by Raven Kennedy
Everything was left crumbling… er, melting as all our favorites fled Ranhold Castle. What’s next in the wake of disaster that will allow new threats to grow? Let’s find out!
Read if you like: fantasy romance, dark fantasy, spicy spice, fae, character driven, multi-POV, morally grey love interests, and a leading lady learning to love herself.
This is your only warning…. Don’t read any further if you haven’t read the first three books of The Plated Prisoner series… lovingly, be gone!
Ding! Dong! The King is dead!
And good riddance. Auren has nearly depleted herself and Slade used his rot to stop her. Time is running out for Auren and all of Orea as Queen Kaila and the other monarchs now think that Auren is a threat to everyone. Slade will do everything in his power to save Auren and his people. And the answer might lie in his past. All the while Queen Malina is being lead north in search of her truest desire… power.
Whew! What a book. Glow was all that I was expecting and more. We get so much of Slade with both his feelings for Auren and the current situation along with a full recap of his background. It was like Christmas morning for this character development junkie. Auren continues to process all her complex emotions surrounding her own origin story, powers, and life with Midas. And of course, they get to explore each other. ::wink, wink::
But wait, there’s more! We follow Queen Malina and Queen Kaila as their plots for power drive them ever forward. Rissa gets her own romance storyline, which I simultaneously wanted more and less of. More because it was great, less because I just wanted more Auren and Slade time.
Raven can write a story. She packs in plot lines galore, with actual character growth, romance, spice, banter, and the twists baby… so, so good! I get a little confused with Slade’s, ahem, appetites. Maybe he just dabbles in dominance and can be extremely accommodating as well. Maybe he’s figuring it out, too. Ah, young love. I dunno, it’s at the very bottom of my concerns. Slightly above that is the poetry and attempt at flowery analogies that often fall flat and take me out of the story even more than the use of as a nickname “baby” in a full-on fantasy castle. The prose is not without its flaws and could easily fit into the ‘high fantasy with contemporary language’ discussion going around the fantasy romance world. However, at this point I just expect it so I carry on and enjoy all the deliciousness filling in the pages.
Gold is going to the top of my most anticipated books for 2023!
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