The Wicked King by Holly Black

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.

A great sequel with a lot of action, suspense, and characters. All of the characters have changed quite a bit from the first book and I like Jude less and less (especially after all her selfishness throughout this book) and Cardan and Mordoc more. All the secondary characters - Cardan's circle of friends, The Shadows, and Taryn - play a much smaller roll in this book but I enjoyed “seeing” the Undersea and how their world works as opposed to the island fae. The anti-climactic ending and epilogue was a bit of a disappointment and made this definitely feel more like the classic “middle” in a trilogy but the last few chapters had me not wanting to put the book down. I can't wait for more from Holly Black.

This book was far better than the first book which I binge-read on my day-off, loved it, then forgot about two days later when I started reading this book. The enemies to lovers trope is so strong in this one. LOVE ITTT! This one was better because there were a lot of character interactions for Jude, and every time Cardan spoke it was just pure gold :D

Jude was such mundane character but I related to her on an emotional level. How deeply she felt all her mistakes and how every time something went wrong, she didn't blame others for being cruel to her, but herself for not being strong enough. Perfectionist much? Yeah, I feel you Jude, way more than I expected too. We feel are losses too greatly and can never give up. We feel like we have to prove we are worthy of every small thing that comes our way. Sometimes, I feel like it'd be best to live our lives for none but our selves. To be free of all obligations, expectations and rules. To just live the way we want.

Looking forward to the last book next year :)