Plated Prisoner Series in Order: Every Book, the TV Show & What’s Next (2026)
The Plated Prisoner series in order is six books, no novellas and no reason to read them any way but straight through, which matters, because Gild ends mid-story and is not a standalone. Raven Kennedy’s King Midas retelling finished in September 2024 with Goldfinch, a TV adaptation is in development at Mandalay Television and Kennedy’s next romantasy duology, The Sweetest Fiend, landed in September 2026. Below is every Plated Prisoner book in order with a spoiler-free hook, the Midas and Slade dynamic explained without ruining it, the content warnings you need before Gild, the heat curve, the adaptation news and hotter picks for when you finish.
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Plated Prisoner Series in Order: Where to Start
Start with Gild and read in publication order. There is no chronological alternative and no companion book to slot in; every volume picks up where the last one ends and spoils the turns before it. The series is a retelling of the Midas myth from the point of view of the thing he touched: Auren, the gold-touched favored of King Midas, who lives inside a gilded cage in his castle and has for years. She was rescued from poverty as a girl, given safety, luxury and a king who says he loves her, and the price was every inch of her freedom. Then war comes to Midas’s kingdom and the cage stops being safe.
Know what you are picking up. Gild is dark fantasy before it is romance. Kennedy writes an adult series with on-page violence, emotional abuse and manipulation, sexual violence and, in the first book specifically, non-consensual sex and Stockholm-syndrome dynamics. The love story is real and worth the wait, but the wait is the point: Auren has to learn she was never loved before she can be. If you want the reader-side framing for this kind of setup, our captive romance guide explains why the trope works when it is handled with care.
The Plated Prisoner Books in Order
- Gild (2020): Auren has spent years gilded and caged as Midas’s favored, convinced it is love. When war arrives, her sense of safety cracks for the first time. The setup book, and the darkest one.
- Glint (2021): captured by an opposing army, Auren meets Commander Rip, a fae commander whose attention unsettles her more than his sword does. The book that turns captivity into a game of power she can learn to play.
- Gleam (2021): in a foreign kingdom full of schemers, Auren starts planning her own escape and is drawn to King Ravinger, a sinister, seductive enemy king. The romance ignites here.
- Glow (2022): allied with Slade Ravinger against the rival monarchs of Orea, Auren works to become strong enough to stop being anyone’s possession. The most romance-forward book in the set and the one readers reread.
- Gold (2023): Auren ends up in the fae realm of Annwyn and has to find her way back to the man she loves through danger, secrets and a heritage she is only starting to understand.
- Goldfinch (September 24, 2024): the finale. War breaks out between Annwyn and Orea, Auren’s mind and memories are under attack from a fae king who wants her broken, and the pair bond with Slade is the thread that holds. Gold bends, but stone breaks.
Midas and Slade, Without Spoilers
The engine of the series is the gap between two men and what they think a woman is for. Midas rescued Auren from poverty, named her his favored and built her a cage out of gold. He tells her it is protection. The reader can see it is ownership long before she can, and the first book is largely the slow, uncomfortable work of Auren starting to see it too. Nothing Midas does is a twist; it is a reveal of what was always there.
Commander Rip arrives in Glint as the enemy, and King Ravinger arrives in Gleam as something worse, a powerful king with a reputation for cruelty. The series spends its middle books letting Auren decide for herself which of these men is the monster. Slade is possessive and dangerous too; the difference is that he wants her power, her anger and her choices on the table, not locked up. By Glow the two kings are a before-and-after portrait of the same woman, and the later books are about Auren becoming a person neither of them could cage.
The other running thread is Auren herself: where she came from, what her gold touch really is and why so many powerful people want it. The series doles out her heritage slowly, and the back half moves the story from the kingdoms of Orea into the fae realm of Annwyn to answer it. Readers who loved watching a heroine climb out of a cage and into her own power in A Court of Mist and Fury will recognize the shape.
How Spicy Is the Plated Prisoner Series?
Explicit, but on a slow fuse. Gild has sexual content that is not romantic and is not meant to be; read the content warnings above. The love story does not arrive until the back half of Gleam, and from Glow onward the scenes are open door and 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️, with a possessive, praise-heavy, fae-bond flavor that readers of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Quicksilver will recognize. If you want the sweeter version of this exact arc, our books like Quicksilver list sits right next to it on the shelf.
All Plated Prisoner Books in Publication Order
- Gild (2020)
- Glint (2021)
- Gleam (2021)
- Glow (2022)
- Gold (2023)
- Goldfinch (2024)
There are no English-language novellas or side stories between the books. Boxed sets exist in every size from books one to three up to the full six, and the German editions split Gleam and Glow into two parts each (The Darkest Gold), which is why you will see eight-volume listings in Europe. None of that changes the order.
What’s Next: The TV Series and The Sweetest Fiend
The Plated Prisoner books were optioned for television in December 2022. In March 2025, Deadline reported that Mandalay Television, the company founded by Peter Guber, is developing the series, with Kate Rorick (Leverage: Redemption, The Librarians) as showrunner. As of October 2026 no network, cast or premiere date has been announced, so treat it as in development rather than on the way.
Kennedy’s new book is out now. The Sweetest Fiend (September 22, 2026, from Avon) opens the Played by the Piper duology, a dark romantasy loosely inspired by the Pied Piper. Nine monstrous Banes broke the world and the fae slew them, but every death left a plague behind. The narrator is half fae and half Bane, hated by both sides, and when the Piper clears the plague from her city he takes 130 people as payment, her included. He will not let her go home, and the pull between them is the problem. It is not connected to Plated Prisoner, but it has the same shape: a captive, a dangerous man and a heroine who has to decide what she is worth.
See The Sweetest Fiend on Amazon →
Read Next: Hotter Picks From Fractal Enigma
Plated Prisoner readers want the captive who becomes the most dangerous person in the room, the morally grey man who protects instead of owns and heat that does not fade to black. These Fractal Enigma reads run the same engine at Inferno.
The Witness He Kept — Isla Wilde
Forensic accountant Sloane Mercer finds twelve identical payments of $275,000 in an audit, one for every worker who died, and the man hired to erase her keeps her instead. A dark protector romance in a boatyard safehouse, for readers who loved watching Auren go from kept to claimed and want the man who falls first to be the dangerous one. Also available as an audiobook.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Protector Romance, Morally Grey Hero, Fixer x Witness, Safehouse, He Falls First, Touch Her and Die, Light Bondage
Start reading The Witness He Kept →
The Hollow Hunt — Lucian Gray
Elara Vance spent two years invisible, first in a house with a man who used her body as a statement of ownership, then as a hotel housekeeper who learned to disappear into wallpaper. When she witnesses something she should not, the organization sends Silas to kill her. He gives her a head start instead. The Midas-to-Slade arc compressed into one dark thriller, with the hunter turned protector. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Captive Romance, Protector Romance, Morally Grey Hero, Forced Proximity, Hurt/Comfort, Touch Her and Die
Start reading The Hollow Hunt →
Inheritance of Sin — Isla Wilde
Elena Vasquez married a billionaire at twenty-three to save her family and spent fifteen years as Marcus Blackwood’s perfect, decorative, invisible wife. She inherited his fortune. His son Jax inherited his rage. Then a blizzard locked them in together. The gilded-cage marriage from Gild and the enemy who turns out to see her, in one snowed-in estate.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Snowed In, Forced Proximity, Age Gap, Morally Grey Hero, Breeding Kink, He Falls First
Start reading Inheritance of Sin →
Paid to the Devil — Rafe Calder
Mateo Reyes inherits three things from his father: a nightclub, a funeral bill and a debt big enough to bury him next to him. The mob banker who owns every debt in Harbor City offers thirty days of Mateo’s life in exchange. A dark MM mafia romance for readers who want the possessive king who keeps one person off the books, with the contract written out loud and the heat negotiated like a clause.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Thirty-Day Contract, Possessive Older Man, Brat and Tamer, Touch Him and Die, Enemies to Lovers, Morally Grey Hero
Start reading Paid to the Devil →
FAQ: Plated Prisoner Reading Order
Do you need to read the Plated Prisoner series in order?
Yes. It is one continuous story about one heroine, each book ends on a turn the next one picks up and there is no standalone entry point. Gild, Glint, Gleam, Glow, Gold, Goldfinch.
Which Plated Prisoner book should I read first?
Gild, with the content warnings in mind. If the first book’s darkness is a lot, know that Glint changes the setting and the power balance almost immediately.
How spicy is the Plated Prisoner series?
Explicit from Gleam onward, around 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️, with the romance scenes concentrated in Glow and after. Gild’s sexual content is dark and non-romantic. Our romance spice levels guide explains the scale; every Fractal Enigma pick above is Inferno.
Is the Plated Prisoner series finished, and is there a TV show?
Finished: Goldfinch (2024) is the sixth and final book. A TV series is in development at Mandalay Television with Kate Rorick as showrunner, with no network or date announced as of October 2026.
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