Gold by Raven Kennedy is the fifth installment of The Plated Prisoner series and the penultimate book in the series. The series that started out as a King Midas inspired tale, but has now taken on wings of its own. Gold starts off right where Glow left off, so if you haven’t read the series up until this book please go check out my previous reviews on this series or read the books so it won’t be spoiled for you. While I won’t be sharing spoilers for the ending of this book in too much detail there might be some. With that being said, here’s what I thought of this book.
Synopsis
“Find me in another life. Find me in them all.”
Every end is also a beginning.
I thought I was going to die, and would have if it weren’t for Slade. The only way he could save me was to open a rip between worlds. The only way for me to save myself was to go through it.
Sometimes, fleeing one dangerous place just brings you to another.
Annwyn.
The realm of the fae.
There is magic and beauty here, though around every corner, threats lurk.
But I’m a threat too.
I’m not a girl in a gilded cage anymore, and no one is going to stop me from finding my way back to Slade.
But returning home means facing danger and secrets. So I have to burn bright enough to light my own way…
Or else I might be swallowed by the dark.
Book Details
- Published: December 7, 2023
- Page Count: 646 pages
- Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Thoughts on Gold
This book alternates between the POVs of Auren, Slade, Queen Malina, and Osrik. Malina was a surprise given how I used to hate for her character, but the more we get her POV in Gold, I finally started to like her character. And that’s coming from someone who hated her POV in the previous two books. But she had a redemption in this book, which I thought was extremely surprising given everything that she’s done. Not only that but she got a love interest with the assassin that Midas hired to kill her, only she’s completely unaware that the dude has been dead for quite some time until she gets back to the Sixth Kingdom and learns that Queen Kalia has taken charge and is going to pretend that Midas’ bastard is hers, so she’ll have control of three Kingdoms. I wasn’t entirely surprised that Kalia fled when presented when the fae army arrived. Kalia only ever wanted to control the narrative and when hers turns out to be wrong, she couldn’t handle it and left leaving Malina behind to defend the Sixth Kingdom. Not that she was successful in stopping the Fae army.
Alright really high level overview of the plot with giving away too many spoilers:
- Slade goes on a revenge tour destroying everyone and everything that ever hurt Auren, since he’s unable to open a new rip to Annwyn.
- Auren learns that she’s technically the heir to the throne in Annwyn, and learns to stand on her own without letting others use her and her abilities for once. As she joins the rebels to take back Annwyn from Fae who blame and punish anyone without magic, anyone with Orean blood, and anyone who doesn’t support their rule. So, we get to see her finally take a proactive role and use what she’s learned over the course of the previous books.
- Osrik pines over Rissa, who has been unconscious/dying for the majority of the book.
- Malina and Dommik (Midas’ assassin) escape the Fae to warn the Sixth Kingdom of the incoming genocide, because that’s what it is. Oh, and they fall in love while doing that. Plus, Malina has ice magic now, which is extremely fitting for her and the kingdom she rules over. She also defends the Sixth Kingdom against the fae army and manages to hold the army back long enough for the several dozen citizens of Highbell to flee.
- Auren is able to use the rot embedded in her heart alongside her magic, which Slade can sense and has been seriously affected by as his rot. Like it’s poisoning his heart and killing him. Or at least it was until something that happens later in the book, but I won’t reveal what it was.
- There is no reunion. I realize that’s a massive spoiler but I feel like that’s super important to mention. Most couples in books when they are split apart at least reunite in the next book, but Slade and Auren never reunite. There’s more that happens that will affect when they do reunite in the last book, but don’t expect to find that in this one.
This book felt like filler especially considering this was supposed to be the final book and it got split in two. There was a lot that could’ve been taken out. I get we started to get Osrik/Rissa in the last book, but we really don’t get more of them in this book as Rissa is basically dying the entire time. Then gets magically healed at the last second from a character that appears out of nowhere. And while I loved that Slade took his revenge against everyone that ever hurt Auren, it was also a lot and some of them were over the smallest details. Like Auren’s horse from the first book that she had for a short period of time, Slade goes after the Red Raids just to get the horse back. So, it kind of felt like the main story that we’ve had throughout the series was on pause for side quests. I still enjoyed it, but some of that could’ve been taken out especially the multiple characters of Osrik sitting at the bed side of Rissa. Their storyline doesn’t feel important as compared to the others. Malina makes sense now considering her role with reopening the bridge between Annwyn and Orea, but Osrik doesn’t have that. I’m guessing Rissa will play a bigger role in the future, though I don’t know what.
Not to mention, there were parts of this book that dragged. And every time that happened, I would think “Please just let Auren and Slade reunite soon so it can get interesting again,” only for that to never happen. While I liked Auren’s character development, it just wasn’t strong enough to make up for the lack of everything else. Plus, she ends up at Slade’s family manor to rescue the village who were sucked back into Annwyn, only for most of them to die during the rescue as Auren is betrayed. Which makes the entire thing feel like a waste and we don’t even have Slade or Ryatt around to react to what’s happening to the people they love and care for. This series really needs that romantic plot between Auren and Slade, and without that it felt like a TV show that went on a season too long. While the romance between Malina and Dommik helped, it wasn’t enough to carry the book.
I will finish reading this series, since there’s only one book left. As there’s lot that needs to be resolved since other than Slade’s revenge tour that took out some of the key players in Orea, none of the true antagonists were dealt with. But overall, this book kind of disappointed me. I had higher hopes for it, and while I enjoyed parts of it, it just didn’t live up to the other books. So, I would give this book a 3.25 out of 5 star rating.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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