Gleam (The Plated Prisoner Series Book 3)

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In it, you are still following Auren who is the gold plated whore (according to everyone who doesn't know shit about her) and the favored by King Midas. While on this journey with her new kidnappers, she learns a bunch about herself and the other saddles. First off, I hate the saddles because of how they treated Auren throughout these two books. They know absolutely nothing about her and judge her constantly. So, yeah, I felt bad for her and I wanted them all to be turned to gold and die. By bestselling author Raven Kennedy, comes the first book in a stunning new fantasy series, perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout.

Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold. warnings: mentions of human trade and sexual slavery, captivity, emotional manipulation, physical and psychological abuse, and drug consumption. This series keeps on getting better with each book, and the last 20% of this one were SO INTENSE! I am just so glad that the fourth book is released because I don't know how I would have been able to wait to know what happened to Slade and Auren. I also really liked the little we saw of Slade's Wrath, and I really hope to see more of them in the next book, because I adored their "found family" vibe in the second book, and I really felt that it helped Auren with her healing process.He’s sinister and powerful and entirely too seductive. I’ve learned my lesson with trusting manipulative kings, so why does my chest constrict every time he’s near? I need to tread carefully, or I’m at risk of losing much more than just my freedom. You know how a lot of people complain about the Blood and Ash series moving in snail pace, and I agree, but hot damn, then there is Glint where it feels like the characters don't move at all and only stay within the same camp until maybe the last 20% when they finally arrived at the Fifth Kingdom. That's the only change of scenery. Moving on to the story, I have no words other than say it is amazing. It got me completely hooked for days to read this and I'd be lying if I say I didn't devour this shit in whole. The story was exciting and given how wide and variation this universe is, I see a lot of potential for this series and it could ascend so high if it done properly. Because that was the only thing in my mind when I read the first few chapters from this book, it got me guessing what will be Auren's fate soon, which Kingdom will Rip come from, what identity will he has, is he going to be more vicious than Midas, and etc cetera. I was just purely excited to know more about this book throughout my reading. And I think this is a proof that I really like this book and the story.

I truly believe Auren's story resonates with many people whom were victims of manipulation and they mistook those manipulative actions for love. Her growth and realization towards the end that everything she had endured was because of a false love was so powerful yet heart wrenching. Auren spent 10 years inside a golden cage. And the first time she stepped outside, two different men tried to rape her. And one of them managed to rape another girl in front of her. It’s a very graphic and violent scene that left me feeling nauseous. Perfectly shows how many subtleties an abusive relationship has through the rose-colored lens of the victim. How can he easily use her, and tries to maintain her trust at bay through sweet nothings, how he mantains her hooked in that draining relationship through intermittent affection and their past memories as his lover and savior, how manipulative he can be, and how unbalanced the relationship is in terms of power. A perfect representation of a toxic relationship that never feels romanticized but realistic. The author’s favourite book in the series is Gleam, the third book because it was the most difficult to write. On top of that, Auren feels lonely and struggles with mental health issues from her captivity and isolation. She has no friends or support from anyone. And even those who help her, well, let’s just say even that part was sad.

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I was debating over my rating for awhile but then I realized that while I was angry understatement over a lot of things that happened in here, I didn't completely hate this. I mean I was supposed to be angry, anyone would with the terrible events and characters in Gild. It is hard to rate this though because of all the abuse that happens in here, and so obviously I didn't enjoy those parts. Unfortunately for majority of the book, things like that happen which I hated and because of that I just really can't give this a higher rating. But I can see that the author is setting up everything and Auren's character is definitely going to develop from here on out. I am not one of the many that seemed to love this book. In fact, it may have ruined the series for me. While I appreciated seeing Auren become more independent, I had some major problems with the romance. Are people so content in ignorance that they'll believe every lie fed to them, despite what they right in front of their eyes?" CAN I JUST SAY I'M SO HAPPY THAT THIS BOOK AND MY SWEETEST FRIEND LYRA GOT TO BE MY FIRST BUDDY-READ?😭🫶🏻