It feels like an achievement that my favourite character of this book is the army cook? ( )

“I’ve been in a cage of my own making.”

Naturally after falling in love with the series and the characters I had no choice but to read the next one immediately. And my god it just gets better. I loved this one because we got a few more POVs thrown in. I adored that we got more of Malina in this one. She is giving off some great vibes. Like I love every second of it. Like she has a plan. I enjoyed that we got some Fae stuff in this one because we didn’t get enough in the first one.

I loved getting some history of the dynamic between the Fae and humans and what led to them not being a part of the kingdoms anymore. And let me just tell you… Rip and Auren… holy… the tension…. the banter… the slow burn of it. It’s just perfection. I think what I enjoyed most about this one was getting to see Auren come out of her shell some.

It was cute to watch her struggle with what she felt for Rip while being in love with Midas. However, the thing I loved the most about this story was watching Rip helping to bring her out of her shell. He encouraged her so much to thrive and it was beautiful. I loved seeing her become more self aware and even realize that things needed to change in her relationship with Midas. Oh man the ending on this one… it had me running for book three like it was nobody’s business. ( )

The majority of the book is spent traveling with Fourth Kingdoms Army. I am almost afraid to say anything because there will be no point in reading the book. It is all internal conflict with MINIMAL external conflict: arguments with the royal saddles and with Rip, the fourth Kingdom's Army Commander.

“Maybe ignorance isn’t a vice, but a reprieve.”

Book two of this series is dedicated to Auren’s character growth and development. Auren learns to love her new freedom but is still working on accepting herself for who she is. Rip tries to open Auren’s eyes about King Midas and what he cares about.

“I’ve been in a cage of my own making.”

Auren finds a sense of herself in frustrating-but steamy- arguments with Rip. Rip builds the Goldfinch’s confidence through sparing lessons. Auren grows stronger and learns to utilize her ribbons while fighting. After everything Rip and the members of the Fourth Army have taught and provided for Auren, she tells Rip that she will always choose Midas.

“There’s safety in loneliness, but there’s a lurking danger too. One that doesn’t come from anything other than yourself.”

Of course, more stuff happens, but I don’t want to give everything away. You'll have to read it to get the nitty gritty! ( )

1 star for the book overall, it really wasn't an improvement from Gild.
1 star for Queen Malina, for being the badass boss bitch she is.

But for real. This book... it's so hard to review.

So many moments that happened didn't happen organically. A lot of stuff happened because it needed to be plot, and so these weird moments and conversations would happen that came out of left field and didn't make sense. It made for really jarring monologue and dialogue at those times because there was a dissonance between them.

The flashbacks added nothing to the story. Just a waste of pages. We already knew this characterization of Midas and Auren.

Lu is literally the token female soldier. 4th Kingdom apparently has female soldiers but Lu is the only one named, let alone described or mentioned. It gives me so many questions too, like how many soldiers sleep per tent? Do men and women mix or are they separated? We've seen how unruly the male soldiers can be if Commander Rip didn't hold them in such a tight line, so what's the interaction like between men and women? Do the men objectify the women like they did to Auren? I have questions!!

Auren's position is made incredibly black and white, while she spends the whole book unable to choose a side. Everyone that she knows from 6th Kingdom is either dead or hates her guts (except Midas, and her remaining royal guards who she chose not to visit), while everyone she interacts with from 4th Kingdom is her friend and supports her. I've had a problem with the depiction of Auren's relationship with Midas's harem/wife from page 1 of book 1, and I think it really just boils down to the binary that is established, not allowing for any nuance or growth.

I also really don't understand the loyalty Auren has to the harem? They've presumably hated her from day one. Aside from Rissa helping ditch Captain Fane, they've never helped her a day in her life. And they've said they don't want anything to do with her. WHY does she continue to go to them day after day, and try to be friends? She doesn't give a shit about her royal guards who defended her with their lives. Give those poor guys a bath, Auren.

Most of the suspense in this book, and certainly lots of the last book too, is kinda just lies by omission. For a whole book and a half, Auren never thinks about being Fae (even when we have good opportunity to delve into it when she recognizes Rip as Fae or he forces her to confront it) or having a gold touch and so we as the reader "don't know" until the big reveal. (I say we "don't know" because contextually it's pretty obvious but time and time again Auren is so evasive about talking or thinking about it, and so little of the world and magix explained, that it really gaslights you into doubting the truth until it's explicitly stated.)

Also, for a book about women's agency and sexuality and consent, where the fuck is Rip's consent when he kisses her? He's an intimidating, large, dangerous man in a position of power over her. Just because he showed her she could use her ribbons in defense doesn't mean she can actually physically overpower him if he decided to hurt her. Especially when he knows she is currently manipulated and controlled into being weak and submissive by her king, who she literally 5 minutes ago proved she was still loyal to. He knows all this. And yet the motherfucker takes her fear and stillness as consent to kiss her. There was no appropriate lead up to this point that tells us (or Rip, more importantly) that Auren wants to kiss Rip or advance their relationship, and the scene read as threatening not sexy.

I'm so fucking tired of romance plots about women who have been controlled all their lives finally gaining some agency and then get sexually assaulted by the male hero but it's okay because she might want him and he's the hero so it's not that bad, guys! Barf. ( )

I enjoyed this one a lot better than book one. Still not quite five stars but really good.

One of the reasons I liked this more than book one is that I like the cast of characters a lot more. There was a lot of set up in the last book but some characters were only introduced at the very end. In this book we actually get to meet those characters, mostly Rip and his soldiers, and I really enjoyed them. I really like displays of loyalty and there's a lot of that in this book. There's a lot of set up in this book too but it felt way more engaging in this book. I flew through this in one day whereas I almost DNF'd book one.

I began to appreciate Auren's character a lot more in this book. She still makes frustrating decisions but I always understood why she did what she did. I was very intrigued by Rip. I immediately found him to be an interesting character. I actually knew the big thing about him that this book ends with already but I really don't mind spoilers and if anything it made him more interesting to me. I also thought the side characters around him, Lu, Osrik, and a few others were really good. I rooted for all those characters basically immediately, which is almost always a sign that I'm enjoying a book.

There honestly wasn't too much plot in this book either. There's far more political machinations, which I did really enjoy. We also get Malina's perspective. She's King Midas' wife and has political aspirations. Her perspective was interesting enough but I did care about them less. The bulk of the chapters are still from Auren's perspective. There were times I really wanted Rip's perspective but I understand story-wise why we didn't have that. The plot definitely picks up at the end and once again this ends in a cliffhanger. I am definitely intrigued to see what happens next, far more than I was at the end of book one.

I'll probably start reading book three right away. I know book four doesn't come out for a while but I am very interested in seeing what happens next. I heard a lot of people say that this series gets better after book one and that's definitely true. I understand not wanting to continue after the first book but if you're at all intrigued I definitely recommend read this second book. ( )