This is the sequel to The Cruel Prince, which I reviewed HERE. If you don't want anything ruined about The Cruel Prince, I strongly recommend skipping this blog post...because I'm going to start with a recap of the end of The Cruel Prince after the amazon summary. Look at all this warning I'm giving; that's how you know it's serious.
Also, I love Holly Black. I've gone on about this in previous posts, but just to reiterate, the love and fangirl noises are still real.
An amazon summary, "You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
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." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Alright, so where the crazy jaw dropping action left off in The Cruel Prince, only three princes are left who can hold the blood crown; Cardan, Oak, and Balekin. Cardan currently holds the crown and is sworn to follow any orders Jude gives him for a year and a day. Madoc is slighted, Jude still has her dais from Dain (even though he's dead), and Taryn is still going marry Locke. Jude has also worked out that Oak will grow up safely in the mortal world under the care of Vivi so he will not be corrupted by the fey before he becomes king.
The Wicked King begins about five months after the events at the end of The Cruel Prince. Cardan has been a mostly idle king, while Jude runs the throne in the background. She's constantly mitigating risks and trying to be prepared for any crisis that may arise. New fey have come out of different corners of the realm to see exactly what their king is like, and what power they may be able to garner from him... which puts Jude on even more edge.
As Jude anticipates and tries to circumvent all threats, she gets pulled in to a devious plot that sinks her into the murk of just how twisted the fey court can truly be.
That's enough summary.
This book picked up where the last book left off, spirited you off on adventure, had a well balanced cast of characters so there was never too much or too little going on at any one time, and also, managed to finish with another big bang. madness.
...like all books I love, I find it very difficult to talk about it. Mostly because I don't want to ruin anything or over-hype a very specific aspect of it and then ruin it for someone else.
I'm looking forward to the sequel...even though this book just came out.
Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment