WOW! Just finished the book and was absolutely thrilled by it. I couldn’t stop reading. Didn’t expect those cliffhanger at the end - can’t wait to start the next one 😍🌞
What tha actual f***? I loved EVERY SINGLE PAGE.
This series keeps getting better and better. I loved this! We got to know Slade’s backstory, which was very interesting. Also, we witnessed Auren face her trauma and overcoming it. It felt so empowering. I also loved how we got to know more parts of Orea, visit new places and kingdoms (some which I like more than others). That ending though? Holy shit, it was so good and bad at the same time. I’m glad I’m reading this as book 5 is already out, because I don’t know how one could live with such a cliffhanger. So good!
Ich hatte Angst, wie es weitergeht, nachdem ein kleines Finale im dritten Teil vollzogen wurde. Aber die Angst war unberechtigt. Das fiese an diesem Teil ist der Cliffhanger. Ich MUSS wissen wie es weitergeht. Endlich Mal wieder eine tolle Phantasiereihe mit glaubhaften Charakteren ohne die Klischees aus so vielen anderen Geschichten.
🤷🏻♀️
Der vierte Part dieser Reihe hätte wirklich keine 714 Seiten gebraucht. Die Story hatte einige Längen und mit der Zeit haben mich auch Auren und Slade immer mehr frustriert. Nach einiger Zeit wusste ich gar nicht mehr, wer von den beiden mich mehr aufregt. Dafür ist mir Ryatt ans Herz gewachsen - seine Taten und Beweggründe kann ich wenigstens nachvollziehen. 😅 Im Laufe der Geschichte wird immer mehr über Slades Geheimnisse und seine Vergangenheit aufgedeckt und manche Dinge fand ich einfach ein bisschen an den Haaren herbei gezogen. Es war auch einfach etwas zu viel. Mit dem Ende habe ich aber definitiv nicht gerechnet und bin gespannt wie es im fünften Teil weitergeht.
Just way too much unnecessary things for me.
Look, I still like the story. I want to read all 6. BUT I have been reading Auren's POV for 4 books now. In the beginning everything was good. They were short, but still impactful. In this 4th book, I have had it! They are just too long. She speaks about something, then adds how she feels in 10 different versions. So I have just been reading the first sentences of a paragraph, as soon as she adds how she feels something in her bones I skip to the next paragraph. As I have probably already mentioned, they are probably just there to get the book to have many pages.
I started this book with high expectations due to the end of #3. When our Goldfinch finally learned to fly and to use her magic. Well, okay, "learned" might be exaggerated but I was hoping for a rage driven "I will be your villain"-Auren on Slade's side. Little did I know when startind #4.... So in #3 I totally understood the slow pace and character development. Even though it followed a slow paced #2. But sure, sometimes a bit of realistic development from exhaustion and manipulation over years is good to see, even in a Romantasy. But excuse me. Another one that was an absolute sloth of a pace in a book? I struggled in this one, I must admit. I cross-read several pages of inner monoligue and even of world building descriptions and I was so eagerly waiting for a bigger plot. Some action. Goldfinch showing off her Gold. But nope. She just actually managed wake up, then it took another 200 pages or so for her to actually skip her fears (instead of feeling brave and strong and powerful...). And what does she do? Nothing, gilding a few flowers next to some fountains in yet another castle. Yes okay,I get it, she's learning to enjoy her freedom of wandering around. But sorry, could that have been done in a little side-plot-book? Like a littke #3.1 . So yes, I obviously got impatient. There were so many things coming and built up on the horizon. Queen Malina. Kalia. The Conflux. Sounded like a nice path to a great showdown. Okay at least a small showdown considering there are two more books. BUT GIVE ME SOMETHING! Anyway. The end thrill came too late and too short. And with the end it already promised another slowburner #5 (so do I expect, I am not further than 15% as of the time I write this review). Too many loose ends that got teasered but not really followed through. Sometimes I caught myself thinking "ah yes, there was a side plot with Malina" whenever suddenly, randomly a Malina chapter appeared. So Raven, I really hope for Book #5. And I must say, I am proud I kept reading until here. But only because worldbuilding is still a 5/5 Character Development unfortunately dropped to a 3/5 (too slow, too "real time") Plottwists in this book 1/5 Overall style (not pace!) of writing: 4/5
the ending killed me 💔 Was ist denn da passiert? Ich brauche den nächsten Teil, sofort!
Ein wichtiger Teil, der sich manchmal etwas gezogen hat
Ein etwas schwächerer Teil der Reihe, was mir aber durch andere Rezensionen bewusst war. Dennoch fand ich den Teil sehr wichtig. Auren lernt sich in diesem Teil wieder noch mehr kennen, wodurch sie auch weiterhin eine fantastische Entwicklung durch macht. Der Spice Anteil ist natürlich auch wieder ordentlich vorhanden und sorgt für Unterhaltung. Slade konnte man viel besser kennenlernen und somit Handlungen, Gedanken und Reaktionen mehr verstehen. Er ist mir in diesem Teil noch stärker ans Herz gewachsen. Manchmal hat es sich etwas gezogen, da es weitestgehend ruhig in diesem Buch zugeht, aber das fande ich nicht sehr schlimm. Ich finde dieses Buch sehr wichtig für die Weiterentwicklung aller Charaktere und bin voller Vorfreude auf die nächsten Teile.
Das war ungefähr 400 Seiten zu lang für das bisschen plot. Wenn das kürzer gewesen wäre, wäre es ne 5 von 5.
WAS WAR DIESES ENDE???? Ich hab mal wieder das ganze Buch einfach absolut geliebt & zwar noch mehr als die drei Bände davor 😮💨 Es ist einfach so viel passiert. Nicht nur Story technisch, sondern auch von Aurens Entwicklung her. Am Anfang hatte sie Angst vor ihrem Gold nach den Events in Ranhold & wie Stolz sie über den Verlauf des Buches auf ihr Gold geworden is 🥺
First of all, thank you Raven Kennedy and The Nerd Fam for gifting me an ARC of this book. I enjoyed every second of reading it. Now, as for a review.. SLADE SLADE SLADE SALDE!! I cannot describe how much I fell in love with him and the way he treats Auren throughout this book. I loved all of his pov‘s, everything we learn about him, the way his whole character develops. My first impression of this book is that it focuses so much on character development that the plot becomes secondary. The pacing is very slow but we get to know all the characters better. Which is something that I personally love. I love the way this book deals with trauma, healing, trust and love. I did have a few moments where I was just too shocked and too emotionally upset to continue reading so I had to put the book down for a few minutes before I felt ready to continue. So definitely check those trigger warnings before you decide to read. There are multiple pov‘s in this book and although I normally prefer to read from just one or maybe to perspectives, I found myself enjoying - maybe even impatiently waiting for - the other pov‘s. Every character became so much more interesting when reading from their perspective. Usually with fantasy stories that are written from the main character‘s perspective, after a while the love interest becomes boring in my opinion. So I am beyond happy this doesn’t happen with Slade because he really is one of my favourite male character in books. As the story progresses he just becomes more and more interesting and the more about him is revealed, the more I fell in love with him. And what about that ending??? It makes the wait for the next book all the more exciting. The way Raven described the cliffhanger as 'a tiny cliff. more of a hill, really. or a bunny slope' in her Facebook group and it ended up being one of the steepest mountains ever lmao I literally cannot wait for the fifth (and probably final) book in this series as The Plated Prisoner Series has quickly become one of my favourite series of all time. I will definitely have to reread this book in order to make sure I didn’t miss any details.
Not sure about this one. While i loved part 3, because for some reason the writing seemed so different to me and was able to really pull me into the story, this book went back to how part 1 and part 2 felt like. it took almost a third of the book until Auren was back and up until then the POVs kept changing and it felt like trying to finish a puzzle, but there are parts mixed in that belong to an entirely different puzzle. Eventually everything fell into place. But it took too long imo. The last 50 pages or so felt incredibly rushed. As if there was nothing happening for most of the book and then everything. Anyway, this book made me think that i might sell the books after all, once i finish the series, because i doubt i will read it again.
I loved the first 3 books and then we got this one. There have been so many unresolved topics which were ignored until the end of the book which ended in another cliffhanger. I kinda want to know how it goes down, but I am not as invested anymore
Diesen Teil fand ich etwas schwächer als 1-3!
Spoiler!! Zuerst muss ich sagen, dass mir der Beginn super gefallen hat! Ich war total überrascht, dass die ersten 100-150 Seiten nichts von Auren zu sehen war, weil sie immer noch schlief! Hab ich nicht mit gerechnet 🙈 Als sie dann erwacht, gefällt mir es so so gut, wie Rip sich um sie kümmert. Er gibt ihr Zeit, aber pusht sie auch ihr Trauma zu bewältigen. Und wir bekommen eine so überwältigende Auren zu sehen🥰 Mir waren die spice-Szenen etwas zu viel. Zwei oder drei weniger hätten es für mich auch getan. Dadurch merkt man aber wie viel die Beiden füreinander empfinden und wie sie sich zusammen entwickeln. Ich war total über die Geheimnisse von Slade/Rip überrascht! Vor allem auch woher der Name Rip kommt und was es mit dem kleinen Dorf auf sich hat. Das Ende war wirklich abgefahren. Hier stört mich allerdings, dass Auren wieder in die Rolle einer Jungfrau in Nöten fällt. Hier hätte ich mir eine stärkere Auren gewünscht, die sich zu Teilen schon selbst retten kann! Tja und das Ende?!🤯🤯🤯 Teil 5 bitte!!
Tolle Fortsetzung mit offenem Ende
War anfangs ein bisschen schwierig wieder in das Buch zu kommen. Aber dann könnte ich es nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Bin schon wahnsinnig auf den nächsten Teil gespannt.
If one door closes another opens or something, right? Can ANYONE please explain to me why basically every single queen in this series is ... stupid, arrogant, boring and egoistical? Like ... there's not a single female character in this besides Lu that I like. Auren is getting there tbh. I love the drama and all, but ... Slade is showing some red flags that I don't like (and I love my toxic fictional men, I do). I need more on Osrik and Rissa. I absolutely do. But yeah, still hella uncomfy with the smut scenes, so I basically just skip them by now.
I was pretty late to the party and started reading the Plated Prisoner Series only a few days prior to the release of Glow, so I was able to binge through them all, ending the journey with Glow itself. And I will end my journey with Glow even though there might be more to come. This is not going to be a "OMG SO GOOD!!" review but in-depth discussion on why this book should never have been published in this form, at all. I'll provide a short review first and then dive into it later, so only read that second part if you don't care about spoilers. While struggling a little with Gild and Glint, Gleam stole my heart, which is why I had such high hopes for Glow. The characters had grown on me (mostly) and I was so curious about all those plotlines that might be possible going into Glow. Well, to say I was utterly disappointed would be a massive understatement. I usually refrain from giving 1 star reviews because I feel like it takes away a little bit of credibility for the review (1 star reviews often stem from very subjective points of view) but ... no, there's no other way here, I'm really sad. One question before we start: Have all those ARC readers, giving 5 stars, received a different copy than we did? A different book, maybe? The short and no so sweet review: Someone probably told Raven Kennedy at some point that she can't plainly copy someone's homework, slightly alter it and produce a book that ticks all the boxes to ride on the current fantasy-fae-book-wave, but RK simply said "hold my feminism and concept of consent" and proceeded to mangle every single previously likeable character, wreck entire plotlines and sprinkle unreadable spice on top. That's basically like copying someone's homework and still producing endless mistakes. Out of 700 pages maybe 50 were plotrelevant. Read that again. Those 50 were riddled with inconsistencies, out of character behaviour and spice anytime someone might raise some questions about what's actually going on in the book. There is a blank space of 30% where nothing of relevance happened at all, at 60% still nothing consequential was to be reported and the final 100 pages felt too short, rushed and blown way out of proportion at the same time. RK opens various plot lines throughout the book, mostly done by newly introduced POVs and she fails to follow through with a single one of these plot lines. They all fade into nothing during the whole length of this book. You could actually reduce Glow to maybe 150 pages and you would miss nothing. Possible threats to the main characters stay obscure and are not explained, thus there is no connection to be felt to why this even is a threat or why they fear it. The general pacing is off, almost 30% of nothing, then mastering everything within a few pages and going back to doing nothing up until the last 100 pages pick up a little bit of speed and still fail to pull the reader in. The spice was indescribable and not in a good way, but in a cringeworthy, please go back to sex ed kind of way. Plus the obvious calculation by inserting quotes and copy-pasting well-known quotes almost word for word into the book leaves me with no other choice than to drop the series, leave a one star review and steer clear from any future publications. Short review end. If you're interested in more in-depth commentary with quotations and examples, read on. If you still plan to read this book and don't want to be spoilered do not read on. #### MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOWING #### Plot There is so much to unpack her and I'll need to start somewhere, so we'll go into the plotlines first. Of course we have different POV chapters and as we all probably knew from the previous books, the added POVs did nothing to add to the book itself but prove, how far the focus of the author strayed from the actual plot. We received POVs of the following characters: Auren 37 out of 65 Slade 19 out of 65 (two starting with flashbacks to his childhood, two to his teenage years) Queen Malina 3 + Epilogue Queen Kaila 2 Osrik 2 Rissa 1 Please read those numbers again and tell me, those povs were relevant to the story. They were not. 37 for Auren is okay, don't mind that at all, she's the female main character we've been following around for four books now. 19 for Slade were way too many in my opinion, especially because the major part of those were in the first 30% of the book and you could have reduced them to a fourth of that, without losing much (or anything at all), and most of those later ones focus on his spice-appearances while the first few were blown up so much. We get 3 chapters for Queen Malina whose entire plotline seems to be the most important one going into Gold. 3 plus the epilogue showing what I stated in the previous sentence. She's the one building the road for an entire book and she gets 4 chapters out of 66 (if we include the epilogue), that equals 6% for someone who was the most relevant for the plot going out of Glow? Wow. But - it gets worse. With Queen Kaila as our main antagonist in this story, I expected to see her work her political magic - and I received two absolutely inconsequential chapters. We received TWO chapters for our main antagonist. TWO. And that was it. Do you need further proof of how RK valued porn over plot? Continuing, Osrik, our charming Cassian-Clone gets two POV chapters and their sole purpose is to start off an arc of insta-love and insta-erection, err, insta-attraction of course by stating how much he would like to fuck Rissa but at the same time won't do it, before she agrees (wow, so she does know, what consent is). The fact that this character still is the most likeable of the whole story shows how much lower the bar can get: it can't. Oh, and then there was the one chapter from Rissa's point of view, in which she simply states how much of an oaf Osrik is, how much she despises him and oops, goes up to kiss him. Sounds irrelevant? You get the drift. To summarise, out of 66+1 chapters the side characters povs take up a whole 9 of them and none of them offer anything of relevance to the plot or progression of the story in the form presented for this book. They may shed a little light on possible further paths for the next book but to be honest, to finally go through with all those opened and continuously ignored plotlines, the finale of the series would need to have twice the size of Glow and probably still feel unfinished. Do I kind of expect RK to announce more books or butcher the series completely based on this? Absolutely, I do. Not only do the plotlines fade into nothing, the plot itself is so inconsistent and partially forgotten about, that you don't even care what happens to the characters. The obscure threat of a "Conflux" is mentioned but there are various reasons why that fails to instill fear in the reader: first of all, the description of a conflux is found on page 572, the first mention on page 126 though. Read. that. again. Out of 700 pages, you hear about that major and main threat for the FMC first after 18% and then have to wait for 65% more to finally have explained what that threat actually is at the percentage of 83. Secondly, none of the main characters or their supporting acts (as the side characters are not really more than that, sadly) act like they have to be worried about this thread, except for Ryatt who seems to be the only one to have at least one brain cell working at a time. Another point of critique concerning the plot for me was the dip into space, maybe even time, travel by adding the layer of "Rip" and his rip into the world, which is mentioned, then forgotten about and picked up again at the very end of the book, because the rest of the main content needed to be brainless smut. The same "mentioned it once, only picked it up once again"-argument can be made for the rot left inside Auren, which used to be one major source of worry for Slade and then was never mentioned again, until RK needed to frame Auren even more as the thief of powers, when the gold touch and the rot dripped out of her while standing trial. As we've now seen, the focus of the book is solely on Slade and Auren instead of side characters or even plot, right? There should be so much room to recover from traumatic experiences, to deal with past trials and unprocessed trauma, right? Well, there was - and RK filled that room with porn. The main characters deal with their trauma by either forcing each other to talk about topics one of them is not ready to share yet, coercing sexual situations or simply fucking the thoughts away, if suppressing them for the sake of the other one's comfort is not an option anymore. This is a major list of problematic trauma responses or rather, problematic coping mechanisms which become even worse, when looked at in detail, as some sentences, that could probably provoke a major flashback to, in this case, Auren's past are mindlessly used in porn-like scenes: Remember Midas telling Rip/Ravinger in Gleam that Auren "lost the privilege (of using her ribbons)"? Well, Slade is as well-versed in copying someone's homework as his creator is and therefore states in one particular spicy scene on page 593 “You lost the privilege of your hands, my lady.” Really? That turns you on? Wow. Also, Auren dealing with her traumatic experiences on her own is a work of art, abstract art that has very, very loose connections to reality, but you might call it art nonetheless: If she is not currently suppressing her power, any thought to what she did or tries to atone by getting Slade to hate-fuck her as punishment (this is not an exaggeration), she is telling herself at various points to simply stop her trauma responses and is done with it. Need examples? In chapter 26 Auren hates, that her initial reaction to Slade is "snappishness" and then goes on to simply drop it. If it only were that easy, right? The same procedure is used when she felt herself "hit rock bottom" in Chapter 18: on that lowest point of low, Auren discovers a crossroads of paths leading out of her situation. The problem I see with this description? When hitting rock bottom, you could actually stand on an illuminated sign showing you the way out and you wouldn't be able to see it - that's how it feels, I guess for most. If you still clearly see your paths, I hate to break it to you, but then that's not rock bottom yet. Rock bottom rather feels like being caught under a wave after a wipe out - you don't even know where up neither down is, and you probably don't see your "way out of trauma" at a crossroad, clearly and in broad daylight. This is massively overromanticised, in my opinion. Another way of dealing with or facing her trauma is found for Auren in submission, at least that's what she repeatedly claims in the book, while also not wanting to rely on others (especially men), yet continuing to do exactly that: "With the right person, there is power when you kneel. There is adoration with submission. There is balance with control." page 395 "I may be the one kneeling, but there is power here on my knees, with him in my mouth, with him beneath my grip. Such power here." page 522 (Such power, much wow) Contrary to Auren's belief I'd like to add that there is power in submission, true, but only if your significant other respects boundaries, concepts of consent and "no" as a word in his vocabulary. Which leads us beautifully to another topic I am very, very concerned about: Consent in it's various forms. The first violation of consent, to me, is Slade repeatedly pushing Auren to face her trauma, to talk, to do whatever is most convenient for him. He uses vocal cues, sexual coercion and blatant ignorance of her telling him "no" in various scenes (it's basically any sexual encounter in the book, I'm not going to list them here). He uses physical contact and sexual experiences to "encourage" here to face her trauma (the kiss scene while there was still daylight e.g.), even after Auren tells him "no" explicitly. A very cynic part of me wants to say that he only pushed her to touch him during the day because he now is able to fuck her even more. This is not the only scene in which Auren voices her discomfort by actually saying no and being repeatedly ignored, talked over or simply overpowered by Rip/Ravinger/Slade. There is three of them and no one seems to know what consent actually means, so let me give you a quick recap on the various concepts of consent and maybe the "Wish"-Version of Rhysand in form of RRS listens: - No means no. - Hesitation or clear signs of discomfort or even fear, means no. - A coerced yes means no. - A revoked yes means no. - Consent can only be given conciously and enthusiastically and it can be revoked at any given time. Out of the three ground rules of any sexual encounter, no matter how kinky, Slade and Auren score a solid 0/3 for safe, sane and consensual play. Great. A very unfortunate situation in itself, but to make it even worse, it's not only one character unaware of the necessity of consent especially for sexual encounters, as Auren also completely ignores what Slade wants but simply threatens him to, and I quote, "knee you in the balls so hard all that cum you want to paint on my body will be choked up for a week" if he doesn't give her what she wants (a vaginal orgasm). Great, right? Or that scene, where she took "velvet wrapped steel" a little bit too literal and actually gilded his cock. Right, the girl still afraid she might do irredeemable damage with her gold touch gilded her lover's cock. Girl, if you want a toy, you can ditch the rest of the problematic dude and simply buy one. Newsflash: two characters ignoring consent don't make it right. It makes it worse. So there could be 100 more lines in which is claimed that there is power or calm in submission - if the other part of that encounter doesn't understand consent, it's nothing but garbage recounted over and over again to make it seem okay. It's not. It's harmful and disgusting. And it's an offence to all those other authors managing to actually pull powerful submission off. End of story. End of story? Unfortunately not. While our cheap version of Rhysand pretends to be winner of "feminist of the year" he is nothing but possessive, constricting and encroaching. He will allow Auren any type of "freedom" she wants, as long as he is present, consenting (WOWWWW) and taking part in some way or form. Sounds captivating, right? He goes on to prove her independence by excluding her from crucial decisions about HER attendance at the Conflux, making said decision for her without her present because - and I wish I'd make this up - he fucked her to unconciousness before, so he could actually decide over her head ["He basically sexed me into unconsciousness so he could go off to give Manu his final answer at dinner without me being able to discuss it at length beforehand.", page 602; "once again, he’d distracted me with sex. This seems to be a theme.", page 603]. Feminism, right? Auren can do whatever she wants, as long as it pleases Slade. He also shows some very alarming signs of similarity to ... drumroll, Midas. At the end of Glow Wish-Sand aka Slade (thanks for that, @stephanie) is basically a darkhaired version of Midas, thus Auren did not only trade one king for another but also one captor for a new, even more wicked one. He wants to pluck the eyes of people out, who took a look at her - sounds familiar? Now we have already dipped our toes in the spicy scenes of the book but I'm nowhere near done. While we may have wondered how Slade is able to live without any kingly duties, we are informed he actually has people doing those for him which allows him his obvious full-time career as a mediocre porn-star for a cringeworthy company producing porn for the male gaze only. Where I was completely convinced spice as a subplot for fantasy should be written like it has been done in Gleam, the spice scenes in Glow have to be written by a completely different person. There is nothing remotely sexy about those scenes and it read like any male-gaze-favoring porn watches. You know what had me laughing my buttocks off because I felt so right in that assessment of Auren and Slade actually only being porn-stars? This quote: "My moans start coming in earnest." [page 525] Do I even need to say more? Let me just leave another few quotes for you to decide, how wonderfully executed these spicy scenes were done: “That’s right, drool all over my cock, baby. Get it nice and wet and sloppy, because I’m going to fuck you with it soon, and I want you dripping.” “You are gorgeous, and I want nothing more than to watch my cum flood your mouth, but I want to sink myself inside your pussy even more.” (Nothing more, but something more, sure, dude) “Fuck me, Auren. Bounce on my cock.” “It makes me want to sink my teeth into your neck and leave a mark in your skin. Makes me want to strip you down, your mouth open, tongue out, and cum all over your chest, your pussy, your face. Makes me want to smear it over your tits, rub it against your pouting lips, watch you swallow it down as I smooth the cream right over your throbbing pussy.” “Mmm, all this wet cream just for me.” “My dirty fucking girl wants her clit licked?” "But I don’t even feel when my head cracks against it [the wall]" “Choke my cock and make me come with you.” "It’s also his cock. He has a really good one." I'll stop here but boy oh boy. I've read some truly bad spice but this? Next level shit. You could probably ignore it, but Raven Kennedy solved her plotholes by smothering the book in spice and you can't even skim past these scenes, because they are everywhere. [CONTINUING IN THE COMMENTS]
Fortsetzung mit einigen Längen, aber mit spannendem Ende!
Ich habe lange an dem Buch gelesen, was unterschiedliche Gründe hatte. Zum einen wollte ich so lange wie möglich an Aurens Geschichte haben, zum anderen hatte Band 4 der Reihe einige Längen. Einige Stellen hätte man sicherlich kürzen können, der Plot hat etwas unter den ausgedehnten Beschreibungen gelitten. Der Schreibstil an sich war super, leicht und flüssig zu lesen, die Storyline selbst wieder schlüssig und hat einige Wissenslücken aus den Vorbänden schließen können. Auren und Slade sind einfach toll zusammen, ich mag es, dass nicht immer gleich heile Welt ist, sondern ein Grundteil Spannung immer da ist 🤭 Der Cliffhanger war richtig fies und deshalb werde ich auch direkt in Band 5 starten 🤍
Ein bisschen langatmiger als Band 2&3, trotzdem richtig gut! Das Ende war einfach nur krass, wobei ich mich ziemlich gewundert habe, dass sie nicht auf eine ganz simple Lösung kommen, um dem Prozess zu entgehen 👀
2,5 stars. Oh my god, this one DRAGGED. I loved book 2 and 3 in this series, so i am rather disappointed. Auren bored me to death for over half of the story. After a very good character development in 1-3 we were now back to zero. Basically nothing happened in 75% of the book, except lots and lots of whining, oh and also smut - because Auren and Slade couldn't even hold a conversation without having sex. Yeah annoyed tf out of me. The end is a huge cliffhanger and i will read the next book, but i am also praying that it's going to be better than this one.
Buch 3 & 4 haben mir bisher am besten gefallen, obwohl ich es zwischenzeitlich schleppend fand. Was ich immer noch komisch finde, ist, was er in spicy Szenen sagt. Manchmal will ich einfach nicht weiterlesen wenn er dabei redet 😭
Emotional damage…
Dieses Buch ist eine emotionale Achterbahnfahrt durch und durch! Und durch und durch habe es ich es geliebt. Auren hat mit dem Ausgang aus Band 3 zu kämpfen… und ich konnte jedes Gefühl mitleben, es war regelrecht greifbar, was Auren durchgemacht hat. Und auch Slade, der stets an ihrer Seite ist. Ich habe mich erneut in die Welt von Orea und die Charaktere verliebt. Ich habe selten so eine starke und ehrliche Charakterentwicklung gelesen, die ebenso authentisch wie nahbar ist. Auch wenn es im Mittelteil einige Längen hatte, war es spannend Slade besser kennenzulernen und seine Geschichte. Aber auch Annwyn und wie die Welten und Reiche entstanden sind. Die letzten 50% habe ich in einem Rutsch gelesen, es ist spannend, emotional, leidenschaftlich! Und Grenzen werden auf die verschiedensten Arten ausgeloget ;) Auren‘s sarkastische Art kommt auch hier wieder zu Geltung, und genau das macht sie als Protagonistin aus - ihr Charakter entwickelt sich, doch ihre Persönlichkeit bleibt! Und das Ende? Ich habe bis zur allerletzten Seite gehofft und geweint und bin … ausgelaugt. Ja, das trifft es ganz gut. Ausgelaugt und so froh, dass ich Band 5 bereits zuhause stehen habe. Denn sonst hätte ich das nicht überlebt. 😢 Pute Liebe für dieses Buch und diese Reihe! ❤️❤️❤️
Ich mag die Reihe mit jedem Buch mehr, Band 1 war noch 3 Sterne und dieser fast 5. Was bekommt man: - High Fantasy - Several POVs - Love Stories - Spice - Great World Building POVs MIt jedem Buch bekommt man mehr verschiedene POV. Queen Kaila, Slade, Osrik, Rissa, Auren... es war mir teils echt zu viel. Fand es auch seltsam, dass es mit jedem Buch mehr wurde. Manche mochte ich mehr als andere, aber Queen Kaila zB war mir zu viel und zu lang. Ich mochte aber diverse Rückblicke, vor allem Rip. Fand es nicht zu spät erst in Buch vier so viel über seine Vergangenheit zu erfahren. Ich bin absoulter Fan von Rissa- Osrik ich mochte ihre Dynamik und die Enemies to Lovers vibes. Schreibstil Der Schreibstil ist nach wie vor sehr flüssig und gut.Etwas kürzer hätte das Buch sein können. Das Ende war sehr spannend mit nem krassen CliffHanger, zum Glück erscheint Band 5 auf englisch schon im Dezember 2023. Danke NetGalley und Kyss für das Rezensionsexemplar.
Erster Re-Read: ich habe das Buch nicht gerne nochmal gelesen. Viel Drama, viele genervte Momente, viele POVs. Ich möchte aber wissen, wie die Reihe fortgeführt wird, deswegen der Re-Read um auf dem aktuellen Stand zu sein. Das schwächste Buch der Reihe (bisher).
Didn’t quite hit the mark. I wasn't in love on first sight with the series. For me, it was a quite famous slow burn. For this book I was quite exited because the last one ended with a cliffhanger and a lot happened. So I had my expectations for this one and.... Yeah. No. At over 700 pages long, I expected to read a more plot driven book, whilst maintaining Auren/Slade’s character growth as has been weaved so wonderfully throughout the series up to now. What I read was a slow, laborious, in-depth look at Auren and Slade’s psyche, which I normally wouldn’t complain about, but my god did it take up most of the book. I had to put the book aside many times as I felt myself being pulled out of story due to *boredom*. I was wishing for some action, anything to pull me back in again. The only positives that I can take from this book was how carefully and beautifully written Slade was - from his past to his present, his dirty mouth, to how he cherishes Auren. The dedication he has to her, the love, the way their relationship has really developed so beautifully in this book was a joy to read. The smut scenes were also very well done and hot as h*ll
EXCUSE ME i think i will need a couple of months to recover from this. I WASN‘T READY for this rollercoaster. I will lie down now, crying. And then I will read this whole series again from the start. Goodbye.
If the fantasy genre needed to be represented by one single series - its this one. It has everything a good fantasy read needs to have. And then some more. Perfection, emotion and all the action from the first to the last page. To entertain you, make you panic, make you cry, make you ache for this to be your life. Except for the ending. I refuse to accept this as an ending. I’m crying. Raven Kennedy, don’t do this to me. So yeah this book was fucking good. From the first to last page. She just never disappoints. proper review to come.
Für mich ist dies der stärkste Band der Reihe. Das liegt eindeutig an den Charakteren. Midas fand ich einfach schrecklich, sodass ich froh bin, dass er in diesem Teil weniger präsent war. Dafür finde ich das Miteinander von Auren, Lu. Juden, Slade und Osrik super. Mit Ryatt musste ich erst noch warm werden. Die Plottwists zwischendrin haben mich wirklich überrascht und der Cliffhanger am Ende ist richtig fies. Zum Glück muss ich nicht mehr so lange auf den 5. Band warten. Was mich etwas gestört hat, waren die doch sehr rauen spicy Scenes.
Uff. Ich mag die Story und definitiv die Charaktere (Slades Zorn vor allem). Die seeeeehr detailreiche und derbe Sex Scene hätte man auch abkürzen können, das Buch hat das nicht gebraucht. Ich habe mich schon die ganze Zeit gefragt, wann das Elfenreich eine größere Rolle einnimmt. Was mich aber bisschen verwirrt im Kontext ist, dass reinrassige Elfen deutlich stärker sein sollten als Menschen mit elfischem Erbgut (Königin des zweiten Königreiches), daher finde ich es etwas unrealistisch, dass sie Auren so in der Mangel halten konnte. Bin gespannt auf das Ende/den letzten Band wenn er im Dezember erscheint (auf Englisch zumindest). Man hätte Teil 1 echt besser schreiben können um die Reihe gut zu starten. Sie wird echt spannende und macht Spaß zu lesen was fast unerwartet kommt nach dem ersten Buch.
holy shit war das gut??? 700 seiten gingen rum wie nichts und das lag vorallem an den vielen tollen wendungen! ich habe die charakterentwicklungen geliebt, ich liebe einfach rissa so sehr (they had us in the first half, not gonna lie)!! ich fands so toll mehr über slades vergangenheit zu erfahren, über seine beziehungen zu familie und freunden. auch die einblicke in aurens vergangenheit waren so gut! osrik und rissa
Omg wie soll ich es bis Oktober aushalten um weiter zu lesen
Tropes: – dark fantasy – power plays – slow burn – dark past – enemies to lovers – morally grey characters – "touch him/her and I'll 💀 you" – check out TWs
I NEED THE NEXT BOOK! Okay fine, I'll try to write a review. In all honesty, after book 3 I had no idea where the journey would go now. These 3 previous books (especially Gleam of course) are building up to the end of book 3, and of course there is more plot than that, but that was the main storyline. At least I thought that before... this book taught me how wrong I was. All the revealations in this. It's still a slow burn story that takes its time, but don't make the mistake thinking nothing happens or you don't get a ton load of new informations, because you do. And it's awesome. All of that adds more depth to the story. And after this ending... I need book 5 so bad I need it😭 5/5⭐ Highlight 3/5🌶️
3,75 it had quite a few lengths. However, I‘d like to read part five right now please!
This whole series deserves an Oscar! Absolutely awesome world building, the characters are so beautiful and the smut? Don't get me started. I couldn't put it down and finished the whole series in three days. Please please please read this! Won't disappoint ever!Wanted to buy everything the author did immediately.
Unglaublich
Dieses Buch, diese Reihe. Auch wenn sie noch nicht abgeschlossen ist, ist sie ein absolutes Highlight für immer für mich. Band 4 hat mich auf so vielen Ebenen zerstört, neu geschaffen, und dann wieder zerstört.. Puh...
Etwas langatmig aber mit spannendem Ende und Cliffhanger
Leider gab es mir hier zu viele POV's die unnötig waren und das ganze in die Länge zogen. Auch wenn es vielleicht für Aurens und Slades Entwicklung wichtig war, zog sich das Buch dadurch. Als dann wieder mehr Handlung ins Spiel kam, wurde es sehr spannend und den Teil habe ich wirklich gemocht. Noch dazu das echt fiese Finale. Ich hoffe im Abschlussband gibt es wieder mehr Handlung.
Liebe die Serie einfach!!
Die Serie ist einfach klasse. Glow macht einem da nichts vor. Ebenso spannend und gefühlvoll wie die Bände zuvor. Hab das Buch einfach verschlungen, weil es so gut war!!
I Just love this whole series. So aaaah love it. Just the way we learn more about his past is way to interesting and how everything opens up especially he opens up. Talking about secrets and pain. Damn. Had my heart in a grip. Huff. I fucking cried the last 2-3 chapter's. Not ok. Like what a twist. I can't. I argh. HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO WAIT AAAAH. MY HEART IS BLEEDING. Also the epilog a blast. Talking about creating more and more shit. I don't even know if I ever want that series to end. Damn. I wanna inhale it. ~~ I thread my fingers through her own, and I listen. But my song of home doesn't come from the sun. Mine comes from her. ~~
Das Buch hat mir wieder sehr gut gefallen, obwohl es zwischendurch doch etwas zäh war und einige Wiederholungen hatte. Das Ende hat jedoch wieder rasant an Tempo aufgenommen und für die Längen entschädigt. Jetzt heißt es auf den 5. Teil warten.
I'm so disappointed. The first 80% (of over 700 pages!) actually nothing happens. Nothing. And the last 20% are an absolute mess. I really enjoyed the previous books of the series and I even marked the release date of Glow in my calendar because I was soo excited to read it. Now I'm not even sure I want to read the final book once it's released.
Eine Protagonistin mit starker Entwicklung, liebenswerte Charaktere und eine faszinierende magische Welt.
4,25⭐️! Diese Reihe hat mein Herz, wirklich. Eine Protagonistin mit starker Entwicklung, liebenswerte Charaktere und eine faszinierende magische Welt. Nachdem Band 3 ein Highlight für mich wurde, erschien „Glow“ mir eher wie ein Übergangsband. Wir haben unfassbar viele Seiten und alle Ereignisse sind wichtig, um die Welt weiter auszubauen, Charakter-Dynamiken zu inszenieren und Handlungsstränge zu verweben. Dennoch wirkte es beim Lesen doch sehr gestreckt, als würde nichts "wirklich" passieren. Die extreme Sog-Wirkung, die die Reihe innehat, war nicht sehr ausgeprägt. Trotz der Längen habe ich das Buch gerne gelesen, weil die Charaktere längst einen Platz in meinem Herzen einnehmen und mich Szenen und Zitate immer wieder begeistern konnten🫶🏼. Auch wenn dieser Band sich im Sinne des Storytellings als etwas schwächer erwies, hat er vor allem mit dem rasanten Ende sehr viel Potential für Band 5 etabliert. Ich bin HYPED🥰!
Not as strong as the others especially in direct comparison with the third part of the series. Still it was amazingly written and I liked the multiple pov’s. We learn more about the story of Slade and Auren. To me the story of Slade was interesting to learn about cause we didn’t get that in the other books. This book specialized on character development and different perspectives. The end though is highly catching and there is a very promising outlook on the next book. But it’s a huge cliffhanger so I can’t wait until I can read the next part.