If the reimagining of King Midas—his gold-touch, Auren’s literal gilded cage, and the way image and wealth mask control—in Gild hooked you, you’ll love the Hades-and-Persephone power play in Neon Gods. Like Auren bargaining within Midas’s glittering court, Persephone strikes a calculated deal with Hades to weaponize reputation and take back agency. The public spectacles, whispered scandals, and consent-forward, dangerous chemistry mirror the charged, myth-tinted tension you enjoyed in Orea’s courts.

If Auren’s journey—from Midas’s treasured possession in a locked, golden chamber to questioning his manipulation—was your favorite thread in Gild, The Bridge Kingdom delivers that same evolution. Lara is raised to be a weapon, sent into a political marriage much like Auren is displayed as a prize; as lies unravel, she reclaims her choices, shifting loyalties and redefining herself. The treacherous crossings, covert missions, and a slow thaw from distrust to feeling echo Auren’s pivot from blind devotion to self-determination.

If the bleak undercurrent in Gild—Auren’s confinement, the predatory politics around Midas’s "saddles," and the constant threat lurking behind opulence—kept you turning pages, Fortuna Sworn leans into that same dark gravity. Fortuna is bound to a dangerous fae whose bargains bite, and the courts are as seductive as they are brutal. Like Auren navigating a beautiful prison, Fortuna learns how to survive monsters who wear charming faces, and the book doesn’t flinch from the cost.

If Midas’s gold-working and the wider magic of Orea in Gild drew you in precisely because they felt mythic and uncanny rather than rule-bound, A Court of Thorns and Roses will scratch that itch. Feyre’s bargain with Tamlin, a curse hanging over a jeweled court, and powers that feel more like dangerous promises than neat systems echo Auren’s world—where one man’s touch can transform and trap. The romance-and-peril mix has the same shimmering, unpredictable pull.

If what you savored in Gild was the seductive dance of power—Auren performing perfection for Midas’s court while learning to read the knives behind smiles—The Shadows Between Us offers a deliciously sharp counterpart. Alessandra aims to charm, wed, and murder a shadow-wielding king, only to find attraction complicating her plots. The flirtation-as-warfare, fashion-as-armor, and revelations that shift who really holds the leash will remind you of Auren’s dawning insight behind all that gold.