Reviews with content warning for Blood - Glint

Content Warnings: Human trafficking, sexual scenes, slavery, captivity, violence, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, gaslighting, and blood/gore. Mention of: sexual assault, rape, child abuse, child neglect, internalized racism, and conditions of living in poverty.

In Gild, the first book, we mostly saw Auren’s POV with the final chapter being that of Midas. In Glint we get three different POVs throughout the book, though the majority still is Auren, we also see what Queen Malina and Midas are up to. Honestly, I already disliked both of these characters from the first interactions they had with Auren but alas writers always have a reason for showing the POV of people we don’t like. *sigh*

In the company of Commander Rip and the soldiers of the Fourth Kingdom, Auren is forced to think about her past and current situation. We get a lot of flashbacks to the time before Midas entered her life as well as some during the early days of Midas becoming King.

Auren had a lot of time to self-reflect and evaluate her relationship with Midas, though at times I was still left wanting to reach through my Kindle and shake her. At other times I wanted to reach through and hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay and could get better.

After finishing Glint I’m 100x more invested in seeing where Auren’s journey takes her. The way Glint ends I already know I’ll be picking up book 3, Gleam, soon as I have so many more questions and I’m desperate for answers. The urge to text friends who’re already caught up is strong but I must resist.

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_book_nook_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

YOOOOOO I did not expect that ending talk about a cliffhanger.

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michellemaas's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

First read: 4 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Second read: 4.5 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

This book was a huge step-up from Gild. The world-building is quite intricate, but once the story kicked off, it KICKED OFF.

There was an amazing plot twist (more than one, actually) which was masterfully written and I quite enjoyed having Kennedy go more in-depth with our characters. This is also the first book in the series to be told from multiple point-of-views, including Auren's, Malina's, and Midas' perspectives (I'm not counting that one chapter in the previous book) so that enhanced the story even more.

In conclusion, the book is entertaining, not too long and the characters are likable. That is all I usually ask of my fantasy books so I'm more than happy. Also, the Plated Prisoner series gives me such From Blood and Ash vibes so it's got that going for it too.

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pb914's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ceruleanshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Book 2 is much faster and riveting than its first. Firstly... I'm obsessed with Rip. Giving me major Hawke vibes. Also, shoutout to the tent trope. It becomes more clear in this book that we are NOT rooting for King Midas and that there probably won't be redemption for him (phew!). We get more of Queen Malina as well, who I don't particularly care for, but it'll be interesting to see how her scheming plays out. The Auren-Rip slowburn is killing me. We learn more about Auren's dark past, so trigger warnings.
TW/CW: pedophilia, confinement, sexual assault, r*pe, pregnancy, grooming, toxic relationship, etc.

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