“He may wear the crown, but I was the one who made it gold.”

Gleam

King Midas made me the woman I am today. Notorious. Unattainable. His.

The thing about being confined is that you believe it’s to keep the bad out… Until you realize it’s about keeping you in.

I’m now in a strange kingdom surrounded by liars, with no allies of my own, but I won’t sit idly by and let myself wither. No, there’s something that’s bloomed from the pit of my repression. Something dark. Something angry.

But the last thing I expected was for my anger to call out to him. King Ravinger.

He’s sinister and powerful and entirely too seductive. I’ve learned my lesson with trusting manipulative kings, so why does my chest constrict every time he’s near? I need to tread carefully, or I’m at risk of losing much more than just my freedom.

Regret and revenge war inside of me, and I need to figure out a plan fast before I get tangled up in the schemes of kings and queens.

Because I won’t be caught in a cage again. No, this time, It’ll be me setting the trap… I just hope my heart comes out of this unscathed.

I loved Glint, but after Gleam, I am officially obsessed with this series.

Auren is back with King Midas, but after her time with Rip and the Fourth Kingdom’s army, she’s all too aware of the cage Midas has been keeping her in. And she wants out. But she’s stuck in an unfamiliar land without anyone to trust except for Slade, the man of many personas. She can’t help her attraction to him, but can she balance her feelings for him and her desire for revenge?

I’m a huge fan of slow-burns, but The Plated Prisoner series brings it to a whole new level. The amount of tension and chemistry that builds over the course of the series is fantastic, and in Gleam, we finally start to get some payoff. We also start to get some payoff with Auren’s character growth. I love getting to see her start to deconstruct the trauma that Midas put her through and take agency in her life.

Everything that I loved about Gild and Glint continues through Gleam—the world-building, the writing style, the realistic and sensitive depiction of difficult subjects—which is why this series has become one of my favorites. We get more development of side characters and the villains, which makes this book so much more compelling.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I could not put this book down. Between Auren and Slade’s romance—which hit the perfect level of spicy with feelings— and the growing war, I was hooked. I didn’t see the twist toward the end coming, and I have no idea where the series is going in the following two books. But I’m ready for the ride, and book 4 can’t come soon enough.