So as soon as I finished the first book in this series, The Cruel Prince, I knew I immediately needed the next two books so I ordered them before I was done with the first book.
I will say this, it’s been a long time since I have woken up early to read a book, let alone finishing a series of three books in four days. But this series made me fall back in love with YA fantasy and made me love early morning reading sessions again!
I’ll be honest, it’s hard for me to write this review because the three books all blurred together because I read them so quickly but I will try my best to focus on this book specifically.
Summary
The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.
Jude 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 biddable. 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 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 (summary from Goodreads)
Review
When the first book ended, I was like yes Jude, slay. But when this book started, I was worried that Jude was weaving a web that was too tangled and becoming paranoid about who to trust and what to do with all her information. That quickly proved to be right in a couple of ways…..yes she was paranoid and clearly had good reason, but she was also reaching so high and needed to trust some people to help her which she wasn’t doing.
It was both exciting and heart breaking to see Jude’s power crumble but to also see her fight for everything she gained. Jude really is a spectacular character and even if I don’t love her all the time, I love seeing her get up and fight again and never be broken. It’s like she doesn’t know how to break or how to fail and I think that often so many YA books focus on the moment the heroine ‘breaks’ and then rebuilds themselves, but in this book Jude just can’t bring herself to admit failure or to break down and I admire the hell out of her for that.
Carden and Jude….I ship them so hard in this book. I was curious to see how things played out between them in the future books but I wasn’t prepared for how much I loved seeing them come together and develop that chemistry. It was so great and I can’t get enough of them together. I love Carden and his sassy arrogance and his cunning. Swoon swoon swoon for these two!
This series is a new favorite for me and after the way this one ended, I was shocked and am glad I didn’t have to wait for The Queen of Nothing to come out before I could read it because I think I would have died a slow death waiting for it to come out. If you love YA fantasy, this series is right up there as a favorite of mine. I mean I still love The Infernal Devices the absolute best, but this series comes in a close second!
The Lit Bitch 