The Wicked King book review

The Wicked King by Holly Black
Series: The Folk of the Air #2
on January 8, 2019
Pages: 336
Goodreads

The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince.
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 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.

I have really taken a long time to get around to reading this book but I am so glad I finally got around to this one because The Wicked King had everything I have ever loved in it. I actually loved this one more than the first one and really fell head over heels with the world and the characters. The thing that made this book all the better was the relationships and the politics that run all the way through it and allow you as the reader to experience the world in a completely different way with a different perspective.

Jude becomes a completely different person in this book and I really loved watching her use her influence and run the kingdom it was a brilliant addition to the story that had already been told in The Cruel Prince. The one thing I didn’t enjoy in this one was Taryn and her relationship with Locke, I wasn’t entirely sure what the point of it all was because there didn’t seem to be any lasting impact but maybe that will become clear in the final book. The Wicked King really did a good job of building on the characters we met in the first book.

I think in terms of the characters and what I think was missing there was potential missing when it came to Madoc and the damage that was glossed over. There was a lot that could have been done in terms of their relationship and how they were co-existing together. I really would have loved to see the politics of their relationship in more detail and how they were going to work it out between it all.

My favourite parts of The Wicked King was definitely the politics and watching Jude run the kingdom, I adored the way she handled the different parts of the world and the job that she took it upon herself. The way that this impacted her relationship with Cardan was fantastically done and the way the ending was done was a complete *chef’s kiss*. Everything about this book outshone the first one which I am hoping will continue on in the third one and I’ll be raving about that one in due course.

I have mentioned about Taryn’s relationship with Locke above as being a little underwhelming and confusing and this goes for some of the other parts of the story which is why I didn’t give it a 5-star rating. I feel as though the main climax was a little underdeveloped and I thought it was a little easily dealt with and I would have loved for there to be a little more drama in The Wicked King.

I would definitely recommend this series, it has definitely grown on me and I am hoping that the last book in the series really shines as well and I end up loving all of the books and it can be named one of my all-time favourite series.

Have you read this series? What were your thoughts? Let me know!