Title: Glint
Author: Raven Kennedy
Genre: Romantasy, Adult Romance
Published: January 3, 2021 (original),
August 20, 2024 (this edition)
Publisher: Podium Audio
Source: Audiobook (Audible)
Length: 11 Hours 14 Minutes
Narrated by: Lilly Drake, Anthony Palmini
Series: The Plated Prisoner
Goodreads Synopsis:
You want to make your life easier? Then be the caged bird that you are and sing.”
For ten years, I lived in a gilded cage inside King Midas’s golden castle. One night changed everything.
Now I’m here, a prisoner of Fourth Kingdom’s army, and I’m not sure if I’m going to make it out of this in one piece. They’re marching to battle, and I’m the bargaining chip that will either douse the fire or spark a war.
At the heart of my fear, my worry, there’s him—Commander Rip. Known for his brutality on the battlefield, his viciousness is unsurpassed. But I know the truth about what he is.
Fae.
The betrayers. The murderers. The ones who nearly destroyed Orea, wiping out Seventh Kingdom in the process. Rip has power sizzling beneath this skin and glinting spikes down his spine. But his eyes—his eyes are the most compelling of all.
When he turns those black eyes on me, I feel captive for an entirely different reason. I may be out of my cage, but I’m not free, not even close.
In the game of kings and armies, I’m the gilded pawn. The question is, can I outmaneuver them?
You can find my review for the first book in this series here: Gild by Raven Kennedy
My Rating: 4.5
This is my second read of this book. I never finished the series so I’m listening to the audiobooks to refresh my memory of the story before I get to the last two books of the series that I haven’t read yet.
This edition of the audiobook is recorded using a duet style, where Lily Drake does the narration of any female character’s narration and dialogue, she also does all of the female character voices. Likewise Anthony Palmini narrates any male characters POV and dialogue. This really does help with the immersion into the story as each character is given a distinctive voice that sounds realisitic.
Like with the first book the writing is really good but continues that constant poetic comparison of things, the formulatic: X thing happened and is like this Y thing. While it does help with visualizing how characters are moving physically, feeling, etc. the frequency in which it occurs is still a bit frustrating. There are time where it seems like it is every other sentence. Beyond that it is a well written story, with complex characters that constantly have me wanting to know what happens next, and while this is my second read through of this, there are a lot of details I had forgotten from my first read so it’s like discovering it for the first time.
“He shakes his head. “No, Auren. You’re the one that needs to burn. You need to spark to life and fight. Stop letting him dull you, stop letting the whole fucking world trample you,” he shouts, making me flinch from the vehement demand. “If you tried, you could shine brighter than the fucking sun. Instead, you’ve chosen to sit back and wither.”
― Raven Kennedy, Glint
Possible Spoilers Ahead
If you haven’t read this series before there may be spoilers ahead. I’ll do my best to keep it as spoiler free as possible.
I remember reading this the first time and being so angry at Auren, wake up, girl. You constantly say that Midas loves you, but in what ways has he shown that? He locks you up in a cage, dangles you in front of people like a trophy, uses you for your powers, and barely gives you the time of day. Now here you have someone that treats you like a person, multiple people in fact, they give you freedom you have not seen in a decade and still you continue to choose him.
It’s the classic abusive relationship, what we know is safe, and how do we know that this freedom we have once out of it will last, so we’d rather go back to what we know and justify the abuse because it’s all that’s known. The cage keeps me safe, it’s dangerous out in the world. People have used me and beaten me; He provides for me, so I provide for him. This is how she justifies it.
Everytime she talks to Rip, or one of his captains, we start to see hints of realizations on her part just how awful he is toward her, but then retreats back to how she used to be, dead set on trying to find messenger ravens she knows the army has so she can send a message to Midas warning him about the Fourth Kingdom’s Army coming to Fifth, and that they have her and the other saddles, as well as soldiers that were their guards.
When they finally arrive in Fifth Kingdom we finally see Auren push back and stand up for herself against Midas, who immediatly brought her to a room where he had another cage built for her. We see the influence everyone she met in Fourth’s army had on her. Cracks starting to form in her unwavering loyalty towards him. I have never cheered for a character harder than I did her. Finally! you are finally starting to see everything that everyone has been telling you. Do you see how he actually treats you now, when you are not being subserviant, is that how someone who loves you would behave? No? Now what are you going to do about it?
and of course we have to wait for book three to find out.
Have you read this book?
What were your thoughts on it?
Are there any books you would recommend for me to read based on this book review?
Leave a comment below and let me know.
Happy Reading!
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