The Wicked King

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 :)