, it’s not until Glint that we really get to know anything at all. Gild is a better book because of Glint.

Auren spends her days with gold-coloured glasses on, basking in the glory that is being Midas’s pet. When he offers her up to King Fulke, cracks start forming in those glasses. Although it was a ruse in a plot to take over the Fifth Kingdom, the damage was done. Fortunately for Midas, Auren is easily placated and quickly manipulated back into her cage.

That’s right, Auren lives in a fucking cage.

I felt like I spent the entirety of Gild just waiting for something of some significance to happen. For Auren to do something, anything really. After the fallout with King Fulke, things start to change for Auren. Midas heads to the Fifth Kingdom with his plans to take over. Midas’s wife, The Cold Queen Malina, stays behind in the Sixth Kingdom. When Auren and the rest of the royal saddles are summoned to the Fifth Kingdom, they are captured by snow pirates.

This is where the story really started for me.

Truly up until the saddles were captured, I was questioning what the fuck I was reading.

In Gild, Kennedy leads us to believe Midas is the one with the golden touch. I had my suspicions though, even with Kennedy and my brain trying to drive that point home. Things just didn’t quite add up. At the end of Gild, Auren finally goes and does something, turning the Captain of the Red Raids into a gold statue.

Only to have the snow pirates raided by the Fourth Kingdom’s army.

Glint picks up right where Gild ends. Auren & her companions have been captured by the Fourth Army of King Rot & Commander Rip. They were the best thing to happen to Auren and Kennedy’s story. Everything is better in Glint from the very first chapter. Kennedy starts Glint by blowing the doors open on Queen Malina with chapters from her perspective.

Adding chapters from Queen Malina and introducing the Fourth Kingdom truly made the story better.

Queen Malina has been a very disgruntled wife for a very long time. Another poor unfortunate soul ruined by the man that is Midas. Malina has long lost her gold-coloured glasses. That’s if she ever even had them on to begin with. With Midas off in the Fifth Kingdom, she’s changing the keys to the castle.

Bitch is done with that bastard husband of hers.

While Malina is planning a coup, Auren’s gold-coloured glasses are finally showing so many cracks she’s can barely see through them. Her time spent with Commander Rip & his Wrath marks a clear change in who she is. Utilizing flashback chapters a lot of the mystery surrounding Auren finally clears.

Fae are a big no-no in Orea & Auren is Fae.

Nonetheless, like a good pet, when given the chance she returns to her master Midas. And as her gold-coloured glasses continue to shatter, we witness the lies, manipulation and deceit she endures from Midas. At some point I stopped hating Auren and thinking she was just some whining annoying protagonist to cheering for her. She fights every step of the way towards her redemption though.

I really enjoyed the chapters from Malina’s viewpoint. They seemed to have come with the most twists and turns, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities for Kennedy’s story. I’m interested in seeing where those little threads take us in Gleam. Now that Auren is back with Midas, I’m interested in seeing where her story goes. In the end, she stands up to him, but she is still securely under his thumb.

I’m patiently waiting for Auren to completely lose her shit on Midas.

Just turn the fucker gold already & toss him in the trash.

I was so excited when I finished reading Glint I picked up Gleam right away. I know Gild is important to the overall story, we wouldn’t get the magnitude of character growth without it, but Glint is the better book.

Gild

Glint

I don’t know whether I should be more offended that he thinks I’m so weak, or fearful that I’ll turn out to be.

There’s safety in loneliness, but there’s lurking danger too. One that doesn’t come from anything other than yourself. The danger for me, of course, is the memories.

I’ve found that some smells are strings tied around memories.

We’re all captives of something, even things we don’t want to admit to.

I’m that beguiled insect, caught in his carnivorous clutches, ready to be devoured.