The Wicked King by Holly Black

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Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to”

Madoc

In this sequel to “The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black. We continue the story of Jude Duarte, a human in the realm of Elfhame, who is struggling to hold on to her newly acquired power over its high King Cardan and his subjects.

We get power by taking it”

Madoc

The graphics on this cover were amazing, and I loved the little drawings of dragonflies throughout the book along with the drawings at the beginning of each chapter.

The dialogue between Jude and Cardan was so entertaining to read. I could just read about those two talking forever.

For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.”

“And what made you decide it wasn’t?”

He grins up at me. “They missed.”

I have said that he has the power to deliver a compliment and make it hurt.

JUDE AND CARDAN

As we read on, we see Jude become a pawn in this “game of kings and princes, of queens and crowns,” as Locke puts it, all while she tries to resist her growing attraction to Cardan. By the way, I know everyone loves Cardan, but I kind of fell in love with Jude. She is brave, witty, and strong. She is everything I love in a female character.

It occurs to me that maybe desire isn’t something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time”

Jude

This book is fast paced, and full of plot twists. I admit to staying up reading until 3am a couple of nights. I kept telling myself I would stop at a neutral point in the story where my mind wasn’t racing and reeling with questions, but these points were few and far between. Any book that makes me voluntarily lose sleep is an automatic five stars for me, because as a mother of two, sleep is not easy for me to come by.

Fear is terrible, but the combination of hope and fear is worse”

Jude

After all my years of reading, I give props to Holly Black for surprising me with this ending. Of all the endings I ever imagined, this one never crossed my mind. I remember posting on Twitter that I needed therapy right after finishing “The Wicked King.” If you haven’t read “The Cruel Prince” yet, which is first in the series, go ahead and catch up and then read this one. I promise you won’t regret it!