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MY REVIEW
This review is raw and long and filled with swear words, and believe me, most were in the book. So if you feel offended by such words, please don’t read the review or share my post.
With such a beautiful cover, I was all prepared to love the book and immerse myself in its pages.
I knew all the trigger warnings, as given by the author, but nothing in this world prepared me for the ORGY in the first scene. Yes, you read it right. It was an orgy, not even written erotically, but raw and crude. Ugghhh…
This was King Midas’s retelling where he kept his pet saddle, Auren, (read wh*re) in a gilded cage, and she was made of gold, all thanks to Midas.
Auren was forced to watch that orgy, and we were told in detail how he f**ked the three women and one man. And Auren wanted to take notes, then called it love. Whaaaattttt!! This girl was seriously warped. The scene was deliberately written to shock readers which, at that point in the novel, was not needed.
Then came monologues of Auren. OMG. She was truly f**king boring. She went on and on and on about her life and how she was made of gold and how close she was to Midas. Yea sure, he made her watch his taking carnal desires on other people, and she called it love. Talk about Stockholm syndrome, don’t ya!! That went on for pages and pages, filled with her thoughts and ruminations of the same thing again and again. Ya ya I got it. She was gold and so were the rest of her and the palace. Yada Yada. All these were rammed down my throat (pun not intended)
The author had probably intended to make her a strong character, but she came out to be pretty weird, thinking Midas to be her savior when he used her at every point. That was another character who was supposed to the strong King, but he was more dark and cunning. A complete asshole, and she was his sappy doll…sorry, gilded doll. Though the author did use some justification to make him redeem himself with reasons. Too little, too late.
The writing was okay at parts, though more of telling than showing. New characters came in to become the villains, like the King of another land or pirates, but all their dialogues had the same threat of wanting to fill her gilded c*nt with their c*m – oh my eyes!! I can’t unsee these dialogues!!
The plotline was repetitive, there was Commander Rip, a fae, who came at the end of the book with his good looks and magic. Auren went gaga over him too as she did with Midas. Omg!!!
The plotline went slightly weird. Auren had magic, and she knew how to weild it, but she didn’t use it to save her friends. Huhh? Why not? I would have understood if her powers came into play after a surge of emotions. But apparently she knew she could use her powers and just didn’t want to use them.
A useless doll she was who kept telling me how she wanted to escape, but never used her resources or worked on honing her powers. I stand corrected. She was a gilded doll in a gilded cage, even when there was no cage. Go Midas for brainwashing her brain and the author for writing her character in this manner.
My first retelling and I was so disappointed!! So much gilded potential and oh so wasted. Maybe Midas should give me a gold coin for having read this book.
MY RATING
BOOK LINKS
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BOOK BLURB
The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.
Gold.
Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.
Even me.
King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe.
Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.
Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.
Because these bars I’m kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I’d never left.
BOOK DETAILS
Publication Date: 2020
I downloaded the digital version of the book from an online retail, and this is my journey down its pages, straight from the heart. STRICTLY HONEST and UNBIASED.
All my reviews can be found here.
7 Responses
Makes me glad I DNFed this one at her first thought vomit session. 😬
Omg that’s fantastic. It was my first retelling… I thought it would improve… Ugghh. Apparently book 3 and 4 are better if we survive first 2
uuuuhhhhgggg. This sounds awful, what a nightmare, I think I would have thrown it at the wall. You are far more patient than I am.
No, no, no, no, no. I couldn’t even get through your review Shalini. I give you credit for finishing it.
This sounds terrible, but I appreciate your terrific review!
Ugh! NOT for me. I’d have DNF’d it very quickly.
Definitely not for you. It was pretty bad