Gilded Cage has some flaws, but the payoff is worth it. It's a tale of class warfare, of the "haves vs the Have-nots" that the British do so well, and Vic James is no exception. 
 The book starts off a bit choppy, but smooths out beautifully into a gripping coming-of-age story that's difficult to put down. The lead characters are fleshed out well, and feel real... down to our teen Hero sulking. 
 Where it trips a bit is in the choice to deliver some necessary background information via a vignette at the start that feels out of place. It might have been better done to reveal that info slowly through the novel, building tension. As it stands, it's a clunky info dump that makes me wonder where the editor went. The secondary characters are sketched out very lightly. Too lightly. In my opinion the parents might have been better eliminated entirely, if there was no way to make them more real. 
 Overall though, i'll be adding this to my list of authors to watch, and you should too.