Plated Prisoner Series by Raven Kennedy
Spoilers Below!!
Gild 4/5 ⭐
Great world-building. Even after finishing the whole series, this is still one of the books I think back on the most.
Big fan of the Midas-focused parts, even though he's evil. Reminds me of the Darkling and Maven; the characters are intriguing because they're dark, but it doesn't make them redeemable or endgame.
I loveeee any reinterpretation of Greek mythology.
The twist was predictable, but it was still effective.
Sail's death was sad, but... they knew each other for like two days.
I often want the FMC to stand up when being treated badly in cases such as Midas and Auren, but in this case it didn't upset me because you can see his manipulation is her whole character as we know it right now.
Glint 5/5 ⭐
The saddles can leave now. I'm officially done with them.
Auren is such a hard character to watch sometimes. I know it is intentional and reflects how deeply Midas's conditioning has shaped her, but the secondhand embarrassment is brutal.
Watching her slowly untangle herself from Midas's influence is frustrating at times, but it makes her growth feel earned.
The romance with Rip feels like it comes out of nowhere.
Honestly, this ends up being one of my biggest critiques of the author throughout the entire series. A lot of the romantic development feels rushed compared to the character development. Especially with how long the books are, they have such good opportunity for slow burns.
"The Wrath" is a cringey name, but I absolutely love this type of dynamic, so I was invested anyway.
The atmosphere in this book is incredible. The camp feels so distinct that I already knew I'd miss it once they eventually moved on to the castle. Like even before leaving, the camp had that temporary-found-family feeling that made me nostalgic for it while I was still reading.
Gleam 4.5/5 ⭐
Rissa is tolerable; the other saddles are not so much.
I just love the overall concept of this series. The mythology, powers, and kingdoms keep me invested even when certain plot points frustrate me.
Midas, I'm officially done with you.
Auren finally standing up for herself makes this book so much more enjoyable. Watching her gain confidence and push back against Midas's conditioning is incredibly satisfying.
Finally, some build-up with the romance, even if it's late. This is easily my favorite book romance-wise through the whole series.
That said, I do wish Auren hadn't jumped so quickly from one guy to another. I understand why it happened, but I would've liked more time focused on her independence first.
All the way smut already? Really?
Manu, you're on thin ice tag-teaming up with Kaila.
I really like the Fourth Kingdom. The setting and politics are some of my favorite parts of the book.
Rip being Slade (The king) is once again predictable, but it doesn't make it bad. (Noticing a theme here)
Auren is way too gullible with the Digby situation. I know characters need to make mistakes, but there were so many better solutions that the whole thing felt frustrating.
Confession: I think the gold powers are a little overrated. For how much they're hyped up throughout the series, some of the other powers are honestly more interesting. On that topic, the rot power is low-key grossing me out, but it's also one of the more creative abilities in the series, so I'll give it credit for that.
Glow 3/5 ⭐
Osrik and Rissa feel completely random and, once again, too quick, not buying into it. I think it's out of character for Rissa.
Overall, this was probably one of the weaker books for me. It's very clearly a setup book for what comes next.
I understand the need for buildup, but when the books are already this long, having such an obvious "filler" installment feels a little ridiculous.
The actual Conflux was really cool and easily one of the highlights.
I ended up liking Deadwell way more than I expected to. The setting was surprisingly interesting. But I feel that's because it gave us a lot of great Wrath content, which definitely bumped up my rating.
This book is basically 500 pages of everyone babying Auren. It was frustrating because she had finally started feeling more capable and independent in Gleam.
It feels really late in the series to still be adding huge chunks of character backstory and development. After roughly 2,000 pages, a lot of that groundwork should've already been woven into the story.
Auren and Slade spend a lot of this book creating problems where there really aren't any. Not in a compelling relationship-conflict way, either. More in a repetitive, emotionally exhausting whiplash kind of way.
Their communication issues started feeling less dramatic and more frustrating the longer they dragged on.
Gold 3/5 ⭐
Both Glow and Gold suffer from too many POV switches. The constant addition of new perspectives and characters felt more distracting than enriching.
Osrik and Rissa somehow got even worse. I didn't think that was possible, especially because I'm usually a sucker for side-character romance subplots.
Lu's absence was definitely felt in this book. I found myself missing her a lot.
Ryatt is honestly the only person acting logically half the time, and everyone treats him like he's insane.
Malina's chapters are finally getting interesting. After four books of mostly pushing through them, it finally feels like her storyline is building toward the actual point of her character. But her romance also feels redundant.
I like that Auren and Slade are separated because it gives Auren space to develop as her own person instead of existing solely within the relationship with him or Midas. A lot of people argued in their reviews that they were needlessly separated and made it worse, but since, for me, Auren and Slade have never hit the way they should, it didn't affect it negatively in my opinion, even if it was dragged on for the entirety of the book.
Unfortunately, her spending every waking moment thinking about and searching for Slade kind of undermines that independence.
Because, of course, Auren is the queen of Annwyn. At some point, even in fantasy, the amount of plot armor and special reveals starts to feel excessive.
That said, I'm actually a big fan of Annwyn. The worldbuilding is getting complicated, and the kingdoms are harder to keep track of, but I really like the atmosphere there.
Annwyn and Orea have such different vibes that it's hard to compare them. I genuinely enjoy both settings for different reasons.
Auren and Slade being fated mates feels unnecessary. It's never been one of my favorite fantasy tropes, and it felt like one more thing piled onto an already overloaded story.
After the slower pace of Glow, this book starts throwing major reveals and plot developments at the reader nonstop.
Slade finally living up to all the talk about being the villain was one of the best parts of the book. He desperately needed an arc that actually showed why people feared him instead of just talking about it.
Memory loss? Really? At this point, there are so many major plotlines, twists, and reveals being introduced that it's starting to feel ridiculous, considering there's only one book left.
The story feels very far removed from the original premise at this point, which is disappointing because I was a huge fan of where it started.
Rissa getting hurt was surprisingly anticlimactic. Five books in, the author hasn't killed off any major characters, so there was never any real tension that she might actually die.
...And, as expected, she didn't.
Ryatt, come home. The kids miss you ;)
Goldfinch 2.5/5 ⭐
The lost memory trope was pointless for how quickly her memories came back.
I think I'm in the minority when it comes to Osrik and Rissa irking me. Lu, Judd, and Ryatt make up for it, though.
Malina dying wasn't happy or sad for me, but it was closure for her character, I guess.
I think the politics were forgotten so heavily in the last books that it makes you wonder how Slade was ever even king; it was maddening at some point, with the fact that he cared nothing for his kingdom.
Being stuck in Annwyn seems like it was supposed to be a HEA, but when you think about how it affects everyone other than the main characters, you see through it. Ryatt would be miserable after just finally becoming commander and dealing with Slade's BS his whole life.
The series starts as a single POV and morphs into a dual-trio POV, then turns into a complete multi POV mess.
The ending weirdly reminds me of The Young Elites by Marie Lu. I think simply being able to choose to come back from death is pointless.
Slade losing his dragon but Auren getting her ribbons and wings- talk about unfair.
So much left unsaid about Orea. I think the pacing and banter went downhill throughout the series.
Overall Ranking ⭐
Glint
Gild
Gleam
Glow
Gold
Goldfinch
Although I think it seems like I have a lot of critiques, I did thoroughly enjoy this series and have reread it twice now lol <3
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