REVIEW: The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni

Lynette Noni is trying to kill me, call the police! And there you have it. My review of The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni — available now.

Oh, is that not enough information for you? Would you perhaps like to know some more things about the book?

Lynette Noni (Photo by Lucy Bell).

Okay, well I could start by saying that if you’ve read The Prison Healer and you thought the follow up book in the series couldn’t possibly be as wildly romantic, intensely suspenseful or emotionally devastating, then you are 100% mistaken! Not only is The Gilded Cage a worthy sequel to The Prison Healer, it also manages to up the ante. This book has aaaaaall of the emotions. It’s fast paced, suspenseful, full of surprises, brimming with romance and heart-warming friendships and family drama and adventure and … literally everything. Whatever boxes you liked ticked when you read YA fantasy, I’m fairly confident this book will tick them all with a dramatic flourish!

Introducing some marvellous new characters and broadening the horizon of this addictive fantasy world, The Gilded Cage sees main character Kiva Meriden plunged into a dangerous game of deceit in which she must figure out how to reconcile her family obligations and vengeance vendetta with the new friendships she has forged and the knowledge she has gained about her enemies.

In the death prison of Zalindov, Kiva’s main objective was survival. Now that she is free, she finds herself up to her eyeballs in court intrigue and politics, plotting with her family and deceiving her loved ones … it’s all incredibly heart-wrenching and fraught with so much delicious tension I was completely beside myself by the time I got to the end. Which brings me back to the fact Lynette Noni is trying to kill me. Truly, I almost did not survive the epic conclusion to The Gilded Cage. It was pure agony and I loved every second. Bring on the next book!

By far and away one of my favourite YA fantasy series of the year, if you haven’t yet read The Prison Healer, I strongly urge you to dive in. And if you have read The Prison Healer then I’m preaching to the choir and I’m sure you will be as desperate to get your hands on The Gilded Cage as I was. Enjoy!! It’s a wild ride and when it’s over you can join me in a world of pain as we anxiously await the next book. Fortunately, the wait will not be very long as the next book is rumoured to be coming as soon as June 2022. (Hooray!) The title has been announced as The Blood Traitor and it will complete the trilogy, which is good news for my poor battered heart as it simply isn’t strong enough to withstand another Lynette Noni cliffhanger ending. (Actually not true. I will gobble up as many cliffhanger endings as she cares to serve up, but will reserve my right to be a total drama queen about it every time.)

Twenty stars out of ten from me — can’t get enough!

—The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.

The Gilded Cage

The Prison Healer: Book 2

by Lynette Noni

Kiva Meridan is a survivor.

Not only did she survive Zalindov Prison, but also the deadly Trial by Ordeal. Now, Kiva's purpose goes beyond survival to vengeance. For the past ten years, her only goal was to reunite with her family and destroy the people responsible for ruining their lives. But now that she has escaped Zalindov, her mission has become more complicated than ever. As Kiva settles into her new life in the capital, she discovers she wasn't the only one who suffered while she was in Zalindov...

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About the Contributor

Sarah McDuling

Sarah McDuling is Booktopia's Category Manager for Children's and Young Adult Books. She has been in the bookselling game for almost a decade and a dedicated booklover since birth (potentially longer). At her happiest when reading a book, Sarah also enjoys talking/writing/tweeting about books. In her spare time, she often likes to buy a lot of books and take photographs of books. You can follow her on Twitter and Instragram @sarahmcduling

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