Hello friends. I am back and I don't know why. Welcome to my channel, my name is Cari. We're going to be doing another little live reading
experience. So far while I've been doing these, I have read what I thought were popular young adult - keyword- uh words - popular series and this one that we're going to be reading is very much adult.
So with crave that was absolutely young adult, hilarious, a parody of itself and every book of its
kind. Zodiac Academy - the issue I had with it again like
I'm not gonna yuck somebody's yum, people read
and write tropes and things that I don't like for various reasons, okay? So I'm not gonna say that
books like that shouldn't exist. My issue was it what - my issue with it was that I was so shocked by
the way that it was talked about online. I thought for sure it was young adult. I think that the the
TikTok girlies and the booktube girlies, we've got a little bit of responsibility in sharing
what a book really is and kind of trying to rate it
and and talk about it correctly because I
had no warning of what was in there. So for this book, going in I know that it is an adult fantasy.
I know - can you see how nervous I am? - I know that it is a fantasy romance. I know nothing about the
plot really except that the I believe the romantic male character, I think I've seen it in like one
or two reels or bookroks or whatever that he is like the darker version of Rhysand, who I
already have my issues with so I'm just like... I'm curious.
Did I even say what we're
reading? I'm going to be reading Gild the Plated Prisoner series which already I'm :')
Like if you, if you're brand new here, I'm not the biggest fan of smut simply because - there are
some writers that can do it really well and I love it but I'm like really picky with descriptive
words and you can go really wrong really easily for me with smut scenes. So there's -
I can count on one hand the amount of times that like I felt like smut was done really
well so I'm g
onna be probably cringing throughout this entire thing but it's - it's
just me don't worry about it, don't worry, don't worry about it. I thought this was a
trilogy but apparently there are five books already out and there's another book coming out
in June so I do know that this is an unfinished series. I don't know if it's like a trilogy and
then the next three are something different. If you hear noises in the background, Kurt's playing video
games. I hope he can't hear me because this is
gonna be an embarrassing video. But let me, let me
tell you what this book is about. I - going into it what I know is that it's about King Midas who is
the king that everything he touches turns to gold and that's all we got. So let's read
together shall we? This is coming from Amazon is where I'm reading. By
the best-selling author Raven Kennedy comes the first book in a stunning
new fantasy series perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout.
(If you don't know, I hate From
Blood and Ash... so we're off to a really good start)
Ooh my eyes as always skip to the bottom and there is a content warning and
I love content warnings. Here we go. Italics. The fae abandoned this world
to us and the ones with power rule. End of italics. Gold. Gold floors gold walls gold furniture gold
clothes. In High Bell, in the castle built in the frozen mountains, everything is made
of gold. Even me. Now I'm picturing like C-3PO King Midas rescued me, dug me out of the slums and pla
ced me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious his favored. I'm the woman he gold touched to show everyone that I belong to him. He gave me protection and I gave him my heart. And even
though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a
deal is struck. Suddenly my trust is broken, my love is challenged, and I realize that everything
I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong. Because these bars I'm kept in, no
matter how gilded, are still just a ca
ge. But the monsters on the other side might make me
wish I'd never left. The myth of King Midas reimagined this compelling adult fantasy series that is as addictive as it is unexpected. With romance, intrigue, and danger, the gilded world
of Orea will grip you from the first page. And here's the content warning at the end it
says "please note this book contains explicit content and darker elements including mature
language, violence, and non-consensual sex" That's a good warning. It is not
intended for anyone
under 18 years of age. This is book one in a series. All I've got pictured in my mind now
is C-3PO and I'm also thinking of how much I want to reread Gilded Wolves. If you haven't
read Gilded Wolves... But anyway let's begin. How long is this book? Only 393 pages. It's on - all of
them - are on Kindle unlimited and what else was I gonna say? Oh I wanted to check the ratings
for you guys. It is 3.7 but it has almost 83k reviews and it came out in 2020. Okay let's
begin
- what does the first sentence say since it's supposed to grip me from the very first page,
let's read the first page. "I lift the gold goblet to my lips as I watch the show of naked flesh
through the space between my bars... Okay well it opens with an orgy so that
was unexpected. Seven bodies working all to one solo release and she has to watch. The king
called me here a couple hours ago when he started getting hot and heavy with his revolving harem
of concubines, also known as his Royal S
addles. He decided to have his pleasure in the atrium tonight
probably because of the acoustics in here. To his credit, the moans really do echo nicely. Well I
decided to start this and I'm gonna see it through. I already had one video demonetized for being
explicit or not good for advertisers or something so I'm just willing to, I'm ready to take this loss.
There's always the Super Thanks option if you'd like to fuel my strange experiments. Oh my God all
right here we go. Hi there - poppin
g in right before we start. I get this question so much on my reading
vlogs and it is what skincare do I use? I talk about it much more on my main channel which I will
always link down below but I am actually doing a skincare sale with the company that I always use
for my face products. It's a really big sale that's going on for this month so if you want to check
it out it will all be in the description box and I will have a video on my main channel coming
out where I actually talk about th
e products but you are here for books, not skin, so just in
case anyone is like "drop the skincare routine" I did! So to the book!!! So this is literally page
two after we got the like bit of orgy and I don't - so far, so far page two, I actually don't mind the
writing. I tried to forget the first page just happened but the imagery is that they live in
this like frozen snow world and I don't mind this paragraph that I have read so I'm putting away
my judgment. On we go. Oh no so she's one o
f them. Case in point, case in point - words
that drive me insane. Why is he plunging? It's the greatest hits album. I - no - okay
literally top 10 least favorite. I'm on page six. I was gonna say a couple things - also yeah there's
video game noises in the background, I'm sorry - at first I was thinking this is kind of clever how
she's doing this because she's like doing a lot of description of the castle and stuff like that
and then like every other paragraph should like do a two sentence
little reminder that like an orgy
is going on, but now she's just fully explaining... And a couple things, number one she's using
every single word that I despise. She really likes plunges, juices - that's the one, that one
I really hate. But also there are just like I'm trying to picture it and like it's one of
those sex scenes where I literally don't know how this is physically possible and there's a lot
of people involved so I could understand how she gets confused. But it's like so exp
licit that
it makes me giggle and it's fine but I don't know. I'm on page six. Oh I feel like
that's a bad sign but apparently she is very charmed by King Midas. She is absolutely his
like sex slave but she seems to like really love him - not, well, I don't know if she loves
him but she's very attracted to him and is charmed by him and thinks he's beautiful
and he gives her caterpillars in her stomach??? It's not Midas's fault that you're
in a cage that Midas keeps you in? What? No no [ __
] this dude 100% So there's a bird with her in the cage and it also got turned into gold and I I read it incorrectly. She talks to it as if it's a friend right? Its name is Coin but I read it - when I first read I thought it said Colin
so she's like "don't look at me like that Colin" but its name is Coin but I kind of want to call
it Colin. And she has made it clear so she's been here, she's been like this in this state for 10
years. She was a victim of child trafficking and then she eventua
lly escaped that but then raiders
came or something, I don't know, anyway Midas saved her and so she's made it very clear that like
even if she was out of this cage, she wouldn't run away. Like she knows how good she has it
and she loves Midas, like it's trauma bonding, it's emotional abuse, and she always talks
about how she's the "bright side" kind of girl. She always think thinks positive, yippee,
so. Okay we're on page - we're only on page 19. Oh and there's a possibility that she could
turn
into like a full unmoving like solid gold person so that's kind of scary. And her cage actually is
like the top floor of the palace - doesn't super make it better, she still can't leave the palace or
like the top floor but she does have rooms. No girl, there are ways he could do this that do not
involve putting you in a cage. He can keep and protect you - he's the king - Okay. Very bizarre, she is
like getting dressed for the day, it's a new day, and she explains that she has ribbons
growing from
her skin? From her shoulder blades to her tailbone? Two dozen long golden ribbons and they were
there before she got turned to gold, that was not Midas's doing. Oh and she can control
them like she can control her own limbs? Usually I just let them drape behind me like supple fabric but she can also move each one when she wants to and they're stronger
than they look? So she's like a golden octopus. Like she uses her weird extra
arms to braid her hair and get dressed. This is so
strange. So one of the other kings from
another kingdom is visiting and he like wants to borrow Auren I guess her name is, and Midas has
obviously like never considered that before and usually kills people who ask that but now he
has something that he wants. And she's like what the [ __ ] I think I know who the romantic lead
is. So they're talking about they want to attack the fourth Kingdom and she's like the fourth
kingdom!? Nobody attacks the fourth kingdom! King Ravinger is called King
Rot for a reason. He's
powerful and brutal and vicious what the hell is Midas thinking? And I'm pretty sure in the
Reels that I've seen about this, I think it's him. Oh no do we have a T main character who she loves
and I think we're going to be introduced to an R character that turns out to be the one she really
loves?! Uh oh. So then what we have happening is she has been traded - one night with her has been
traded for this guy's armies, right? They're gonna take over the fourth kingdom
and so obviously
that's not gonna go down until his army like catches up with the other army or whatever
so she's just like sitting around waiting for this to happen and then she's trying to
help one of the other girls because somebody ordered her to dance and like forgot to tell
her to stop so she's been dancing for three hours and like looks like she's in pain so
she's like "if you just pretend to faint, I'll back you up" you know and the girls all
hate her so they're like "no we don't w
ant your help" so Auren is like okay well I'll
just make you pass out and so she smacks this girl in the face with a golden book. Smushes
her face in - what the heck?! Oh he has a wife??? What? Yeah truly [ __ ] this guy. Feminine fit!? Okay though how many times is she gonna say bright
side in this book? I gotta look this up because it is used so much. 27 times -
only 27 times? It feels like so much more. Yeah so when he rescued her when she
was 15, they apparently like became friends but
when she is still 15 and he is seven
years older than her so he's 22 years old......... Alrighty updates. Where did I leave off? I'm
on - I'm already on page 135. This is very quick to read. So the queen hates Auren - I'm gonna keep
calling her - and had her guards beat her up so that was not cool. And this is where we start
to see Auren feeling really betrayed and realizing like she is just a commodity to be traded
and she doesn't like that anymore so she kind of starts to push the bounda
ries as far as like
disobeying commands and stuff like altering her clothes, like little things. And then the night
comes where this whole deal is gonna go down and right before it happens, a messenger runs into the
ballroom and is like wait wait and it turns out all of the fifth kingdom's soldiers were killed
and the king is like how is that possible?! how did Ravinger kill both the fifth kingdom and the sixth
kingdom's armies?! and the guard messenger is like it was only your army...becau
se Midas lied and
didn't even send his army. He just wanted the fifth kingdom's. So Midas betrayed him and he's like how
could you do this to me?! "Let this be your last life lesson" Midas replies calmly "True kings (oh this
isn't a word that I use but) true kings don't give out their armies for sex/women" Whatever I don't
like that word. So basically what Midas planned was that fifth kingdom sends their soldiers to
the fourth kingdom and they would never win that battle and Midas sends hi
s army to the fifth
kingdom and takes over the fifth kingdom and I'm pretty sure he's gonna kill the king so... Yeah
he manages to kill King number five. In the scuffle - I haven't mentioned him but Auren
has a guard named Digby who seems to be as nice as you can possibly be in
the situation of guarding a sex slave but he seems to be like respectful and just
like and a kind old man and they have like a "cute" banter (I struggled to word this) but he's
supposed to be like the one good perso
n in her life so far and he saved her in the scuffle that's
that. Alrighty update I am now on 233 so I'm 60% of the way through - what has happened? Now that we have killed King number five, Midas is like oh the fourth kingdom did it! I'm going to valiantly take
over the fifth kingdom and, you know, he lies obviously. And he goes to the fifth Kingdom to help
set things up. Later he calls for Auren to come and we get maybe like 100 pages, I'm still not done with
this, of her traveling to the
fifth kingdom. Things that we learn: number one her guards are
kind of pushovers so she is able to bargain her way out of like staying in the carriage so she can
ride horses and like have a bit of freedom. Number two, Midas's whole shtick is that he like made
the sixth kingdom rich with his gold power but as they're crossing the city, she realizes that there
are slums, there are shanty houses or whatever like there are people starving in the kingdom and
she's like but Midas has unlimited go
ld and everyone's like and yep I'm sure he's using it for
other things and she's just like....Ao there's that. She makes a friend a guard named Sail who
respects women and respects sex workers which is cool. She is like winning over all of the guards,
they apparently like gossip and everyone is kind of always rooting for her, like they like her and
she almost makes Digby smile at one point because she's always joking with him and he's just
like stone cold. I think Sail is going to be a spy
maybe. In the meantime things
that we're worried about: number one there's a risk of an avalanche and number two
the scout that they sent to like "go check if the way is safe and you should come back and
tell us" should have been back a long time ago and he hasn't shown up so the guards are uneasy.
So I was about to tell you oh the avalanche just started but no "it's not an avalanche" Sail
breathes beside me, dread thickens like a pinching fog, gripping the breath from my lungs.
"Holy Divi
ne [ __ "] a guard curses... Snow Pirates! So they're chased by the snow pirates, their carriage falls off a cliff. The snow pirates capture Sail and Auren and Sail is like I'm so
sorry, I'm supposed to protect you and Auren it's like you don't deserve this either,
you're the nicest person I've ever met and I still think he's a spy or maybe he's even
the king I don't know, I don't trust you Sail. And now there are giant snow cats called Fire Claws. that pull the ships of the snow pirates. We
catch up with the rest of the people, most of the guards have been killed, Sail is forced to
kneel, he like gets beaten up and then he has to just kneel in like his under clothes and
he just never takes his eyes off of Auren because he's still protecting her and I also forgot to
mention that while they were going through the sixth Kingdom apparently the fourth Kingdom
has been sending rotting corpses as gifts to the border so that was weird. But anyway now
we get to meet the captain of th
e snow pirates. They just killed Sail! But maybe he's not dead Oh oops sorry no he's dead. Sorry. Auren uses her ribbons to somehow get Sail
down, she didn't want his body to be disrespected anymore so she threw him overboard which I get
but it's just kind of funny imagery. And then they're forced to work in the kitchens and then
all of a sudden the ship gets attacked - this like Commander gets on the ship. The male who stops
at the front of the group so tall that Captain Feane has to tip hi
s head up to look. It isn't some result of King Ravinger's powers perverting his body, no, the man standing there, whose body
basks in menace is one thing and one thing only. FAE. Oh so there is a really horrific scene
that I just read but as Auren is trying to save one of the other girls, she runs at
the captain, the main snow pirate, and turns him into gold so she has the power too I guess
but anyway so yeah the commander, the fae guy, is going to take all of them in the morning.
He like
bought them all for the fourth Kingdom like the captain was like I have one last night
to be evil and he holy [ __ ] was, that was not a fun chapter to read, but yeah she turned him
into gold, solid gold. Her ribbons start to glow and they have like a superhuman strength and
they throw the solid gold Captain off the ship and we've reached the end. The last chapter is in
Midas's point of view where he gets a letter that Auren has been taken and he's gonna "destroy
everyone in my path to get
her back." That was incredibly quick to read and that's that. The
commander, the fae Commander Rip is his name, he has lizard scales and spiky eyebrows so there's that. On to Glint tomorrow, okay bye. Hi everyone it's a couple days later. I've given myself a break. I'm about to start reading the second book in this series which is called
Glint. It is 472 pages and we're getting different povs in this one - the first POV is Queen Malina.
Now that I've sat on it some more - thoughts about Gild.
It was a boring book. So I think that the
amount of action that happened in Gild - her being betrayed, there being a little plot twist, her
running away and getting captured, I feel like that usually happens in like the first half of
a first book and then the story continues from there so it just feels like this story is being
spread out quite a bit and it just wasn't - I think because of that it wasn't that interesting. I
just am not enjoying the female character because her only personal
ity trait is like she's nice
and she looks on the bright side. It isn't until literally the last pages when she's on when
they got captured by the snow pirates, that's the only time that she shows personality that
isn't just like I'm nice and a little naive and I look on the bright side. Like she - it just
felt like we waited a long time for very little amount of character growth and then as far as
what I feared which was the smut, I feel like the first page was like just kind of throwing
us into the deep end in terms of like there was an orgy and then at the very end there is a
very violent and graphic assault but in between that I felt like it really wasn't any different
from like an ACOTAR/Court of Nightmares level of smut. Like I wasn't, I don't know, I mean the
fact that she's like part of a harem and she's like Royal saddle number one I was really like
expecting something else but it really wasn't what I expected and I guess just the last thing
is I didn't really belie
ve slash understand the whole jealousy and hatred thread that was going
on in terms of like all the other Royal Saddles hate her or are jealous of her because she's like
the favorite? But I just don't think that that tracks really, I mean she's literally in a cage,
she's not allowed to like hang out - they talk about like how all the other Saddles like hang out,
they all live together, they're like buddies. I can understand the queen hating her but in terms of
like the other girls I could s
ee like maybe one or two of them being jealous but like all of them? No
one thought like gee maybe we're all in a shitty situation? I don't think I would if I were just
reading this for fun and not to tell you the plot I don't know if I would have continued because
it was just there's nothing that's intriguing me at all and that's it. So we're gonna dive
into Glint - let's get reading. Hi checking in from literally the second page. So when
I just literally seconds ago said that this book wa
s boring I do want to say that
in terms of like the actual characters, I don't enjoy the writing but I think that a
lot of - once she like gets into her kind of just descriptive moments I think she does
a really good job, like the way that this - if the first book started with Queen Malina's
chapter of like chapter one of the second book it reads so well and I think this is where
I almost feel like the story has a chance to be a lot deeper than it's been when it
kind of opened with the way
that the first book opened, I felt like it kind of threw me off and I
wasn't gonna give the book a chance really but if it had started with this, how she's describing
how everything has changed, she grew up in this castle, I think that it's really interesting and
I think that it makes his power such a metaphor for abusive men like their charm and their power
and how they can make everything look so shiny but it's actually just like weighing people down
and trapping them. And I think like t
his story has so much potential and I just wonder
why the choice was made to have it be about like a sex slave. I just I don't know, but I like I will
say that this the author Raven she has these like good moments and then it just gets lost but first
chapter or well first two pages of the second book... Alrighty so we're back with our girl Auren and
she's just catching us up on everything that happened in the last book and we're getting the
"this is my fault because I want it to be free" na
rrative but look at the bright side - it begins!
I hate this like I understand why this always happens but I just don't enjoy this in books
where there is a person who has come like purposely constructed an image of being evil and
feared and then when a person is like "you're evil, I fear you" they're all like "oh seems you know me
and you aren't going to give me a chance so I'm just gonna let you keep believing that" like you
did this buddy, you made this image, you sold it too well don't
complain! But anyway he of course
lets her run free in the camp and he's like oh The Goldfinch likes her cage, what a shame. Yeah
and then she's like you don't know me and he's like oh everyone knows you and judges her with
the image that has been constructed of her? Why are people so moody. Judge people when you meet them in person - anything else you don't know them, all right? So two of the soldiers while
they're waiting in line to get their porridge start kind of like pushing her and bei
ng like oh
we'd like some lessons about how to be a royal saddle and all this stuff to which Commander
Rip appears (who he is absolutely King Ravinger, like are we kidding?) but he's like to his captain
like hey Osrik, I heard these guys were asking about lessons, why don't you go teach them one?
They like go and get scolded I assume. There's a nice soldier named Keg and also we don't
know where the other people are, Commander Rip also took all the other Saddles and guards that
were left o
n the boat but like where are they? She goes into her tent, takes a bath, Commander Rip
walks in accidentally sees her naked and is like... and gets out. He sends in a doctor to help heal
her but she's like I don't want anybody to touch me then Commander Rip comes back in because she's staying in his tent because he doesn't trust her. We also got a flashback to when she was like she had been rescued by Midas and now they're like traveling through the kingdoms so I guess they didn't - I assumed
that they just came from the sixth Kingdom - I think they're from
somewhere else. But so they're like traveling around and they're staying in a camp and somebody
attacks her because she's gold and like cuts off her hair and like steals all of her clothes
for the gold and he's - Midas - is always there, the only person she can trust, and then she
wakes up. The reason why I started talking to the camera is because she wakes up to something
stroking her face and it's her ribbons. So she can c
ontrol her 24 ribbons that come out of her
back but they also have a mind of their own? Bizarre. This book is incredibly long because we
just keep meeting new people and they have the longest conversations for kind of no reason - like
they're all just reminding her that like she's not as free as she thought she was or whatever but
it's like there's way too many of them and they're way too long but anyway they're all calling her -
she's got like a million different nicknames now but she's Gil
dy Locks. Yuck so she got sick and
so now we have this whole thing where we get to talk to the mender again the doctor. We found
out where the Saddles are, we don't know where the guards are but we visited the Saddles and they
still really [ __ ] hate her. Risa who was the one who got assaulted is like I'll keep your secret -
because she found out about the ribbons -I'll keep your secret if you give me gold so there's that.
But then the doctor is like by the way thanks for talking to the Sad
dles like now they're a couple
of them are letting me treat them because they were all like suspicious of him and he's like and
good thing because one of them is like not at risk of a miscarriage anymore yay! And she's like what?
And one of the meanest Saddles is pregnant and she's like It's gotta be Midas's baby and we get
all this info about how he never wanted her to be on birth control because, you know, he wouldn't risk
her getting sick from it because apparently it's a dangerous herb o
r whatever. But he always like
demanded that the other people did. Anyway so she's like having a mental breakdown because she hates
that someone else is having his baby or something. Oh Rip. We just have this conversation
over and over and over again and we're already 40/ 43% done with this book and there hasn't been
any action at all. It's only been conversations where he's like "you are in a cage of your own
making now" even though it's not a cage of her own making. We've read 200 pages a
nd nothing has
happened. Uh-oh uh oh Rip is beautiful! Also the fact that we keep calling him Rip, I love it. He's beautiful, he's got an otherworldly allure, and unmistakable magnetism. Oh don't worry we're safe, never mind, we get to like "say it!" "say it!!" She's fae. Hence why she has [ __ ] ribbons
coming out of her back like are we confused? It was explained in the last book that there was there
is a fairy realm, it used to be connected and then somebody broke off the connection and th
at's
why there's still a little bit of magic in the world like what Midas has, but apparently some fae,
full fae are still walking among us like Rip, okay? So throughout this book we've been getting random
chapters in Malina's point of view and they're all like while the king is in the fifth Kingdom she
is like slowly taking over the sixth Kingdom like undermining him, getting people on her side, etc
so I thought great, girl power! Turns out she was the one who sent the pirates after them t
o get her
for some reason and, you know, kill her whatever and then she gets a letter that actually
the fourth Army got them and she's really excited because she assumes that like oh
she's definitely going to be killed, she's gone, she's finally gone I won't ever have
to lay eyes on her again. Victory is sweet. "They're gonna rip her to shreds," I say, my tone
tinged With thrill. So maybe not girl power. So she found the king or Rip or whatever his
messenger birds and so she sends a warnin
g to Midas and then we get this weird cryptic
thing where Rip is like sitting at the fire and is like "I wasn't supposed to find
you" whatever that means then he kisses her??? And then he's like by the way I
know that you sent him a message? What? That just came out of nowhere! Okay
I think since I last checked in I'm 10% further than I was and again nothing
has occurred. But they're kind of talking more - her and Rip - we find out that she was
originally from the fae world. This is this i
s the name of the fae realm that got
separated from Orea or whatever is the kind of mortal realm. She lived there and then she moved to the third Kingdom and the second Kingdom and then Midas found her and they're both looking at
each other with things swimming in their eyes and oh and I think we finally find out who King Rot
is. Rot and Rip. I just can't - if she calls him Rot for the rest of this series I'm out. I'm
out. Alrighty so they're about to meet Midas and he's like hey, by the way
, you could
stay if you want to and Auren is like no I need to go be with Midas. It's gonna be different
this time, the usual and he's getting very upset about this. Rip and just like trying very hard to get her to stay but she is choosing to wither. Lizzie, who are you going to believe? This
boy you are knowing your own life or this boy you are just meaning who says you
shine with the light from the sun? Okay so they're doing the handoff, they're
giving Auren to Midas or whatever and like
see, I feel like her, she has these like moments where
her writing is good but then it's just like it's hidden between scenes that do nothing. This really
gives off the vibes of in Gone Girl when she goes to her like ex-boyfriend stalker's house and he's
like oh my goodness we're gonna get you cleaned up and looking just as pretty as you used to look
kind of thing. That's 100% the vibe. He does say oh you know, I hope you're okay, did anyone hurt you
whatever, but then immediately he's like
let's get you looking good girl. And Midas immediately tries
to put her back in a cage that he made for her and she's had it. Called that one. He's Rip he's
Rot and Midas and him made some kind of deal where he wants a little piece of the fifth
Kingdom and he doesn't want any of Midas's gold and Midas is like okay but we need time to
draw up the peace treaty so you have to stay here so now they're all gonna live happily in the castle
together, the fourth army, Rip/Rot, Midas and Auren. She
also accidentally turned a girl into solid
gold oops. Oh no but his real name is Slade. Okay like I've said, this book is similar fashion
to the first one - could have been a part like a couple chapters of the book. Like books one and
two absolutely could have been one book in like 400 pages but instead we got two 400 page books - 400 and 500 page books. Could have been cut in half and made into one. The next book that I'm looking
at, Gleam, is 674 pages. This initially was supposed to be a
trilogy and she expanded it to six books.
I don't know if she did that because like at what point in the writing process or the publishing
process did she decide that? Because it seems like she's writing this at the speed in which it
would take her six books to finish the story you know? I'm not interested, I'm still not interested
at all. I will read the third book for you guys but because it's moving so slowly I'm not feeling
any anything, like there's it's also not funny like she gives
us the chance to have these like funny
cute characters like Keg, the cook, the army cook is funny and he has like two scenes of
cute banter that like would have stood out but they were drowned out with a thousand other
scenes of meaningless conversation and then we have another girl named Lu who is supposed to
be this female warrior that really kind of like hypes her up and inspires her and stuff like that
and they have this weird running joke where they like different soldiers steal the go
od barrel
of wine from each other like they - there's this potential to have good characters and good
bonding but because there's so much stuff that could have been edited out, those scenes don't
hit hard. Like I'm only remembering them because I'm actively trying to remember them and
tell you about them. This needed to be edited down so much, but on we go. Another day, not today. It is
also that time of month so I'm like hot and just volatile that was Gild and Glint - onto Gleam. All
righ
t friends, we embark on Gleam. Thinking back I just want to give a little disclaimer here - I
have been in kind of a reading slump for almost this entire month and I think that I'm in like a
certain mood so I feel like I'm being a little bit hard on this series. It's not bad like in terms of
the writing, it's not as bad as so many other books that are popular right now, I understand why people
like it, I'm just like at this point where I want to read a really good book and I'm expecting
the
se to be really good books and I just they are not what I want so I'm just being a
little moody but this book is 674 pages long so there's a prologue in which she is not a bird
in a cage, she's a bird on a branch. But yeah so I'm gonna try and read this all day today we're gonna
do an accidental 24-hour reading challenge because it's that time of month and I don't want to leave
my bed here we go! I think we're gonn,a I think, I think this is gonna be the best book out of the
three. I don't
think I'll continue it, I'm just gonna give you my thoughts on the first half of
this but I have a feeling that this one might be where it gets juicy because like I said, books one
and two could have been one book and a lot shorter. Off we go, off we go. Okay back again, this is
gonna be a theme I'm just gonna stop on page two every time to say she writes excellent first
chapters and she writes excellent descriptions. Like I feel like I'm in this harbor. She does
a really - she can write ok
ay? Like let's just leave this video, if you come away with one thing,
it's that I do believe that Raven is actually a good writer which is great. But one thing I
didn't think about was like why did she leave the fae realm? Is she running from something? And
we learned that when she was taken by that like child trafficker, they were just sent to be on
the street to beg and bring him back money but now that she's old enough, she has been promoted
to prostitution and she's like it happened on
ce and she's like no the [ __ ] not and tried to run.
But of course she gets caught. I'm pretty sure this is where Midas comes in - wait wait wait wait wait
wait wait wait wait wait wait wait she's already been golden?! She's golden before she met Midas?
And Midas in the previous book did say something about how like he keeps her around for her power so like we're pretty sure that he just found a way to steal her power, like the gold is 100% Auren's
but the fact that she's like walking around
and she's gold - who did Midas have to like silence
to keep that a secret? Because he didn't do it, I don't think. Oh okay she just she says that she's
actually painted and people believe her but so I see how Midas could have swung this but still. Okay
we're back in the present and Auren is finally [ __ ] standing up for herself. She has a spine
under all those ribbons. She basically calls Rip a liar because we're starting off the book right
where we left off where he is like by the way I'
m the king and she's like what the [ __ ] because
she in her mind the King has still always been this evil person and so she's like you're a liar
and he is so shocked by this. He's like excuse me?! I'm a liar?! He's like oh well you can't call
me a liar because you lied about being fae. And she's like yeah because you're the first fae
I've ever seen in 20 years, it's not safe for me to be a fae, why would I tell you that? And she
says "you force truths out of me while concealing yourself, y
ou don't think that's hypocritical?" And
she calls him a self-centered ass. "Careful," he says bearing his teeth with a wicked smile. "There's a
saying about rocks and glass houses." "I don't live in glass, I live in Gold so I can throw whatever
damn rocks I want." And he just figured out that Midas is claiming Auren's power as his own and
then he goes off about how mad he is about her going back to Midas and she's like how can you be
mad at me when like you were deceiving me from the start
? And he's like but he was deceiving you and
she's like yes! The utter emotion that comes barreling with my scream makes him stagger back. She says
I'm so damn tired of being deceived and she's basically like this is where the book should have
ended, she should have been like [ __ ] all men I'm going away and she should have walked out but
we're only on page 18. But basically yes these men are treating her like [ __ ] and I have a feeling
she's gonna be some kind of fae royalty. It said tha
t back home she had horses in stables
and I feel like if you have a horse you're Royal and she says accidentally that she "had"
to come back for Midas and I feel like they made some kind of bond - oh no not that word -
I think that's, I think that's how we're going to continue this. We've gotta break whatever the
hell deal they have. I want Auren to walk out of this series alone. I don't want any man
on her arm. Okay I was about to be like ooh I like this energy between them but
then he gra
bs one of her ribbons and it's purring and vibrating. This ribbon thing -like can
anyone tell me is that actually a reference to something? Like I don't know why she has ribbons
and why they have a mind of their own. And you so this is a chapter from Midas's point of view
so I know that like this language is being used because we're supposed to know that he's pretty
despicable but like the amount of times that they have used bred or breeding to talk about like
women and childbirth and pregn
ancy I hate it but yeah he just found out about the girl who is
pregnant and like she's far enough along that it definitely was like his child and he's basically
just like turn her out, put her out on the street and he also just got word that his wife
is like kind of staging a coup, not wearing gold like she's supposed to, and they also all ran
out of money because they didn't have Auren to make more gold coins so... Coming in here asking for my keys. You're trifling. You need your own car.
I'm sick of this. Overall things are going to [ __ ] for Midas and
we found out that his dad was drunk and his mom was absent and that's not enough to make me feel
any pity for him but here we are. Yeah he's a woman hater as if we couldn't already tell but... Oh no oh no oh no so so we've talked about this maybe before but his wife the queen has been
unable to get pregnant and now I guess Midas is like well, turns out it's not my fault right? And
I have a horrible feeling based on these last
two sentences that we are going to have him try
to have a baby with Auren in order to make it an heir somehow I don't know but if we - I just hate
books that are so surrounding pregnancies and if this turns into one I hope that Rip steals
her away to safety and then Auren disappears into the night. The only way I want this to end -
oh I would like Sail to come back to life, I think he will. I'm very sure he will. We're
gonna see Sail. Like I can't with these ribbons. Rip appears and her ri
bbon just starts like
curling around his leg like a cat and I just don't I don't understand. First mention of looking
on the bright side in book three! Ew okay 25% update she has started - oh wait I didn't tell you this - Midas let her out of her cage technically, lets her sleep in her own room but then the first day
that she's free she decides to like walk all over, she has guards but like walk all over the palace
and Midas gets really mad and so now she has to stay locked in her room or li
ke super guarded
she's basically like still in a cage but then she concocts a plan to escape and she finds out that
in the Royal Library there are plans to the city and the castle so she can like figure out how to
escape and then she goes to see the other Saddles and talks to Risa who she, remember, still has
a deal with where she has to like give her gold in order for her silence and she's like listen I
want to do a new deal. I'll help you escape because she's like you want the gold so tha
t you can buy
your freedom but Midas is never gonna let you be free so you need to escape. I'm gonna help you
with escape but also you need to take me with you. Like we're gonna escape together. So there's
that. We also while she was there looking for Risa, discovered that now Midas is giving his
Saddles these this drug called Dew which like basically makes them horny all the time I guess
and you can get really addicted and I guess the other king, like they're in the fifth Kingdom now,
num
ber five king would give Dew to his Saddles and they are basically like not even human anymore so
Auren is sort of like maybe go easy on that stuff but the Saddles are like already kind of addicted
to it. Anything else? Oh and it seems like Midas sent a letter to the queen being like you're
going to claim that this baby is yours or else. And yeah so Midas caught Auren sneaking out
and in order to keep her in her cage he is like by the way I have Digby - the guard that she really liked who we
thought maybe died, he's been missing and I don't want to have to punish him or like
whatever so you need to stay in your cage and you need to do everything that I say. So now she's like
gilding the whole palace right? She's making it all gold and he's like I might let you visit Digby if
you keep doing what I say and also he may or may not have just made a guard go and assassinate the
queen. I think the Queen's in trouble because she basically replied to his letter and was like I'm
not tak
ing your [ __ ] baby. And her powers only work in the day, her powers are so weird like
why can she only turn things gold in the day? Why does she have ribbons that have a mind of her
own growing out of her back? She basically passes out because of using so much power, Rip is there to
catch her, they have a cute little moment but he's still basically like you didn't choose me like
he didn't say that he loves her but it was pretty clear and he was like but you still chose him and
then he lik
e brings her to her room and helps her eat and we're like actually getting
good moments of them together talking. I still don't 100% feel the chemistry but it's getting
better. Uh oh she says his real name. Okay so the queen is in a safe house, the king is saying that
he assassinated the queen and like has moved his forces in and whatever and then he attacks the
Queen's safe house and kills everyone even Jeo! Jeo who has just been trying his goddamn best. He's
like been cooking and cleaning
and still the queen is just like you're a good for nothing saddle
like you aren't worthy of even looking at me and he gets killed! Uh I don't understand
the point of the queen. Like I just don't understand the Queen's role in this whole thing. Oh okay more updates - we're just getting a
lot of smut now. This is where it's happening and I feel like this book, like if that's
what you want, if you're reading Gild because you wanted this like enemies
to romance very clearly smutty book - did I
say enemies to romance? Enemies to lovers,
did I say that? Anyway this is delivering like you're starting to - the characters are interacting
well, like I would say like at the 50% mark but it's just a - it's just a bummer that you have to read
the first book which wasn't good, the second book which really wasn't that good, and then kind of 50%
of the third book which really wasn't that good to get the the stuff that I thought we were going
to have. So that's a bummer but anyway because Mi
das has told everyone that he killed the queen,
now he is going to get engaged to the queen from the third Kingdom who I thought was going to be a
nice lady - turns out she's not. And so they're going to announce their engagement at the ball and queen
Kaila has basically said that she is going to kill - she didn't outright say it but like she's probably
gonna kill the saddle that is pregnant because she doesn't want Midas to have any other babies other
than with her because that would be a
threat to you know, her throne. And she might might kill Auren
as well I don't know. And we're gonna try and find Digby so we have to save Mist, we have to save Digby, we have to get Risa to freedom - is that it? Okay Midas actually does take her to see Digby
and he is like barely looks human because he's been tortured so much but of course it's Auren's
fault. He warned her, ew, and then Midas drugged her what the hell? So he was obviously like because
she was drugged he was going to attack
her but she was strong enough that her ribbons like threw
him against a wall so he takes a sword and cuts off her ribbons!! So he just keeps on drugging
her until finally she like somehow snaps out of it. She remembers everything. Of course she
doesn't listen when Midas tells her to like do her gold thingy. She's like no [ __ ] you man.
Oh [ __ ] that's a twist I didn't see because I didn't even mention it to you. In one of the
flashbacks with when she is being forced into prostitution in
her past, there was another guy -
so her traitor was like Zalik or something and he was like "listen you gotta stay with me because at
least I'm kind of nice to you, there's this other guy named Barden East who is trying to buy you" it
was Midas! Midas was Barden East and then he like because he had Auren, eventually he could become king because he bought his way up the ladder you know? I figured that the whole him saving her from the
Raiders thing was set up, which it was, but I just didn't
think that he would be Barden East!
I thought that that was just a random man. So all this time like obviously when Rip
is in his King Ravinger look he still has to have his Commander next to him so there's a
fake Rip and I just thought that he like used one of his guards who are called Wraths - I
thought he just used one of them but apparently it's his brother? Also they - I haven't even
mentioned him because he has not been involved at all in this story but the King number five
had a so
n who's too young to take over the throne so Midas has been trying to figure out how to
kill him this whole time and he just got poisoned. And then Midas is like well fine you can [ __ ] go Auren! And then when she is like okay, I will go.
He's like wait and then tries to kill her? Oh damn and so she basically calls to her magic
and because she has like everything covered in her gold, she just calls it back and uses it
to fight back at our boy. Oh [ __ ] I think I think Midas is dead? I - sh
e just turned him gold?
Oh God but her magic is like too much and she's draining herself and she's gonna die and she just
like can't stop using it because she's never used it like this before so Rip is like the only
thing I can do is to use his power which is like rotting things and if he can like rot
you for a little bit and you can come back to life so don't worry but he basically like kills
her? Makes her rot from the inside? So that her magic stops working and she passes out obviously
but let's see if that worked. Oh it's an epilogue! Oh that was a nice way to end the book, all right.
Let me read it. It's in Rip's point of view... Ok so...okay so it ends... basically the epilogue is like that whole scene
all over again of her killing Midas but so he like picks her up once her magic has let go and
she passes out and they just start running. He's basically like Midas might be dead but Queen
Kaila is still alive. She just saw - her and her whole Court just saw that Auren actu
ally has the
gold power so they're obviously going to come after her and I'll be [ __ ] ready. So I will admit
now I'm kind of into the story. I don't know why she started the story so slowly. If this had been
book two this would have been really good but why is it book three? I just I don't know, like if I
hadn't been doing this I don't know if I would have even pushed through book one and if I - even
if I was someone who read it because they like smut which I don't, I don't know if I woul
d have pushed through book two, you know? So she's asking us to read a lot of what I thought was quite
boring and I didn't think that the characters had any flavor to them at all until the middle
of the third book - like she's just asking a lot of her audience to hold on until it gets
good. I just don't know why that happened. Again I'm curious when in the writing process did she
change it from a trilogy to six books because it feels like she just kind of stretched it out but anyway so this
ended differently than I thought it would. I really thought that I was just gonna
say meh boring, don't want to continue, but now I'm kind of interested in how it ends! I'm going to end
this video here because it's already an hour long and I don't think I have time for kind of
the rest of the month to finish this series but it's one that I'd be willing to go back to.
Even though the smut is pretty bad, it's like concentrated in like just the scenes, it's not
like this weird pervasive thing
like A Court of Silver Flames. I'm actually like not mad at this. I didn't love it, it delivered exactly what it was sold as, it just took a really long time
to get there. Anyway let me know your thoughts if you've continued it. I think the - I think the
fifth or the sixth book is coming out really soon. Yeah this was a - this was an interesting
experiment. I'm feeling a lot better, I've been well distracted. I will catch you guys next
time okay? So thank you for joining me and I will have a
link to that skincare thing
in my description box. Okay? Bye!
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