Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Gold

I wanted to read this book because the first four books in this series was gifted to me by Michael Joseph Penguin Publishing and I thought this was going to be the last book and was very excited especially with how big it was, but it just fell flat, and it’s not the last book in the series.

This book is still based on Auren. She thought she was going to die and she would have if it wasn’t for Slade. The only way he could save her was to open a rip between worlds. The only way for her to save herself 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, through around every corner, threats lurk. But Auren knows she is a threat too. She is not the girl in the gilded cage anymore, and no one is going to stop her from finding her way back to Slade. But returning home means facing danger and secrets. So she will have to burn bright enough to light her own way or else she might be swallowed by the dark.

You’re telling me I read 630 pages and there was no reunion between Auren and Slade and Auren’s memory is gone. Are you kidding me? This book could have been 200 pages and I think I would have liked it more. It was just a filler book where nothing happened to our main characters who we all wanted to see reunite. All the drama and actioned was going on between the side characters and it was the characters I just didn’t care about. I only wanted Auren and Slade. I didn’t care about Malina and her love story – I'm glad she’s not a shit Queen anymore, but she doesn’t deserve the love story she is getting. Osrik and Rissa, I also don’t care about especially with how much of a bitch Rissa has been in the past books. I found myself skimming over those chapters and wanting to get back to Auren and Slade.

They were the chapters I liked, Slade not giving too shits about the politics and just wanted to get revenge for Auren and was working his butt off to get the rip open. I liked the aspect that they are bonded together and that Auren using her power could potentially kill Slade and she doesn’t even know because they are separated.

Overall, it felt like Raven didn’t want to give this series up yet so decided to try and drag this book on and then got too carried away with the side characters. I probably won’t remember this book in a week or two and hopefully the last book of the series will be worth it.

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naturally's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

aurenslade shippers should be warned: they spent this entire book apart.

despite this, i thought gold was a strong addition to the plated prisoner series and i enjoyed it more than glow. the slow pace and dragged out storylines of the last book pay off. in gold, the readers get to reap the benefits of the connected dots (saira turley storyline + malina's disjointed travels throughout the kingdoms + slade's long backstory/flashback chapters), mainly through auren and malina's character development.

although auren in the main character of this series, i must admit, malina stole the show in book 5!

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meaghcol48's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book could have been incredible.

This book was partially set in Annwyn, which could have lead to some amazing lore and world building opportunities that the author just missed completely. Why have such a story set in a complete fantasy world, without exploring how that world works in detail?

It was the perfect opportunity for the author to explore the aftermath of abusive relationships from two different perspectives, while the abuser remained the same person. Instead it seemed like the author had forgotten about the abuse for the most part, only briefly mentioning it three or four times in the whole 672 pages.

Additionally, it did not need to be that long. So many times the events were being recapped mere pages after they had happened. I understand characters needing to know about events they weren't present for, but does the reader need to read a blow by blow account in the form of a conversation with another character? Even worse was when characters were recapping in their own head.

There is also a sex scene (the only one in this book), between Malina and the Assassin which I'm not entirely convinced was consensual, despite being portrayed as such. I am going to without a concrete judgement on that until I read the final book, however, since Midas was originally portrayed as being a saviour until that degraded over time.

There seems to be very much the Holocaust allegory in this book, as well. I'm not going to pass judgement on that, since I don't feel it's my place (as someone who isn't Jewish) to do so.
Some specific examples of things that tipped me off:

Auren was described as being hidden in an attic to hide her from the rulers.
There was constant othering and enslavement of Oreans.
The tyrannical rulers Annwyn see Oreans as having impure blood and lesser beings.
Oreans are brutalised by the rulers on a regular basis.
There's also a resistance which aims to overthrow these rulers and bring peace to Annwyn.
The resistance rescues the Oreans from their captors.
The rulers are attempting to invade Orea, and murder all the Oreans.

There are no doubt other examples that someone more educated than I on this subject would be able to pick up on.

There were two specific examples of confusing lore-breaking choices (or perhaps laziness) that I can think of off the top of my head. These will be explained without major plot spoilers. So for context for anyone that hasn't read the books in this series, this is high fantasy with no links to the real world, medical science in this series is somewhere around "You have a grievous wound, put this salve on it", additionally, there has been no mention of Abrahamic religions, instead preferring what seems to be a matriarchal polytheism of some description.

To the points:

Something rather chaotic happens, and one of the characters describes this as being 'Bedlam' which is quite a common phrase in our world. However, this word came into our vernacular from St Mary Bethlehem Hospital. Which implies both the existence of psychiatric hospitals, the existence of Christianity, as well as the existence of a place called Bethlehem in a world where not only have these things never been mentioned previously, but there is evidence to suggest the opposite.
At one point, a character is describing some bars on something, likening them to "the iron cages often bolted over graves to keep robbers at bay". Although I will give credit for recognising why the cages were actually used, this doesn't fit in the world. The reason those cages were needed was so people couldn't steal the bodies and sell them to anatomy schools. This only started happening in the 19th Century, and (to my knowledge) only in England and Scotland. In this book, implying a medical science vastly more advanced than it's currently stated to be, as well as there being a British Isles, which again is not only never mentioned but there is evidence against this.

I understand these are both relatively minor points within the story, and most people might not even realise the issues I've noted, however for me I found I had to put the book down, take a break and come back to it the following day.

There were also several examples of formatting and spelling errors in this book, I picked up on 4 in the last 300 or so pages of the book alone and don't doubt for a second that there are many more such errors that I missed.

Worst of all, this book didn't really add a vast amount to the overall narrative and gave the overall impression that what was originally meant to be one book has been spread over two books and so this needed a lot of filler.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book. I found it to be such a disappointment in so many ways. It was such a shame when the first three books to this day mean so much to me, having helped me realise and ultimately leave a relationship similar to the one Auren was in with Midas. I will go back to the first three books in the future, but now whenever I recommend the series, I specify that the first three are worth while, the fourth and fifth are just let downs. I will still be reading the next book, as stated, so I'll see how that one goes. Hopefully it gets better.

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kayanoelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

What was this book😭
I loved the multiple POVs because all of the perspectives were interesting and gave us information to fathom the situation all over Orea (and elsewhere).
Malina’s point of view was my favorite in this book, ngl. That’s a redemption arc right there. You go, Queenie.
My mind is still a jumbled mess after having just finished this book and I’m trying to gather my thoughts haha.
Auren is honestly so great and the ending????? What?? WHAT?

honestly, I can’t go through another amnesia trope anytime soon because I already read two of those this year and I always feel like they take years off of my life because of how stressful they are

Kaila deserves every bad thing that could possibly happen to a person and I mean that with everything I have.
To use one of my favorite quotes: “I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy, unless we’re talking about my enemy Kaila. Fuck you, Kaila, you know what you did.”
I’m pretty sure “Goldfinch” is gonna give me like 20 almost-heartattacks but at least we still have loads of time to recover til then.

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book wrecked me and is probably the best one in the series. There’s so much emotional growth and grief. We get to see these characters really struggle through some of the most difficult challenges they’ll face.

Malina really surprised me and I’m happy and proud of her redemption arc. I think it was done really well.

the plot moved along nicely and the changing povs felt like I was watching a tv show. The cliffhanger had my jaw dropping. I can’t wait for the next one.

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lovebexdeath's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't even have words. Raven how could you do this to me

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