Praise for The Plated Prisoner Series

Gild is a heart-pounding fantasy romance, and this outstanding book will keep you gripped until the very last word. It’s beautifully written and is a truly riveting story. If you love Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout this book is for you! This series is gripping, enticing and darkly romantic. Don’t miss out on this un-putdownable read!

This series has stolen my heart, my breath, my regard for anything else. I've never been so immersed in a story before-never read characters that have felt so real. I've cried, laughed, screamed, thrown my kindle across the room, picked it up again, swooned . . . These characters, this WORLD . . . it's everything. Raven has written a story for the ages, destined to go down as one of the epics

Raven writes with a magic that comes to life on the page. Every single word gleams like gold

This is one of those series that started off phenomenal, and only gets better with every subsequent book.

Get ready to be enthralled from the first word, and begging for more by the last. Raven Kennedy crafts an astonishing world that's filled with captivating characters and a story you won't be able to put down

This series is amazing and I can't recommend it enough. It is one of the best New Adult Fantasy books out there.

TEN GILDED STARS! Remarkably original . . .and the prose, people . . . gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous

An emotional rollercoaster

What I've enjoyed so far about this series is how it's a metaphor about real, emotional issues

I devoured [the] first book and it ended on such a nice cliff-hanger that I am thirsting for the next one

Get ready to be enthralled from the first word, and begging for more by the last. Raven Kennedy crafts an astonishing world that's filled with captivating characters and a story you won't be able to put down.

I devoured this first book and it ended on such a nice cliffhanger that I am thirsting for the next one.

TEN GILDED STARS!... remarkably original... and the prose, people...gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

A rich mixture of the real and fantasy landscapes of Trinidad... Lloyd Banwo gives both [protagonists] an authentic voice, and we feel their conflicts and urges deeply. As the novel rushes them towards its dramatic conclusion, you almost wish for more time with them and the enigmatic world she has created

A beautifully rich and alluring love story... When We Were Birds is a mesmerizing work of fiction, embedded with timeless, mythic magic and wisdom. A stunning new voice in fiction, Banwo's tale is a standout from the crowd

Heart-warming and heart-breaking, fantastical and familiar, with characters that burrow their way into your heart and mind with their tragedies and triumphs, When We Were Birds is the kind of story that makes you want to spread your arms open wide, embrace the sky, and take flight in your own little way. It is glorious

Magical, enchanting, majestic... Infused with the lush and terrible beauty of the Trinidadian landscape, When We Were Birds weaves dreams and apparitions, religion and myth, into a story of love in its many manifestations

An eloquent and breathtaking novel from an irresistible new voice. The words are there on the page and then whoop! Suddenly they are right in the centre of your heart. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo writes on the wings of love and death

A moving and fervent meditation on belief, love, family and the transitionary power of death, Banwo's spirited, finely wrought prose draws you in and doesn't let go. When We Were Birds marks a distinctive, bold and truthful new voice in literature. Long may she fly

I absolutely loved it, and I'm sure everyone who picks it up will love it too. When We Were Birds has a similar power and depth to This One Sky Day. It is a love story between two outsiders but also a love letter to language itself, full of myth but deeply grounded in reality. I cannot wait to read what Ayanna writes next!

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is one of those rare voices you come across once in a long while - strong, confident and necessary. She reminds us what we should expect from great writing: the daring to take chances and to experiment with language and form

Set in a Trinidad both magical and real, and written in a rich demotic; so much more than a love story

Uplifting, engaging, expansive: this was just the book I needed. In a voice infused with the rhythms of Trinidad and Tobago, Banwo has crafted the perfect love story, one that moves with deftness between the furies of urban poverty and the gentle infinities of the afterlife. The hard-won peace and redemptive love in this story are real, and something we need more of in the world

A vibrant and immersive exploration of the bonds that connect us to the past and to each other. Here, history reverberates and intoxicates. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has swept me off my feet - she writes with the confidence and skill of prize-winning greats like Marilynne Robinson, Toni Morrison, and Isabel Allende

It's a knockout, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a star. I want to read everything she writes. Deep with magic, superstition, grit and heart, [and] a powerful conduit to our ownership of personal heritage

A shining new light on the literary scene. When We Were Birds is a novel reminiscent of old folklore tales, woven with myths, ghosts and love, and told with a powerful voice that is simply unforgettable

Stunning, lyrical, original. A work of real power and beauty, a story of magic and love, the living and the dead in Trinidad, this novel had me spellbound. I was with Yejide and Darwin all the way

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's voice is haunting, and When We Were Birds is a novel of exquisite detail that opens up the liminal space between folklore and the world we inhabit

Haunting, beautiful and sharply observed. A story that gets under your skin, with characters that burrow into your heart. I adored it

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's electric, musical prose draws us in - we follow Darwin and Yejide as they slip in and out of incredible worlds. This is a story fluttering between dark and light, life and death, hollowing out a place in us all for love

Authentic, stirring, magical - a book that will haunt you long after you finish reading it. Full of intricate details and rhythmic prose, it explores the complexities of love and legacy, the struggles of life and the rituals of death

A love story, a ghost story and a coming-of-age story, all masterfully woven into one. I loved it

This wonderfully original debut novel unspools at the stormy crossroads that separate the living and the dead... Banwo has created a unique world expansive enough to contain a ghost story, a love story, a mysterious mythology, and a thoughtful examination of how family bonds keep us firmly rooted to our pasts... [She] deftly weaves the realistic and the fantastic into a strange and compelling tapestry, a world readers will happily return to, even if they don't usually gravitate toward fantasy

[A] love story threaded through with supernatural events and dangerous secrets

The most wonderful book in the way it celebrates friendship. I highly recommend it.

Impossible not to weep. Yet, we also find ourselves laughing out loud through the tears ... For all the sense of tragedy and loss, we see Ash develop renewed gratitude for the beauty and humour in even the most mundane moments of life.

Full of humour, warmth, and raw honesty ... a beautiful, uplifting testament to female friendship that will make you laugh and cry

5 stars

Unique, touching and immersive

Tender and beautifully paced

Compassionate and alert to the complexities in even the most ordinary lives, the book reminds us why, at 79, Tyler is held in such high regard

The qualities that have long won Tyler admiration and affection - wry humour, shrewd perception, characters who leap off the page with authenticity - are in generous supply

You can't go wrong with Anne Tyler. She makes it look easy creating characters that feel so believable, so three-dimensional

Tyler engrosses with the 'and-thenand-then' of domestic detail

I do think the world would probably be a better place if everyone read Anne Tyler . . . She's such a brilliantly empathetic writer - there's no 'them' and 'us' in Tyler's world - and she often writes from the perspective of the kind of people who you would walk past and barely notice in the street . . . Reading Tyler helps people to become better people, and I really fully believe that

Tyler's irresistibly readable 23rd novel follows Micah, a socially inept, OCD-ish IT man whose orderly life is turned upside down by the arrival of a son

Tyler's affectionate and quietly observant novel reveals her deep empathy for the hidden struggles of everyday lives

Another shrewd yet kindly novel about the mysterious business of family life by one of the world's great writers

A charmingly offbeat love story

Bursting with vitality and variety, it's a tour de force . . . fizzes with the qualities – characters who almost leap off the page with authenticity, speech and body language wonderfully caught – that, for more than half a century, have won her such admiration and affection

One of the most influential writers of her generation . . . Her books are so irresistibly readable that it's startling to realise what technical marvels they often are

Emma Straub is such a funny and brilliant writer and this time-travelling tale is a charming exploration of what it would be like to find yourself younger and surrounded by the people you love when they're still at the height of their power

Wise and often hilarious

Readers will devour this witty and warmly satisfying novel

A precise and observant writer whose supple prose carries the story along without a snag. Straub's characters are a quirky and interesting bunch . . . it's a pleasure spending time with them

Devilishly observed

Sprinkled with humour and insight

Straub is consistently excellent