Book Review: Gild

Title: Gild
Author: Raven Kennedy
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Mythology

What It’s About: She watches through the golden cage as the King of the Sixth Kingdom of Orea has sex with his royal saddles–women and men employed by him for sex and pleasure. She continues to drink wine in boredom and eat that food that is placed on her side of the bars, while watching the orgy and also looking through the glass windows of the domed room at the snow falling outside. She occasionally sees a star out there, and wonders if the goddesses are paying attention to her. There was a time when the king having sex with other women would have bothered her but he’s always appeased her saying that he’s doing it for the appearances and, and that she’s the one that truly has his heart.

When he is finished, King Midas sends the saddles away and walks up to the golden cage, telling her that she is precious, and Auren cannot help but melt at his feet, hoping that he will continue touching her, loving her and protecting her. She does want to do more than sit and watch from behind the cage, but King Midas reminds her that there are whores out in the city living in squalor and her position could be a lot worse than it is. She walks back her comments and apologizes to him, to which he tells her that he should rest because she will be needed tomorrow. Auren wonders why and Midas tells her that King Fluke of the Fifth kingdom will be leaving the following day to return to his own castle after working on their alliance. As Midas leaves the atrium, Auren looks around it at all of the golden statues, floors and walls, before heading back to her rooms–without leaving the confines of her cage, she can walk to the atrium, the drawing room, the library and royal breakfast rooms, as well as her own personal rooms. She continues to look at the bright side of the situation, which is that she has the single star peeking through the night.

Auren was just five years old when she was ushered out of her bed, and told by her parents to go with people who were taking the kids to safety, while the sound of fighting erupted nearby. They never reached safety, but rather were attacked by thieves before they could even get out of the city, and she was bound and gagged. So she remembers her mother by the single star that she does see because it looks similar to the stars the night that she was pulled out of her bed. It’s been twenty years since that night.

The following morning Auren is woken up and she starts to talk to one of the new guards that has joined the patrol around her cages. Digby, who has been with Auren for a long time, tries to tell the new guard to not talk to her due to orders but doesn’t elaborate, though the new guard starts asking rude questions about her cunt, to which Auren responds that it’s impolite to do that. The new guard ignores her and Digby’s warnings, continuing to make comments about her body. She goes into the dressing room once the guard has been dismissed, and decides on what she wants to wear–all of her garments is the color of Gold, Kind Midas’ favorite color. Ultimately she chooses a dress that has no back–all of her dresses do not have backs, because she has twenty-four golden ribbon-like appendages that sprout out on either side of her spine from her shoulders to her tailbones. They’re long, so they drag behind her and most people think that they are part of the dresses she wears, completely unaware that they are attached to her body. She grew them right before Midas saved her, and as far as Auren knows, she’s the only one in Orea to have these ribbons.

The royals of Orea have magic in them–they cannot take the crown without the magic, so Midas married Queen Malina Colier of the Sixth Kingdom. She was the princess of the Sixth Kingdom, but she did not have magic, so she could not inherit the crown even though her parents were the king and queen of the sixth kingdom. Instead, Midas swept in with his golden-touch, marrying her and becoming the king of the Sixth Kingdom. King Fulke on the other hand has the power to duplicate things exactly once, just not people or animals, so the alliance between Midas and Fulke results in Midas giving Fulke a lot of gold, and Fulke most likely duplicating it once he returns to Ranhold Castle in the fifth kingdom.

Once Auren is dressed, she goes down to see King Midas who is dining with King Fulke, who leers at her every time he sees her. While they are eating breakfast, two of Midas’ royal saddles straddle King Fulke–Polly and Rissa–while they feed him berries as he gropes them. It’s clear that none of the Royal Saddles like Auren, because she is the King’s favored, and was gold-touched by him. Midas is pleased that she’s showed up, as he had asked, and Auren begins to play on the harp. Fulke and Midas talk about Auren as if she’s an object, with Fulke asking him why Midas won’t gold-touch one of his own saddles, and Midas saying that it’s only reserved for Auren, and he would like to set her apart. Then Fulke asks Midas if he could have one night with Auren, saying that he’ll pay Midas handsomely. Auren gets upset because the last time someone had asked that, Midas had them tortured, but Midas doesn’t answer as quickly as he had in the past–it seemed that he was considering it, but ultimately noted that he has more wealth than the other five kingdoms of Orea because of his gold touch. Fulke offers anything else in exchange for a night with Auren.

Midas agrees to give him one night with her in exchange of Fulke’s army for an attack that he’s planning next week, but that the army needs to be mobilized that day so that it can catch up with his own army that is at the Fourth Kingdom’s border. Auren is shocked, and the two men go back and forth over this for some time, which makes Auren appalled, because no one launches attacks on the Fourth Kingdom as their King named Ravinger is called King Rot for a reason. He rots people and things from the inside out, so powerful, brutal and vicious he can be.Ultimately Fulke wants her so badly that he agrees to one night with Auren, and to split the land of the Fourth Kingdom when they conquer it. Auren chokes up and says no, but Midas ignores her and Fulke agrees to the terms as long as he gets a half of Fourth in exchange. Auren is so gutted at this, because Midas saved her from ruin, that he loved her and she loved him back, that she slips up and uses his given name, Tyndall, while begging him not to give her to Fulke. Midas reminds her of her place, finally telling her to go back to her tool and play music.

As a result of the negotiations, Fulke doesn’t leave as initially planned, and the two kings continue to meet for six days planning and strategizing their attack as well as the following victory. Fulke and Midas agree to split the mines in the Fourth Kingdom with the northern side of the mines going to Fulke and the rest of them going to Midas. Auren continues listening in on the conversation while doing her reading from within the bars of the cage she’s in, but she also notices Rissa dancing in pain, having been ordered over three hours prior to dance by Fulke with no rest. She decides to put Rissa out of her misery and offers to make a distraction, but Rissa tells her to take a hike, spewing hateful words. So Auren makes a split second decision, chucking the book she had in her hand into Rissa’s face, making her go down with a yelp. This gets Midas’ attention and wrath, sends Rissa out of the room to be tended to (because her nose is bleeding) and results in Auren being ordered to dance in Rissa’s stead. She is shocked with Fulke is crass to her and Midas allows for it to go through. Suddenly Queen Malina, with her white hair, sweeps into the library. Unfortunately the queen hates Auren more than the saddles dislike and distrust her.

Midas turns to manage his wife, who does not like the fact that there are saddles in the strategizing meeting with Fulke. He sends the saddles out, and they have a silent stand off, as there’s always tension between the two of them despite ten years of marriage. There are people in Highbell that are loyal to Malina due to the generations of her family that ruled Highbell, but many of the nobles are loyal to Midas because he made them very rich, as the country was desolate and on the cusp of bankruptcy before he came. While the two of them step out into the hall to talk, Auren disappears into her connected rooms, heading to the atrium, where coincidentally Midas and Malina enter to have their discussion. Auren tries to hide herself while they are having the discussion about Midas sending the army to the border of the Fourth Kingdom. Malina believes that she should’ve been included in the discussion as it is her kingdom, because her family has ruled it for generations, but Midas reminds her that she’s the first Colier without inherited power. She tells him that he’s ruin the accord that has governed all of Orea in the past, to which he claims he knows what he’s doing and tells her that she should remember what it it is that she’s supposed to be doing. Malina presses further, and he claims that she’s barren because in the ten years of marriage, she hadn’t gotten pregnant with their heir. Malina then tells Midas that she knows the truth, but it’s unclear what truth she’s talking about.

Auren rushes to her rooms, making her way through the strategy room, in order to protect herself from making it seem like she overheard Midas’ and Malina’s conversation. She knows that if Midas calls for her and she doesn’t come out of her room, he will know that she was in the atrium and overheard the conversation, which would not bode for her well. She manages to rush to her room, just as Midas enters the strategy room, and hides out in the rooms until nightfall. Then she searches for a candlestick and comes upon something warm, which turns out to be a hand that grabs her. She tries to tear the person’s hold, but they don’t let go, even as much as covering her nose and preventing her from breathing properly. It turns out the Queen is behind this attack, telling her guard to hold her, and she tells Auren that she knew that she was in the room listening to everything. She also tells Auren that Midas doesn’t love her, that he keeps her like a prize to show off to make himself seem more interesting, but that Auren has never been of any consequence to her because she’s in a cage whereas Malina is out free. While Malina is talking, Auren tries to get her ribbons to work up the leg of the attacker discreetly because she doesn’t want anyone to know that she can move these ribbons. Malina tells her to remember her own place.

The next morning Auren wakes up, sore from the beating that she’s taken from Malina’s guard, and tries to pass it off as an upset stomach to her own guard. As she gets up, she notices a dress that is barely a gown at all, picked up by Midas to be dressed as a saddle for that night. She works on her hair in preparation for the ball, when Midas appears and scares her. He tells her that he knows she’s angry with him, and asks her to tell him what she has on her mind. Auren doesn’t know how to broach the subject, so she asks him if he’s all right, to which Midas tells her that he needs her to behave tonight, and asks her if she trusts him. She replies with a question of shouldn’t she always trust him, to which he responds that of course. He walks and she tries to get it together, and is conflicted–he should have her trust after all these years, but the answer isn’t a resounding yes.

She’s still nervous to be given to Fulke and doesn’t want to go through with it, though she tries to stay busy and keep her mind off of it. She wonders whether or not the Fifth and Sixth Kingdom have attacked the Fourth, and also begins to feel sorry for Malina because it’s not a marriage that seems to be good to her. When the maid comes in and tells Digby that it’s time, Auren puts on the dress, and it is very provocative with slits on the sides, and sheer cloth. She chooses to wrap her ribbons around the bodice to hide more of her than the dress initially did. She then steps to her group of guards, they let her out of the cage, and take her to the ballroom.

Auren remembers the first time she came to the castle–she was fifteen, and her innocence was taken from her, one cruel exploit at a time. But thanks to Midas she had trust. He wasn’t a king yet, and the castle was a grey stone at the time, before he had it gilded with gold but she was gloomy because their time together was coming to an end. Midas had told her that he would offer his hand in marriage to Malina, in confidence while they were traveling, because the kingdom was broke. She had asked him, as he was seven years older than her, what would happen to her, and he said that she would stay with him–he had made a promise to her after all, and that together they will save the Sixth Kingdom from ruin. Auren loved that he was meticulous about himself and everything else, but also that he spelled things out for her, laid out his plans, intentions, even though he didn’t have to. He reminded her that while the Queen would have his name, Auren would have his love, and they made love there that night.

Auren’s guards take her to the ballroom, and she admits that she does not want to enter, but she does. King Midas sees her, from the dais, where he is seated along with King Fulke, who has Rissa on his lap. Midas then makes an announcement about celebrating the strength of the the Sixth kingdom, due to their alliance with the fifth. He also announces that he promised to gift his gold-touched favored to Fulke, and has her come forward. She does, and he disapproves the adjustments that she’s made to the dress, before reminding her to be a good girl, and have her sit with Fulke. Fulke makes her feed him, and tries to feed her, though she doesn’t want his fingers anywhere near her mouth. He continues ordering her around, including pulling Auren onto his lap, but Rissa comes to her assistance, asking Fulke if he’d like for her to dance for him. He agrees, and tells Auren to watch her because Rissa knows how to please a man. After a bit more talking, Fulke decides to call it a night because he is eager to have Auren to himself tonight. Midas doesn’t do more beyond saying “enjoy,” which hurst Auren even more.

As Fulke walks out with her, the rest of the crowd starts to hoot and holler lewd things. She shies away from Fulke’s touch, cringing at it, and as the comments keep coming, Auren makes the decision that she will not go through with this. So she stops moving, and says no, when Fulke attempts to command her to come with him. This enrages Fulke and brings silence to the ballroom, and results in her getting hit by Fulke. Midas comes strolling down towards them, and tells her that she’s worth more than all the gold in the castle, but he still owns her and will use her in any way he sees fit. He then tells the guards to escort her to Kind Fulke’s room, but Auren continues to publicly defy them. The soldiers are hauling her across the entry hall, when suddenly Fulke’s soldier comes sprinting in, ignoring Midas’ soldiers when he sees Fulke.

Fulke asks what the meaning of this is, and where his messenger, which is how he finds out that the messenger was killed in action, and the general attempted to send two others, but he was the only one who managed to get out. Midas comes out and takes them into a private room to discuss the news of the war at the front, and the soldier tries to speak to Fulke in private, but Fulke demands that he explain himself if he’s not a traitor or defector. The soldier tells him that as soon as the army breached the Fourth’s border, it was decimated. Fulke doesn’t believe him and tells him that the information is incorrect, as the joined Fifth and Sixth armies were victorious, breaching the Fourth’s border and taking Cliffhelm. The soldier once again tell the king that they didn’t take Cliffhelm, and that Ravinger’s training outpost was full of soldiers so they weren’t even able to breach the walls before they were decimated. There’s more, but the soldier instead grabs his soldier and looks at Midas. When Fulke demands how it’s possible that all of the men were slaughtered when they met up with Midas’, the soldier tells him that Ravinger’s men did not overtake Midas’ men, because Midas’ army never met the Fifth’s army and never went to the border, so only Fulke’s soldiers faced Ravinger’s men alone. The soldier tells him that Midas betrayed him.

After a momentary silence, Fulke says it’s not true, but Midas tells him that he’s correct. When Fulke is enraged, Midas replies calmly that it should be Fulke’s last lesson that true kings don’t give out their armies for cunts. Suddenly Fulke realizes that Midas was never going to take Fourth, and Midas agrees it would be suicide to do so, at which point Fulke realizes that Midas sent his army into Fifth to invade while Fulke’s forces were occupied elsewhere. Suddenly fighting breaks out, and Auren is taken back to ten years ago when her town was raided and the fighting was way too close. She gets knocked down, before Fulke hauls her up, with a knife to her throat. He threatens to kill Auren if he gets killed, but before he can do anything else, Digby stabs him with his sword, saving Auren. Fulke and his men are dead as a result of this fight, while Midas orders Digby to take Auren to her rooms. Auren spends the next few hours sitting in her room in shock until Midas comes in and helps her get cleaned up, calling her precious and saying “let me help you.”

This phrase takes her back to the first time she met Midas–she had been in hiding, trying to lay low and often moving, but she was getting tired and she slipped up. The looters came that night, and destroyed the village that she had been hiding in. She tried to run but was caught, thrown in a cart with other women, and was resigned to her fate, when Midas rode in and saved them. She ran back into the alleyway where she had been hiding and when the fighting stopped, Midas found her in the alley with a genuine smile on his face, and said that she’s safe now, to let him help her. They were together ever since, she clung to him, and he held her; she kissed him and he kissed her back.

Midas pleads with her, which surprises Auren, and she agrees. He undresses her and she goes into the tub, while he sits on a stool and rubs her with a cloth. He apologizes for her getting hurt, because it wasn’t part of the plan. She’s angry because she didn’t think he’d go through with it, and she claims to trust him, but before she can finish the phrase, Midas interrupts her telling her that he wasn’t going to let Fulke touch her. Everyone’s known for years that Fulke coveted her, and Midas found out recently that Fulke was a flesh trader, so he knew something had to be done to get rid of Fulke so that he wouldn’t continue selling his own people for profit. So he sent in a few of Fulke’s soldiers into a meaningless slaughter to trick Fulke, because Midas believes that it’s better a man dies on the battlefield than a child be sold to slavery. He doesn’t want anyone else to endure what Auren did. Auren doesn’t understand why Midas didn’t want to let her know and include her in on at the plan, to which Midas explains that he was worried that Fulke would find out somehow of the plan, so he couldn’t risk it. Auren gets worried about what will happen to him for killing Fulke, to which Midas says he has a plan. Of course, he can’t divulge it to her.

A while later, Auren watches as guards go around her room packing up trunks and when Digby comes to get her, she goes to her carriage, which is separated from the other saddles’. They are traveling to the Fifth kingdom to join Midas while he is preparing to deal with the fallout of Fulke’s death. Midas had spun the story to make it seem like the messenger was the one who killed King Fulke and decided to go to the Fifth Kingdom to assist them in their time of need, and keep their borders secure. He had not thought it safe for Auren to travel with him, so he used a decoy. But now it was time, and Auren is leaving Highbell to join him in Ranhold. Her contingent travels through Highbell, when Auren notices young children in the shanties–which she also finds odd because of how rich Highbell is–and gives them some gold coin. As a result, she has to be rushed to safety by her guards because they see all of the people looking at the coins and wanting more. Then they continue to travel through the land along the way to the Fifth Kingdom. Sometimes Auren rides in the carriage, but other times she rides on a horse alongside one of the new guards, Sail, and becomes friends with them. They manage to make it through miserable weather involving snow and hail as they cross the country.

Just as they’re on the border into the Fifth Kingdom, there’s a report of an avalanche. The messenger that the contingent sent out does not come out, so Digby and two other men head out to investigate, at which point the red fire that they have been seeing in the distance starts to get closer. The soldiers recognize that these are the Red Raids–snow pirates. The remaining soldiers get the saddles into carriages, and they start to attempt to make it to the pass to cross into the Fifth Kingdom, but the Red Raids are getting too close to them, and at one point Sail screams to all of the other soldiers to protect Auren. In the ensuing chaos, the wheel of the carriage hits something hard, and begins to roll, flinging her around before stopping and she blacks out.

When she comes to, Auren hears the fighting, and then sees a man climbing into the carriage, pulling her out and looking at her in the moon. Sail tells them to stay away from her, but the pirate calls over his captain once they realize that Auren doesn’t have paint on her face. They lead her, the remaining saddles as well as the soldiers away, while Sail tries to apologize to Auren for them being captured. They go up a hill, and get looked at by the Captain, Fane, who decides what they will do with the saddles–the royal ones, he will let them be used by the men, but when he realizes who Auren is, he realizes that he can sell her for very good money. Sail tries to defend Auren, by standing up to Fane, but this results in him being killed. She gets thrown in with the rest of the saddles, and Mist, one of the saddles, looks down at her. Emotions raw from seeing her friend get killed, Auren uses her ribbons to push Mist away, and a standoff begins until Rissa smooths it over. Mist begins to blame her for them getting caught, and repeats the words that Sail had said–protect the king’s favored. She points out that Auren always gets special treatment and protection everywhere, and when it comes down to it Midas will come for Auren, but not for them. They will be ruined and sold off as slaves.

Auren heads back out onto the deck, and looks for Sail, but doesn’t find him on the ground. Instead, she finds him tied up to the pole on deck, while the pirates make fun of him. As they continue to make fun of him, she snaps, and finally cuts him down before pushing him over the rail into the snow below as they ride to their next destination. After her show of disobedience, Fane takes her back into his room, but gets stopped when he gets a messenger hawk that they will have guests. He puts the women to work in his kitchen, and when the guests arrive, Auren sneaks out on deck to see a commander with spikes coming out of his helmet, his back and his arms. She immediately recognizes him as Commander Rip–supposedly a man rotted by King Ravinger to be a ferocious warrior on the battle field. Immediately he senses her and looks at her, and she also recognizes him as Fae.

Apparently a long time ago, there were seven kingdoms in Orea. The seventh kingdom had a bridge into a void, and their monarchs were scholars so they sent soldiers and explorers into the bridge of Lemuria to try to understand what was beyond. Many Oreans traveled but were never seen again, until one day a woman walked back across. She wasn’t a soldier, explorer, scholar, thief or sent by the monarchs, but a stowaway. At age ten she had slipped past the guards to find her father who had went through the bridge and never returned. When she, Saira Turley, returned, she brought back magic from Annwyn which was on the other side of Lemuria. Annwyn was the realm of the fae. She fell in love at the age of nineteen with the Prince of Lydia and before they were married, this prince gave her a wedding gift by bounding the bridge of Lemuria, connecting Annwyn to the Seventh Kingdom, so that Saira could return to Orea whenever she wanted. Annwyn and Orea coexisted and mingled for years, but the fae betrayed Orea. Their king snapped the thread, severing the bridge because he was against cohabiting with the Oreans, and the Seventh Kingdom at the edge of the world was swallowed whole from the force of the magical cut. The land and people were never seen again, while the bridge of Lemuria disappeared. The magic that is left in Orea is thanks to the Fae, but it’s dwindling every year, as no more fae come to Orea, and Oreans do not come to Annwyn–they haven’t for three hundred years.

Commander Rip and Captain Fane talk, in which it becomes very obvious that Commander Rip intercepted all of their messenger hawks, and has now come to strike a deal for all of the saddles and soldiers from Midas’ court. The saddles are charged with bringing out food and drink to the pirates and Commander Rip’s group of soldiers, but Captain Fane makes it clear to Auren that he does not want her to show her face around Commander Rip. He believes that he can get away with selling her to the highest bidder without Commander Rip’s knowledge, and the two men negotiate on the value of the individuals from Midas’ group, agreeing upon a value. Captain Fane has one of his men round up the saddles and the soldiers, avoiding Auren, but Rip catches him in the lie, saying that his price includes all of the saddles and soldiers left, which includes Auren. The men argue back and forth, but no one dares to go against Commander Rip as he’s the most feared commander across Orea. While Rip does give them time to round up the rest of the members of Midas’ group, Fane has Rissa and Auren follow him to his bed chambers, along with the chest of gold.

Once inside the room, which is dingy, he has Rissa lie down on bed and despite her trying to be sensual, he ignores her advances, choosing to be rough with her during sex. This includes tightening a belt around her neck, which scares Auren as Rissa looks like she’s struggling to breathe. Auren tells Fane to stop, but he doesn’t until he comes, and then he turns on Auren with the belt, saying that it’s her turn next. Instead, she presses her bare hands against Fane’s neck, and he begins to turn gold, getting killed by the metal as he turns into a golden statue. Auren pleads with Rissa to help her get him out of the window, hiding what happened. The two of them manage to get him out of the room through the window, with the help of Auren’s ribbons, and Auren tosses the chest with the coin out after him to explain the reason why he’s disappeared. Not a few moments later, there is a knock at the door, and Fane’s second in Command comes in, only to find the two women tied up in the room, and Fane nowhere to be seen. Auren and Rissa make up a story that he ran out the window with the gold, and the man takes them out, saying that there will be mutiny on the pirates’ hands because the gold is gone. He then finds Fane’s hat and cloak, which Auren realized was left behind just before he walked in, and demands to know what they did with Fane.

The two are saved by Commander Rip, and as the man is afraid to go against the commander, he lets the two women go. They all leave the ship, and the ships begin to move out of the way, leaving them facing a white landscape that is full of thousands of the Fourth Kingdom’s soldiers. Auren had tumbled down the ramp and into the snow, but then when Rip’s boot shows up in her vision, she looks up and sees him for the first time. She finds him very handsome, and wonders if King Ravinger is aware of who he has working for him. When she faces off against him, she tells him that she knows what he is, and he replies, smirking, that he was going to say exactly the same thing to her.

King Midas stands overlooking the balcony of the fifth kingdom, and thinks about all of the kingdoms he had seen in his travel. He wonders what the ice will look like touched with gold in the Fifth kingdoms, as he doesn’t intend to visit–he intends to take over. His advisor interrupts him with a letter, that Midas begins to read and has to re-read a couple of times, resulting in him seeing red in anger. He only tells his advisor that “they have her” and continues on to sweep things off his table in anger, as well as punch walls in anger. He paces back and forth, and doesn’t care about the destruction he’s causing because the most important thing in the world to him was taken from him–his Precious, his favored–and is held by an enemy. Midas vows to himself that the planned destruction of King Fulke will be nothing compare to anyone who dared to take Auren from him. She’s his, and he will destroy everyone in his path to get her back.

My Thoughts: I’ve had this book for a while in my contents on my kindle, but I’ve hesitated to actually read it because the story of King Midas and his golden touch has me thinking back to Aladdin and The King Of Thieves. I was worried that it would be something along those lines in terms of written stories, but this re-telling of the Midas Myth is just so so so much better than anything I’ve read involving mythology in recent times.

I love how Auren is introduced, and how we’re finding out bits and pieces about who she is in this book. We know that she’s a something, she has ribbons that grew out of her back, and she can turn someone to gold, but we also know that Midas turned her into his gold-touched favored. So it gives to that intrigue–what is the truth about the power, and why is Midas so possessive of her to the point that he keeps her in a literal bird cage. I love how she stands up for herself even though she’s weak physically because of her lack of exercise, and how Auren trusts and loves Midas because he saved her and taught her to love, while at the same time she questions his motives and his feelings for her. I get weird vibes from Midas himself because of how cold and calculating he is with Fulke and Auren, as well as Malina cannot be trusted, especially after the attack on Auren.

Overall, maybe the book starts a little slow at the beginning because all you read about is the sex, and wonder if it’s all about sex and dog-humping when things go down, which I’ve seen happen in books. But it’s really not–Auren doesn’t have much sex because she would rather do it with Midas, and the two times that could’ve potentially lead down that path, she’s resisted by either disobeying or killing the dude. Instead, it’s setting the story around the mythology, and I’m curious to find out what Auren will do in the series as well as who she truly is.

If you’re interested in mythology and want a different spin on it, this book is a phenomenal read and would recommend that you get lost in the pages of the story.