Review: Gleam (Plated Prisoner Series), By Raven Kennedy

Rating: ☆ ☆☆ ☆/5
Pages: 688
Date of Publication: 2022
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Series: Yes, Completed as of 2024
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, slow burn, reimagined mythology, forbidden romance, morally grey love interest, fae elements, found family, ‘who hurt you?’

SPOILERS AHEAD

Synopsis:

Continuing the story by following Auren directly after the end of Glint (book #2), we find her in King Midas’ newly declared throne in the Fifth Kingdom. During her time with Fourth Kingdom’s army and military commander, Rip, she had time away from her caging King. This gave her time to question his actions, to question her own. Now, she questions Slade too, feeling betrayed after his deceit regarding his identity. Auren must decide if she wants to remain with her King; her saviour, or be free in a world that has been nothing but evil to her. Can she hold her own? Will she want to?

Review:

Immediately, this is my favourite out of the series so far. Having read the first three, I now feel like the first two instalments were prequels and now we’re getting to the good bit. Not in a bad way, as I still really enjoyed Gild and Glint, but in the best way the books just keep raising the bar for themselves. New tropes, characters and developments are made that set up the next addition to the series in a way that is addictive, meaning I can’t stand to read anything else in between!

Right, let’s deal with Auren, first. I’ve always liked Auren, however in regards to taste in character, she’s not usually one I’d like. I tend to gravitate towards bitchy (complimentary and uplifting tones here), angry women, similar to Celaena from Throne of Glass, or for a far more extreme example, Rin from The Poppy War trilogy. However, I always love a character development with a sense of self discovery. In this novel, I feel like as the reader you really get to experience the throws of Auren’s personal transition from caged bird to free fae. Not to mention the heartbreaking backstory of her power, and the much anticipated story of why she’s so afraid of hurting people.

As well as fully understanding why Midas is such a prick, in this novel we really get to hate him. His ugliest parts come to the surface and Auren grows to hate him, finally. I’m not going to lie, I think if it went on any longer (the pining after Midas because he saved her trope), I think I would’ve grown really tired of it. And quickly. But as I have praised the pacing of this novel before, Kennedy perfectly times the decision to change or alter any feelings other than hate towards Midas an appropriate amount of time into the book.

This is also when the slow burn starts to burn. Slade starts to become one of my favourite MMCs in this book. Sneaking Auren to the camp, helping her with her power, the brief, final moments of them pretending to hate each other. Because, let’s be honest, Slade has never hated Auren once in his life. Auren, granted, was raging at him for lying about who he was, but she gets over it soon enough that we can still enjoy the small sip of that enemies to lovers taste.

As well as the men in her life, Auren’s female relationships start to thrive and differ also. Her and Lu show a very supportive dynamic, painting Lu as an extremely trustworthy character for her. Her relationship with fellow saddle Rissa, however, is not the same. Rissa is still a bitch to her, although this time we get a glimpse as to why. Not nearly on the same level, but I can only compare how I feel about Rissa to Nesta from A Court of Thrones and Roses (ACOTAR). I HATED Nesta with a fiery passion in the first and second books - she was such a Bitch, capital B. However upon getting to know her character even more, I, like most people, grew to understand her behaviour and found that if I had been in the same position, I might’ve reacted in the same way. Obviously not everyone relates to Nesta in the beginning, before she finds her Valkyrie, but nevertheless there’s at least one thing every woman can relate to in her story. With Rissa, I wasn't’t too sure if we were going to get a deeper look into her life, but we do. And in the aftermath of finding out more about her life, I found myself on her side, slightly. A woman who must use whatever she can to protect herself, even if that does make her a bitch. It’s survival for her as a saddle. I felt that the female relationships in the novel probably could’ve been touched on a little more, maybe dissected a bit more - but let’s be real, we’re here for Slade and Auren, so this time I don’t mind.

I would say that there are two stand out scenes for me, since this time I cannot pick just one. The first, being the scene when Midas cuts off her ribbons. I have never read something that has made me feel so much empathy for a character. I think this effect was caused by the fact that Auren’s ribbons were almost written like they were their own character. They were still very much a part of Auren and her autonomy, but the way that in some cases they had a mind of their own was very endearing and I grew to really love that part of her. So when this scene occurred, it was absolutely heartbreaking. In a previous review, I mentioned that Kennedy has moments of cheap and rich writing (if you don’t know what I mean by that I’m pretty sure it was in the review for the first book, Gild, so go and have a look for a more in depth meaning for this - since cheap doesn’t necessarily mean bad). Kennedy really makes sure to use the rich writing style during intense moments like these, whether they are happy or sad or angry. This is definitely an example of her rich writing in full effect, evident in the way I felt after reading this scene. Angry for Auren, angry and Midas, distraught to witness such a violent crime yet vengeful, since I knew that Midas would get his flowers for this.

Another undeniable stand out moment, was the final scene in the palace: Midas’ death. I LOVE an angry woman - have I mentioned? Especially an extremely climatic scene such as this one. The over powering turn of Auren’s magic was absolutely wonderful to read and I loved every second of it. Midas being completely consumed til the point of death by the very thing he sought to control and take credit for tasted sweet, as I’m sure it did for Auren. Despite her mixed feelings about what she’d done, knowing that in the past episodes like this one with her magic were usually tragic, and in a certain light this one was too, I still thrived off of this scene, and it felt like if not the entire of the three books then the entire Gleam novel was building up to this moment. Ever since Midas welcomed Auren back to his care and tried to cage her again, I craved for a scene such as this one. It also brilliantly showed the magnitude of Auren’s power, since before this Auren fought hard to hold her magic back out of her fear of it. To watch her completely lose herself in it was wonderful and an incredibly good read.

Finally, spice. I wanted to leave the best til last. Now, as far as I can remember there is really only one spicy scene in the novel, so the reasoning for the 3 chilli rating is because quality over quantity. If there is one thing Ms. Kennedy can write, I now know that it is spice. Genuinely, some of the best spice I’ve ever read. I would much rather quality over quantity in a Fantasy series, seeing as if I wanted more, I would probably head to another genre (keep an eye on bookclub for April ;)). But a good fantasy plot AND good spice? Practically unheard of, or at the very least incredibly rare. I’ve seen a lot of people claim that there was a disconnect between Auren and Slade and to that I say ???? Where? I thought the scene was timed perfectly and made total sense for where their characters were personally at the time. A lot of the time, spicy scenes are often misplaced or rushed, which I’ll get to in reviews of the later books but this one, was perfect. So if you’re looking for spice, and you prefer quality over quantity, stick this one out. It is worth it.

All in all, this was by far my favourite of the series so far. I don’t want to give too much away as I’m now on the final book so I try not to bring future books up a lot in reviews of previous ones, but I still love this book a lot and it might be my favourite in the entire series, but I’ll keep you all updated. Promise.

BookSeeker <3