Auren's character arc is once again very well-written: although she now feels betrayed by Midas, she has to fight old reactions in his presence. Comparatively, you have characters like Rissa, who has more than likely led an even worse life, and is headstrong and desperate to escape her life. Queen Malina still has a few chapters in this book, and honestly, I found them as boring as the ones in Glint. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

In that regard, Malina is also interesting as she asks the question of whether or not we would be capable of the same things to break free of a man who used us and to get our revenge. Rip has gotten beneath her skin, and she's no longer content living life behind in a cage, even if the bars are plated in gold. So when she suddenly approaches Slade, tells him her life's story of abuse, and then says "I want you", he should have taken at least a moment to let her know that his love (if that's what it is) didn't hinge on sex, that he cherished her as a person and would treat her with respect. She feels that she can’t trust anyone and that everyone is lying to her for their gain, whether it’s because they need her powers, or because they want to undermine Midas. Auren was given a glimpse of a different future in her time with Commander Rip, a life that didn’t involve a cage or being taken advantage of.For the longest time I've been struggling if I should post this review or not since I don't want to get cancelled any more than already with all my unpopular opinions. She has to unearth and discover for herself that he was always the villain in her story, but was simply disguised as her hero.

I love it when the characters look like they could kill you, will actually kill you, but are also cinnamon rolls. He’s manipulating her into corners, forcing her to bend to him by guilt tripping and threats and when he realises that his placating and soft and kind words don’t work on Auren anymore….

She treats everyone, from her lover, to her guards, to all the citizens she's responsible for, like absolute trash. If you made it through the first two books of The Plated Prisoner, Gleam is the culmination of all the world-building and character-development Raven Kennedy outlined up to this point. They're both women who have been used by Midas, but they're highly different in the choices they make to break free of him.