Raven Kennedy’s “Gild” was interesting to say the least. From page one, the reader is thrown into the plight that Auren’s life is in, probably in the most graphic way possible. My attention was definitely grabbed, and this has probably been my fastest read in quite some time.
In a world where nobility has magical abilities, Auren is imprisoned by the Sixth Kingdom’s king, Midas. Plated in gold, he is the only human in existence to have had the king’s magic work on a human. The king of the Fifth Kingdom comes to the home of Midas himself, offering an army against the Fourth Kingdom in exchange for a night with Auren, the king’s favored. In this retelling of the story of Midas, the king whose touch turns things into gold, we follow Auren through heartbreak and betrayal as she endeavors to become free. Or maybe not, since it is such a lovely prison.
My favorite part of this story was the way the author introduced new backstory information to the reader. Using the method of introducing a new character, stating a prominent fact about them, and then why that fact was what came to mind was both interesting and insightful to the way the main character views the world around her. Flashbacks were used as well, but only sparingly, making them all that more interesting to read through.
Something that I was not a very big fan of in this book was the attitude and actions of every single male figure in this book, This does, in fact, include the male main character, which kind of disappointed me. The beginning of this book describes him as her “savior” only for him to treat her like an object for the entirety of the first half of the book. The only reason why I say half is because he was absent for the second half.
The pacing of this book was pretty decent for only being a 300-page book. That being said, there were a few chapters that described the same scene from different angles and different perspectives, which slowed down the plot quite a bit.
This book felt like another one of those “everyone is bipolar” stories, but it was done so subtly that I did not notice unless certain characters were in the scene. I get that giving each character a different personality and then juggling each personality is tough, but it is noticeable when two characters swap personalities in the middle of the chapter.
As I said, this book was interesting. It’s not every day that you see a Midas retelling that doesn’t just follow the same storyline as all of the other Midas retellings. I liked this book enough that I can’t wait to pick up the next book in the series, but there were a few moments that just made me put the book down for a while, and not in a good way. I give this book a 3.5/5.