Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Gilded Cage

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni

16 reviews

tabea1409's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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alyarchive's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was on toes quite the whole time reading the book. There were many new characters introduced and each of them has their own charm as they bring their personalities and skills into the pack for their adventure. The found family is being built slowly in this book, and I love that this book has a lot of foreshadowing that keeps you guessing the real villain and those who are trustworthy.

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smkelly1997's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Overall, a great book, however not as good as the first one. Blood family vs found family is an interesting pull thought this book. The entire book I wanted to scream at Kiva. This however made her such a complex and interesting character.

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ameydireads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Our scars define us. They tell a story of courage and survival. They tell of who we are at our deepest being, of the challenges we've faced and overcome. Not all scars are as visible as this. I daresay you have many more on the inside. But never forget that every scar is beautiful. And you should never, ever, be ashamed of them.”

I didn’t expect to finish this book so fast. It was amazing and I will tell you why! Kiva goes to Vallenia with Jaren and Tipp, where she meets the Vallentis family, her sworn enemy. It seems they are not as bad as she’s been told. Despite their own problems, the royal family is inherently a loving family, akin to a normal family. Their acceptance and trust in Kiva are astounding and somewhat unexpected. This complicates her task further and, as expected, Kiva is torn between the two sides. She learns more about both sides and discovers some very interesting things about her own family. Prepare yourself for another set of twists. After reading the first book I was expecting there to be twists and I must say, they lived up to expectations. It seems that even outside of Zalindov’s walls the only person you can trust is yourself.

This book introduces us to more characters and one of my favourite, aside from Jaren (duh), is definitely Nanna Delora. This lady just wants to be left in peace to enjoy her book club with some scones. That woman is a vibe. I’m sure my fellow readers can also relate!
Another favourite character of mine is Caldon. This guy has great intuition and there's so much more to him than we think! Queen Ariana also deserves a special mention. She’s a loving mother who cares so much about her children. She gives them a shoulder to cry on and devotes her time to hearing them out. However, she still struggles with her addiction to Angeldust though. It's very mature of Jaren and Mirryn to remember that it's the drug and not the user. It’s one thing to hear Jaren mentioning it, but another to experience it through Kiva’s eyes. That was super scary and heartbreaking.

Overall it was a well-written book, definitely a page turner. I love the way this story is told and how everything is connected. I couldn't stop reading. It was a tense book with some wholesome & hopeful moments but also some really frustrating moments.

In the first book Kiva talks to the Warden about Tipp’s release. He tells her that Tipp could be released to his guardian if they came for him, but at that moment I did not make a connection to Kiva. She too was very young when she came to Zalindov. This angers Jaren as well and he demands to know why Torr left her to rot in Zalindov when they had the opportunity to free her. I don't get why Tilda would rather break her out of the notoriously impenetrable Zalindov when they could also just go get her before she turned 12. That was honestly such a horrible thing to do and I don’t get why Tilda would wish that upon her daughter. And how ironic, or I should rather say diabolical, that Kiva ends up in Zalindov!

I am so excited to read the next, and final, book! Kiva might not have turned on Jaren, but as far as he knows she did lie to him and betray his trust. I wonder if there’s still hope for them…

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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the_jesus_fandom's review against another edition

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

All in all, a pretty fun book, except for the fact that it took AGES of character and relationship building for the exciting stuff to happen.

Kiva was honestly a bit dumber in this book than the first. There was one scene where

she was trying to find a hiding place to listen in on a meeting. This was a time-sensitive thing, cause the people meeting were coming super soon. So what does she do? She spends a lot of valuable time sightseeing the room and only hides at the last possible moment, when she could just as easily have done that snooping after the meeting. It was super annoying.

There seemed to be some discontinuity where Jaren knew less than it was implied he did in book one.

Some random stuff:

I’m sorry, I found the meta book club to be cringe.

Caldon is my bestie and I love him.

Kiva says she never harmed anyone, even those she hated, which is untrue, since in the last book there was a guard who was too touchy and instead of fixing his itchy groin problem she gave him medicine that would make it worse.

Ahum, and now for the biggest thing that I already mentioned in my review for book one: did I get my predictions right?

Well, yes and no. Someone did die, but it was her grandmother, but she did leave her with a new-found realisation. Also, this all could still just be fixed by her marrying Jaren, and both siblings (only one of whom is really into revenge) are fine with that! So really all angst would be unnecessary if Kiva was honest and just communicated. We don’t even need to frame it as two families coming together, because apparantly none of the rebel supporters really… support the rebels. They just want to be healed.

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