Charlotte Kersten

This is definitely the “best” of the series for me, mostly because Auren isn’t with her intolerable love interest. She learns how to be on her own for the first time and makes some friends of her own. In addition, Malina gets character growth that feels somewhat believable. Both women have decent emotional moments that land better than anything else in these books so far – Auren visiting her dead family’s home and Malina using the dregs of her magic to protect her citizens by holding up a deteriorating ice wall. There are also a couple of funny lines that I actually thought were cute!

The writing is still a struggle to read, to put it compassionately, especially now that these books are traditionally published. Kennedy stated in her acknowledgments that she worked hard to “polish every line,” which is a bit devastating given the results. And because this is the Plated Prisoner series, any shaky, tentative baby deer steps towards writing women with actual growth and characterization have to be accompanied by cartoonishly alpha men like Slade, Osrik and Malina’s new assassin love interest. I get that plenty of readers love the “I will burn down the world for her/I will become a villain to save her” stuff, but the men’s perspectives here are just so incredibly silly to me with their angry possessiveness and complete inability to deal with their feelings without causing a bloodbath.

I will absolutely finish this series…the books hit my sweet spot for entertainingly bad romantasy just right, I can count them towards my Trauma in SFF reading project, and everyone needs a junk food read now and then!