A review by haaales
Gleam, by Raven Kennedy

4.0

Okay, I REALLY enjoyed this one. The ending is filled with so much feminist badassery and it’s such a perfect payoff after Auren endured so much violence and misogyny. The romantic relationship development is super satisfying, swoony and spicy. Auren truly became a 180° different person from the first book after a believable and realistic internal journey. A MAJOR trigger warning here is physical abuse, and while it is definitely intense and something to be super aware of going in, I did also find it to be reflective of how this can be in real life, although it is 10000% NOT for everyone. I am still feeling effected by my overall experience of this series in my rating, as I still feel like it was unnecessarily sexually violent (particularly in the first one) and not as clear as it should have been that the treatment Auren was receiving at the hands of the man she believed she loved was not okay. I would recommend this series to those who feel up to this kind of content, and the journey did end up being worthwhile for me. I’m super excited for the next book and watching Auren continue to grow!