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A review by weaverwrites
The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I would have scored this book so much higher if Kiva weren't so incredibly frustrating throughout it. Kaldan is amazing (gotta love a pansexual prince with brains and emotional depth). Jeren is still a bit boring but I appreciate his goodness and his devotion to Kiva. Tip is still a sweetie. I enjoyed meeting and learning about the other royals and the political entanglements. Kiva's brother is awesome. Kiva's sister is a great villain.
Kiva, though... Part of the problem is that the text is trying to convince the reader of her devotion to her family, but lacks the emotion and the logic for it--especially when in direct contrast to everything the reader sees in contradiction to it, with her family's repeated failures both in the first book and in this one as well as the positive experiences from the royals. Because the motivations are, at best, shaky, Kiva's stupid decisions aren't justified. They just seem stupid. The end of the first book established Kiva as an unreliable narrator which hurts this one two-fold: I as the reader can't trust Kiva, and, in failing to justify her decisions, it makes Kiva out to be a proper fool when there isn't a similar reveal about deeper motivations by the end.
Kiva, though... Part of the problem is that the text is trying to convince the reader of her devotion to her family, but lacks the emotion and the logic for it--especially when in direct contrast to everything the reader sees in contradiction to it, with her family's repeated failures both in the first book and in this one as well as the positive experiences from the royals. Because the motivations are, at best, shaky, Kiva's stupid decisions aren't justified. They just seem stupid. The end of the first book established Kiva as an unreliable narrator which hurts this one two-fold: I as the reader can't trust Kiva, and, in failing to justify her decisions, it makes Kiva out to be a proper fool when there isn't a similar reveal about deeper motivations by the end.