GILD by Raven Kennedy: I Didn't Expect to Love This Dark Romantasy So Much ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, color me absolutely shook. 🫠 I went into Gild thinking, "Eh, a King Midas retelling? Sounds interesting, but I'm not really a fantasy girl." Fast forward a few hundred pages and I'm sitting here, mouth agape, desperately needing the next book immediately. This was a ride.
If you're on the fence about this one because dark fantasy isn't usually your thing, let me be the friend who pushes you off that fence. Because this book? It grabbed me. It had me at the edge of my seat, clutching my metaphorical pearls. The story is engaging, the tension is thick enough to cut with a knife, and the foundation for what is clearly going to be an epic series is rock solid.
⚠️ Trigger Warnings for Gild
Before we dive into the shiny gold depths, let's get the heavy stuff out of the way. This is a dark romantasy, and it does not pull its punches. Please take care of yourself first. 💛
The source material and reader guides consistently flag these elements: sexual content, sexual violence and on-page assault, rape, emotional and physical abuse, gender discrimination, graphic violence, animal cruelty and death, death by suicide, and cursing. There's also frequent derogatory language toward women. The author herself notes the series is intended for mature audiences only.
If those are hard limits for you, that's completely valid. For everyone else, buckle up.
📖 The Gist: What Is Gild About?
Gild is the first book in The Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy, and it's a dark romantasy retelling of the King Midas myth. The story is set in Orea, a realm of six kingdoms (formerly seven) that was betrayed by the fae millennia ago. We follow Auren, a woman who was "saved" from the slums as a child by King Midas and subsequently transformed into a creature of living gold—her skin, her hair, even her eyes shine like the metal. She lives in a gilded cage within Midas's castle, his "favored" saddle (aka concubine), isolated from everyone but him.
Auren believes she loves Midas. She believes she's safe. She believes his control is protection.
Reader, it's a lie. And Gild is the story of that lie slowly, painfully beginning to crack. When Midas uses Auren as a bargaining chip in a political scheme, her trust shatters. And when she's captured by pirates and dragged into a world far more dangerous than her golden cage, Auren discovers that she has power of her own—and that everything she knew about Midas, and herself, was wrong.
🔥 MAJOR SPOILER WARNING 🔥
I'm about to spoil EVERYTHING. The full plot, the ending, the twists, all of it. If you want to go in blind, skip to the "Recommendations" section at the bottom. You've been warned.
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Okay? Ready? Let's do this.
The Full Plot of Gild (With ALL the Spoilers)
The Cage and the King
We open in Sixth Kingdom, where Auren has spent ten years as Midas's prized possession. She's "gold-touched"—her entire body is gold, and two dozen prehensile gold ribbons protrude from her spine. She lives in a literal cage in Midas's castle, forced to watch him with his other saddles but forbidden from touching anyone but him. It's a lot of Stockholm Syndrome, and the narrative doesn't shy away from how messed up Auren's headspace is.
Midas is married to Queen Malina, the last of the original royal bloodline of Sixth Kingdom. She should rule, but the law requires magical ability, and she has none—so she was forced to marry Midas, who has the gold touch. Malina hates Auren with a burning passion.
The Betrayal
King Fulke of Fifth Kingdom visits, and Midas makes a deal: Fulke's army will help Midas attack King Ravinger's Fourth Kingdom, and in exchange, Fulke gets one night with Auren. Midas agrees. Auren is devastated—her first real crack in devotion to him.
But when the night arrives, a messenger reveals the truth: Midas never sent his army to help Fulke. Fulke's forces were slaughtered. Midas used him. Fulke grabs Auren in rage, and Digby, her guard, kills him on the spot. Midas takes over Fifth Kingdom under the guise of "helping".
The Journey and the Snow Pirates
Midas summons Auren and a dozen saddles to join him in the newly conquered Fifth Kingdom. Digby leads the caravan through icy mountains. Auren befriends a young guard named Sail—a kind, respectful presence in a world of cruelty. And then the caravan is ambushed by snow pirates in gliding ships.
The pirate captain, Fane, realizes who Auren is and decides to keep her for himself. When Sail tries to protect her, Fane kills him. Auren is devastated. In her rage, she reveals her hidden power: the gold ribbons on her back act with prehensile strength, and she uses them to pull Sail's body down and throw it overboard, preventing further desecration.
But Fane has bigger problems. Commander Rip of Fourth Kingdom arrives with soldiers—and Rip is fae. Spikes protrude from his back; he's the first fae seen in Orea in 300 years. Rip demands to purchase all the captured saddles, including Auren. Fane agrees but plans to enjoy them first.
The Gold-Touch Reveal
Fane drags Auren and Rissa (another saddle) to his quarters and violently assaults Rissa while Auren watches. Auren screams at him to stop, and when he turns on her, she kills him with a hidden gold-touch ability—turning him into solid gold. She and Rissa throw his body overboard and lie to the crew, claiming he ran off with Rip's payment.
Rip arrives to claim the saddles. The pirates retreat, leaving Auren and the others in the hands of this mysterious fae commander.
The Ending
Meanwhile, Midas receives word that Auren has been captured. He's furious and vows to retrieve her, no matter the cost.
And that's where Gild ends. On a cliffhanger. With Auren in the custody of a fae commander, her secret power revealed, her captor/abuser plotting to get her back, and everything we thought we knew about her relationship with Midas shattered.
Oh, and one more thing: Auren is fae. Rip hints at it when he sees her ribbons. The girl who thought she was just a gold-touched human? She has ancient magic in her blood.
My Thoughts: Why This Book Slapped
Sail. I knew from the moment he appeared that he was going to be special. He was kind. He treated Auren like a person. He had depth. And then Raven Kennedy just… killed him? I was NOT prepared. The disrespect of tying his body to the mast had me fuming. But it also gave us the moment Auren finally snapped and used her power in defense of someone else. So… painful, but effective storytelling. 😭
The gold ribbons. Look, I'm a simple reader. A woman made of gold with prehensile back tentacles who can turn people into statues? Iconic. The visual is stunning and horrifying and I need more of it.
Midas is a garbage human. The book doesn't pretend otherwise, even as Auren makes excuses for him. The contrast between his gilded castle and the starving people of his kingdom is brutal. He's not a misunderstood villain; he's a manipulator.
The setup for the series is chef's kiss. Rip is clearly going to be a major player. King Ravinger (aka King Rot) is looming. The fae are back. Auren's entire identity has been upended. I need to know what happens next.
📚 If You Loved Gild, Read These Next
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout — Dark romantasy with a fierce heroine, a brooding love interest, and a lot of twists.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas — The gateway drug for romantasy. Fae, magic, and a heroine who discovers her own power.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent — Vampires, trials, and a slow-burn romance that'll ruin you.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas — Another series where the heroine starts caged (literally) and becomes something terrifying.
Final Verdict
Gild is a masterclass in setup. It's dark, it's uncomfortable, it's full of terrible people doing terrible things to a woman who's been conditioned to accept it as love. But it's also the story of that woman starting to wake up. And that's the kind of arc that keeps me turning pages.
5 out of 5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm off to immediately order the sequel. Glint, here I come. 💛
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