Published in 2024, Raven Kennedy’s Goldfinch is the sixth and final novel in the internationally bestselling romantasy series The Plated Prisoner. The adult dark fantasy romance concludes the story of Auren Turley, the long-lost heir to the throne of the fae realm of Annwyn. Imprisoned and magically stripped of her memories by the tyrannical King Carrick, Auren must reclaim her identity and power. Meanwhile, her fated mate, King Slade Ravinger, fights his way from the human realm of Orea to find her after a fae invasion reopens a magical bridge between their worlds. The narrative explores the themes of Sacrifice as a Path to Survival and The Triumph of Autonomy Over Tyranny. A central element is Auren’s and Slade’s pāyur bond, a fated soul-pairing that is a powerful, restorative magic, demonstrating The Healing Power of Love.

The Plated Prisoner series is a prominent example of the “romantasy” subgenre, a blend of fantasy and romance that surged in popularity in the early 2020s, largely driven by TikTok’s reader community, known as “BookTok.” Kennedy, who began as a self-published author, saw her series achieve viral success online, leading to a traditional publishing deal and millions of copies sold. The series also aligns with a contemporary literary trend of feminist retellings of classical myths. Kennedy reimagines the story of King Midas, subverting the traditional cautionary tale about greed by shifting the focus to Auren, the “gold-touched” woman. Her journey from a caged captive to a self-possessed queen critiques patriarchal narratives and explores trauma, survival, and empowerment.

This guide refers to the 2024 Bloom Books edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of cursing, substance use, death by suicide, emotional abuse, child abuse, child death, graphic violence, illness, death, animal cruelty, animal death, physical abuse, pregnancy loss, sexual content, sexual violence, rape, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

The series’ fantasy world consists of the mortal realm of Orea, which is composed of six kingdoms, and the fae realm of Annwyn. In the previous book, protagonist Auren discovered that she is from the Turley royal family, which was overthrown by Annwyn’s current ruler, Tyec Carrick. Carrick captures her at the end of the previous book, and she remains in his custody when this volume opens. Meanwhile, Auren’s lover, King Slade Ravinger of Fourth Kingdom, continues to ally with the other Orean rulers in his efforts to find Auren and hold back a fae invasion into the mortal realm.

In the Fourth Kingdom, Slade prepares his forces after learning that fae have crossed the magically rebuilt bridge of Lemuria and sacked the Sixth Kingdom’s capital, Highbell. Impatient to aid the Fifth Kingdom of Ranhold so that he can then continue his efforts to rescue Auren, Slade flies ahead of his contingent on his timberwing, a massive, winged beast named Argo. During the flight, a magical affliction causes Slade’s heart to fail, and he plummets from the sky. As he lies dying in a bog, his deep connection to Auren triggers the formation of a pāyur bond, a fated soul-pairing between fae. The magic fuses his two disparate magical forms, heals his heart, and causes him to manifest an incorporeal shadow dragon before he loses consciousness.

Meanwhile, Auren awakens in Annwyn, a prisoner of the tyrannical King Carrick and his ally, Lord Cull, who is Slade’s father. Her memories are being systematically erased by a fae named Una, who uses magical, worm-like creatures to burrow into Auren’s mind and implant false narratives of her being a traitor to the fae. Carrick’s plan is to use Auren as a public mockery to crush the spirit of the Vulmin Dyrūnia, a rebel faction that reveres her as their lost leader, the Lyāri Ulvēre, or “golden one gone.”

Imprisoned in a dungeon, Auren discovers she can now wield Slade’s deathly rot magic. Fashioning a tendril of rot, she inserts it into her own ear to destroy one of Una’s memory worms, which restores fragments of her past. Enraged by the violation, Auren confronts Una. The conflict reawakens her long-lost golden ribbons, 24 prehensile, silk-like appendages that sprout from her back. She kills Una and uses her powerful gold-touch to escape the dungeon, freeing other prisoners along the way. She makes her way to Lydia, Annwyn’s capital city, where she witnesses a degrading theatrical performance mocking the Turleys and the Vulmin. Carrick forces Emonie, a captured Vulmin rebel with glamour magic, to mimic Auren’s appearance. Before the crowd, the glamoured Emonie bows to the king.

When Emonie is about to be forced to whip other captive Vulmin, including their leader, Wick, Auren dramatically reveals herself to the stunned crowd. Her appearance incites a city-wide battle between Carrick’s Stone Sword army and the Vulmin rebels who emerge from the crowd. Auren confronts the king, but he escapes with Emonie through a fairy ring, a magical portal, created by a traitorous Vulmin named Brennur.

Concurrently in Orea, Slade’s brother, Commander Ryatt, learns that Slade is missing and that Ranhold has already fallen. He leads a small force, including his close friends and captains Lu and Osrik, to the Fourth Kingdom’s border outpost to intercept the marching fae army. In the ensuing battle, Queen Kaila of Third Kingdom and a band of snow pirates arrive as reinforcements. The battle moves to Ranhold, where the united Orean forces are nearly defeated until King Thold of First Kingdom arrives, securing a victory for Orea. The allied monarchs decide to press their advantage and continue to Highbell and then the Seventh Kingdom, an abandoned realm that was once home to the fae.

In Lydia, Auren races to confront a new threat, only to find Slade. Her memories are still gone, but as he approaches, their pāyur bond flares, instantly destroying the remaining memory worms in her mind and restoring her completely. They reunite passionately, consummating their bond, before learning that Carrick has gone to Orea and is launching a second invasion. Stone Swords attack Lydia, intending to burn the city, but Auren uses her gold to extinguish the flames while Slade manifests a corporeal dragon to annihilate the soldiers outside the city. The people of Lydia declare Auren their ruler. However, Lord Cull captures her and Slade using magical nets that suppress their powers. He tortures Auren and reveals his plan to kill both Slade and his dragon simultaneously in a ritual to steal the dragon manifestation for himself. As Cull moves to stab Slade, Auren throws herself in front of the dagger, taking the fatal blow. Enraged, Slade breaks loose and kills his father by rotting him to dust. Auren dies in his arms.

At the Seventh Kingdom in Orea, Commander Ryatt and his allies continue to battle the fae. One of his close friends, Judd, gives his life protecting Ryatt. The commander retaliates by decapitating Carrick, but the fae king’s forces don’t retreat. Queen Malina of Sixth Kingdom and her assassin lover, Dommik, guard the bridge of Lemuria. Emonie, who snuck across the bridge by disguising herself as one of Carrick’s soldiers, warns them that a cannibalistic fae faction called the Gore is about to cross the bridge. Malina realizes that her willing sacrifice is the only way to sever the magical connection between the realms because she helped create the bridge. As the Gore advance, Dommik helps her take her own life before killing himself. Their willing deaths cause the bridge to explode in a cataclysm that disintegrates the surrounding land, swallowing the entire fae army. Ryatt and the Orean armies arrive just in time to witness the destruction. Believing Slade and Auren are now trapped in Annwyn forever, the surviving Oreans mourn.

As Slade and Auren fall into the void created by the bridge’s collapse, Auren is reborn in the ether. Now a “goddess-touched” being, she manifests feathery golden wings from her ribbons and flies them both to safety in Annwyn. She then uses a divine gift to heal the cursed “deadlands” created by the bridge’s initial breaking centuries ago, restoring life to a vast part of the realm. Just as they are processing their survival, Ryatt and his friends unexpectedly arrive in Annwyn, having discovered and used the fairy ring Carrick had been using. After an emotional reunion, they learn the bridge is permanently gone and they are all stranded in the fae realm.

Two months later, Annwyn is rebuilding under a new system of governance. Wick, revealed to be Auren’s cousin, leads a newly formed democracy, having done away with the monarchy. The stranded Oreans have settled in the rebuilt city of Bryol, Auren’s birthplace. Slade’s dragon returns as a smaller, incorporeal shadow manifestation, its existence now tied to Auren’s life-giving power. Slade and Auren embrace their love and their future together, ready to live out their many “one days” in peace.