This review contains spoilers from the first two books in The Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy.

In book three of this series, we're back with King Midas in the Fifth Kingdom. We now know for sure that King Midas does not have the golden touch but uses Auren because she's the one with that gift. Auren mistakenly believes that Midas will negotiate with her and allow her freedom. She soon finds out that Midas is not so keen on Auren's newfound confidence in herself.

We see most of this book from Auren's point of view, but we also see some from Queen Malina's, back in the Sixth Kingdom. We see social unrest and the queen's attempt at controlling her people. This plotline will get better in subsequent books but in this one, it's frustrating and slow. Her character is so extremely shallow that she seems unreal.

While we will eventually see some redemption, in this book there is nothing about the character development that makes her the slightest bit enthralling, and I think at this point the author should have injected some sense of redeemability.

In Gleam, Auren is finally becoming aware of the power struggle she's in with Midas. She finally starts to see herself as a victim in this relationship and is not happy with it. Unfortunately, to the reader that realization is too slow and drawn out. This book could have perhaps been shortened or combined with the following one to relieve some of the drawn-out exasperation.

We see more of the slowly-building relationship she's developing with Rip -- the captain of the guard of the Fourth Kingdom, who she spent the previous book captive to. And we learn that Rip is actually not the person she thought he was all along, adding to Auren's inability to trust men in her life.

This third installment is actually better paced than the previous one and the one to follow. It's also a little more fun with Auren's exploration of the kingdom. The world-building takes center stage here and we can finally get a better feel about the relationships of the different kingdoms to each other.