A review by rinku
Prison Healer - Die Schattenrebellin by Lynette Noni

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed The Gilded Cage more than The Prison Healer. The setting is more interesting, the stakes higher, and I bounded more with the characters. 

Kiva and her allies were able to flee from Zalindov and are on their way to Jaren’s home, the castle of the royal family. The main focus in this novel is Kiva’s loyalty struggle: One the one side, there’s Jaren and his family that take her in like she was always part of it, on the other side, there are her siblings rebelling against the royal family and wanting to dethrone them. I really like this general setting and the atmosphere that was quite different from the previous book. At the same time, it felt a lot like the second book in a series, meaning we get a lot of backstory and explaining through sometimes a bit boring measures, like Kiva just randomly eavesdropping. The random masquerade ball was so cliché as well but the rest of the book was great. There are so many great twists, like
Rhea being a fake healer or Tilda being a bad person after all
. 

Towards the end of The Gilded Cage, I was just waiting for the big crash to happen – and it is going happen. I appreciate that there were many small hints throughout the story what would occur, adding to the re-read value of the series. We learn that
Mirryn is a traitor – and basically all other girls as well
. The ending was so shocking with
Kiva returning to Zalindov
. 

The best part of the series are definitely the characters. Kiva is a great main character and feels realistic since she’s not automatically good at everything she does. Her loyalty struggles are depicted so well, and between her two siblings, there’s kinda a bad cop, good cop situation that gives the story a great dynamic. Sometimes I couldn’t understand her behaviour, like why she’s
telling her siblings the secret. She also should’ve just told Jaren the truth because now, Zuleeka ruined everything with the misunderstanding
. Talking about Jaren, I kinda like their relationship dynamic where they first fell in love and then became enemies.  We also get to know more members of the royal family and one can only wonder if they’re really that bad. Caldon is really likable and I somhow feel bad for him since he’s just nice to Kiva. I’m normally not a fan of child characters, but Tipp is adorable and
it was so sad when he found out the truth. Kiva’s grandma also deserved better
. The queen is an interesting character as well, especially seeing how differently she behaved when
she was on drugs
. 

The Gilded Cage was thus for me even better than the first book and it’s definitely worth to continue with the series since it takes many twists and turns and is just so different to wait I expected after the first book. 
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