The Wicked King by Holly Black
Title: The Wicked King
Author: Holly Black
Published: January 8th, 2019
Pages: 336
Quick synopsis: **DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CRUEL PRINCE YET!**
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
Goodreads Rating: 4.58
My Rating: 5.00
Would I recommend?: If you’ve read The Cruel Prince, definitely.
Why?: This book was everything I wanted for the past year of anticipation. Betrayal, ass-kicking, empowering women, further development of Jude and Cardan’s weird-ass relationship, and just more time in the beautiful but messed up world of Faerie.
My ONLY complaint was the ending. Now, I’m not going to spoil anything for anyone if you haven’t read it, but I am just NOT convinced that Jude’s assessment of the situation is correct. And quite frankly, it drives me nutters just thinking about her reaction to the final scene in the book. Jude is this insanely badass human living in a faerie world, and then she’s suddenly this weak little teenage girl who can’t handle what happened. It drives me nuts! It’s NOT Jude and it’s ridiculous that she even fell for the trick. But it’s fine. I’ll get over it...once book 3 is released.
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