This is the second book in a trilogy that started with The Cruel Prince, which I loved. That book ended with Jude's machinations having succeeded, and she now has some of the power she had worked so hard to obtain, even if it doesn't look exactly the way she would have most liked. But now that she has that, she has to figure out what to do with it, even while being quite limited still as a mortal within Faerie. There are betrayals and mysteries and conflicting loyalties and aims, and on top of all of this, she's still both repelled by and attracted to Cardan, who seems no better now that he at least has the appearance of power that he lacked in the first book. It takes the book a while to really ramp up into the full plot of this book, but once it did I found it extremely compelling and readable and I definitely wanted to know what would happen and how.
I enjoyed The Wicked King quite a bit, and I am very excited for the third book of the trilogy, slated to come out next year. But it is very much the middle book of a trilogy, that spends a ton of time on set up and conflict and lands at the very end on something that feels like it could be a great resolution, except that it's the end of the second book and so you KNOW a rug is about to be pulled out from under you even if you don't know where you'll land as a result. And that rug was pulled, and it's a GREAT rug pull, but I am also desperate for a variety of things to happen which I know can only come to pass in book three of a trilogy. So I'm glad to have read it but also I am now even more impatient for book three to finally come out because MAN. Much like the first book, this is a pretty perfectly plotted middle book of a trilogy, and hits all of the beats you want and expect, but not in ways that make the characters feel predictable or dumb. But it definitely reminded me of why I try not to read series that haven't been completed yet, because I want that resolution now rather than in a year. Oh well! One book I already know I'll be adding to my master list for 2020.
Grade: B
I enjoyed The Wicked King quite a bit, and I am very excited for the third book of the trilogy, slated to come out next year. But it is very much the middle book of a trilogy, that spends a ton of time on set up and conflict and lands at the very end on something that feels like it could be a great resolution, except that it's the end of the second book and so you KNOW a rug is about to be pulled out from under you even if you don't know where you'll land as a result. And that rug was pulled, and it's a GREAT rug pull, but I am also desperate for a variety of things to happen which I know can only come to pass in book three of a trilogy. So I'm glad to have read it but also I am now even more impatient for book three to finally come out because MAN. Much like the first book, this is a pretty perfectly plotted middle book of a trilogy, and hits all of the beats you want and expect, but not in ways that make the characters feel predictable or dumb. But it definitely reminded me of why I try not to read series that haven't been completed yet, because I want that resolution now rather than in a year. Oh well! One book I already know I'll be adding to my master list for 2020.
Grade: B
