Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Gild

I should've stopped reading on page one when I learned that the harem was called saddles. But alas I continued, and I will never get the hours back that I spent reading this book.

My takeaways:
FMC has TENTACLES. another spot I should've just shut the kindle down at.
A golden cage is still a cage. This is repeated constantly, just in case you forget.
All men are r-pists and/or don't care about women. The 1-2 who aren't were killed off, because men are bad or they're dead.
Bright side? Bright side.
The use of the word "cum" thrown in for shock effect when there's actually very little cursing in this book.
Did anything actually happen in this book? I blacked out around tentacles.
FMC was whiny, useless, and overall unlikable. The author did a great job telling us how things felt rather than showing us through emotion on the page. I felt like I was watching a TV show rather than reading a book. Which, if this is a device where we readers are watching FMC through the cage and in subsequent novels gets better as she breaks free, that's incredible. But I'm not going to waste money buying the rest to find out.
The author felt like she had a point about grooming, trafficking, poverty, and misogyny, but missed the mark entirely. Perhaps these opinions would be best spent on nonfiction writing or opinion pieces rather than... Whatever this was.

F*ckin tentacles, man. </Spoiler>

Content Warnings

booshort's review against another edition

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I think I got around 10% in and DNF’d it.

I then VERY VAGUELY skimmed the rest of the book. By that, I mean I searched up summaries, reviews, and recaps and then did not regret sticking this one out.

I think this book has the most serious trigger warnings I’ve read (/skimmed). TW FOR DESCRIPTIVE RAPE SCENE. Ya I’m good with avoiding that thanks. I found the writing very juvenile to an almost mocking degree. It sometimes came off more satirical of a dark fantasy romance, rather than and *actual* dark fantasy romance.

I’ve heard each book gets better; I might continue, I might not. But I know for sure I won’t continue any time soon.

Content Warnings

filipa_maia's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I do appreciate this other side of the story. This is not King Midas' story (the one that everyone knows), it's someone else's... someone very important that stays in the shadows. Also, I very much enjoyed all this mystery around Auren, there is an aura of secrets involving her that kept me very focus till the end. Solving this mystery is exactly one of the things that is going to make me read the second book.

On a less positive note, this book is very hard to read: maybe I was distracted or maybe the trigger warnings weren't enough... I almost quit reading this book. Several times. I understand that women weren't seen as people, especially these women being King Midas' harem... but there is a less brutal way of describing some scenes. Honestly, the excessive use of some words were not to emphasise the narrative, but just to trigger the reader.

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missgarceau's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Please check TW’s BEFORE reading!!

Spice: 🔥🔥🔥

I couldn’t put this down from start to finish.

Although it felt somewhat predictable, I found myself not anticipating major plot twists.

This is not a “happy” retelling, and deals with dark & difficult topics. Please be advised.

However, I found the world, characters, and plot absolutely riveting.

This ends on a cliffhanger, is an unfinished series, but the final book is scheduled to be released this year.

Content Warnings

bangiebangs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was dark. Darker than I expected tbh, so heed the CNs - this has a lot of uncomfortable elements.

Spoiler

The fact that the king's harem are called "saddles", or that this is also the term for any sex worker ("wh*re" is used a lot) isn't the worst, but there are scenes very close to rape, and one that is a quite detailed rape scene).

The one thing that bothers me the most is the relationship between Auren and the king tbh. I'm not on bord with seeing this as anything but exploitative.

Spoiler

In the backstory, we learn that they started their relationship when he rescued her from an abusive situation (sexual trafficking is implied), and they start a relationship when she is 15 and he is "seven years older". Even if the story picks up 10 years later than that, this still makes this something that starts as an adult/minor pairing... so her sexual desire for him... ew.

I found the pacing a little uneven as it takes a long time to set the scene: I was more than 100pp in before I felt this picking up steam or having much of a story- this is an issue throughout. While there are some nice minor twists in there I think this book mainly sets up the second one and does some basic world-building. Also some serious emotional gut-punch moments, so yeah, this one is not exactly uplifting.

This is also not a romance, dark or otherwise. There is no romance in this book. Maybe the next? But if you're looking for dark romantasy spice... this ain't it.

Be aware that this ends in a cliffhanger.
Spice level wasn't there for me - there is a lot of sexual content, but the way it's described doesn't really do much for me. Not that every book needs this, but in this one the sex is so often mixed with abuse or dubious (/absent) consent that it's not exactly something I can enjoy.

All in all, a dark but enticing read, though one that will might make you uncomfortable at times. I'll continue with the series and see how it goes.

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