Gild is the first book in the adult fantasy romance series, called The Plated Prisoner Series, by the amazing Raven Kennedy. Raven Kennedy is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite authors. She writes the most addictive books with the best characters! Gild is a bit different and quite a bit darker than the other books I have read from Raven Kennedy. It is a dark reimaging of the story of King Midas and I was completely obsessed with it. Book two, Glint releases today and I stayed up way too late binge reading both books this weekend. If you are a fan of dark adult fantasies, then the Plated Prisoner series is a must read for you to check out!

In Gild we meet our main character Auren, who is the favored gold touched pet of King Midas. Midas keeps Auren in a fancy gold plated cage for everyone to see as a symbol of his power. I found Auren’s cage and relationship with Midas to be fascinating. Her cage spans the entire top floor the castle, with cages built into every room and barred walkways connecting all the room so she can roam kind of freely around the castle. It’s interesting because at the start of the book Auren very much wants to be in her cage to keep her safe. From what, we don’t know. But we do know that she has had a very rough life as an orphan living on the streets until Midas rescued her. She has known him since before he was king, which explains a lot of their connection. She feels very indebted to Midas for saving her life. She accompanied him to the castle as he married the Queen and became the king with the golden touch.

I loved Auren. She is fascinating. I figured out one of her secrets early on, but Raven Kennedy still managed to surprise me several times throughout the book. Book one does a great job setting up the world. In the Plated Prisoner series, the land is split up onto six kingdoms, and when Midas takes over a neighboring kingdom he sends for his favored and his other royal “saddles” (think fancy concubine) to join him in the neighboring land. Along the way, the caravan gets stolen away and the story gets even more interesting. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I loved every bit of this story. Even though this is going to be a fantasy romance, there is almost no real romance in book one, but don’t let that be off putting to you. After reading book 2, I am even more in love with this series and I already know I am going to love the romance. If you are a fan of dark fantasies featuring interesting magic with magnetic characters and fantastic writing, the Plated Prisoners is a must read series. Raven Kennedy has announced that it will be at least 4 books long, and I am already in DESPERATE need of book 3!