Ohhh where oh where do I start with this review; I strongly disliked The Cruel Prince but i’d won The Wicked King from Readers First and was determined to read and review it. I disliked this even more than The Cruel Prince and thought the characters were utterly insufferable; there is not one character in this book that I enjoyed. I am very much in the minority on my opinions on this book but would ask that we all respect one anothers views, and appreciate everyone’s opinions.
I have never met a character that I despised as much as Jude; she is a selfish, idiotic, fool. She spends so much of this book patting herself on the back for doing an amazing job of tricking Cardan into being her slave (essentially) but fails to see everything that goes on in front of her. I actually feel she has gotten worse in this book and I just wanted to lob it out of the window so many times. I feel like Black writes her with the intention of her being a bad-ass female character that is annoying but overall likeable, but I really don’t get that from her. She is just insufferable. She is terrible at her job and fails repeatedly to listen to those around her who actually know what they are doing. I have no idea why she is so determined to win over the fae folk when we know that they hate mortals, and that this isn’t going to change. Honestly, in my opinion she completely got what she deserved – I saw so many people saying that the last chapters were such a twist and a shock, but you can see it coming from a mile. Cardan is obviously hating being at Jude’s beck and call and of course he isn’t going to just step aside and do what Jude wants. HOW DID SHE NOT SEE THIS COMING. When he marries her in secret and gets her to take the command off – my god I really facepalmed, how can she be so incredibly stupid I do not know. I felt like cheering for Cardan when he chucks her out and I strongly dislike Cardan.
ALSO, how is she still going backwards and forwards on her feelings on Madoc; she makes a comment about how it’s good to be hugged by him HE KILLED YOUR PARENTS CHILD. get a grip.
Which brings me onto him, and the rest of the characters. Literally every single one is a background feature to Jude. Cardan does nothing the whole book apart from being shot at and poisoned; what is the point of him. Considering this book is titled after him he is incredibly non-present and really doesn’t do anything. Apart from his betrayal of Jude at the end of the book it’s easy to forget he’s there. Locke and Taryn pop up every now and again; and considering again that a main plot of this book is their wedding it’s laughable. Neither redeems themselves; Locke tries to kill Jude AGAIN and humiliates her AGAIN in front of Cardan and what does Taryn do? oh marry him of course and then betray Jude AGAIN. Like jesus do these characters not know how to do anything else?? And finally Vivi, the only character I liked in the first book, who I now incredibly dislike. HOW CAN SHE BE SO STUPID. She fails to tell Heather, her girlfriend, about the fae world and just expects her to be chill with it. She then fails to prepare Heather for what they do to mortals and leaves her alone only for her to be attacked. AND THEN SHE GLAMOURS HER. I just cannot with any character in this book – anyone who is fae or part fae has such an arrogant sense of entitlement hat they can just do whatever the fuck they want, of course Heather isn’t happy when she finds out COLOUR ME SURPRISED.
And for the plot itself; I was just so incredibly bored and it just felt dull. The book is all about politics and it just doesn’t work well when the characters half-ass their jobs and are so unlikeable. I literally only tabbed this book with orange tabs and that is the tab that means “this annoyed/pissed me off”. ALSO we have a time jump at the start of this book – it jumps 5 months and completely skips what Jude and Cardan have been doing since the end of the other book, which arguably would have been quite interesting watching them trying to manage that dynamic.
Every relationship in this book is problematic; whether it be Vivi and Heather, Locke and Taryn, or Cardan and Jude. Not once in any of these relationships is the power balance equal; Cardan and Jude sleep with each other whilst he’s under her control and then he tricks her into marrying him and gets rid of her. Also, she essentially orders him into sleeping with whatshername for information but then says it wasn’t an order. Locke and Taryn’s relationship is just disturbing – he spends the first book toying with Jude and using her to get Taryn to prove he trusts her, and then he spends this book humiliating Jude and trying to kill her and dallying around. I’ve already discussed my issues with Vivi and Heather…
I just feel like Black writes increasingly problematic relationships and promotes these to YA as if they are acceptable.
In all honesty I just found this book to be incredibly dull and boring; the characters were boring as was the plot and I am so so happy that I do not need to read the next installment of this book. I will be happy never knowing (or caring) what happens to the characters.
I have never met a character that I despised as much as Jude; she is a selfish, idiotic, fool. She spends so much of this book patting herself on the back for doing an amazing job of tricking Cardan into being her slave (essentially) but fails to see everything that goes on in front of her. I actually feel she has gotten worse in this book and I just wanted to lob it out of the window so many times. I feel like Black writes her with the intention of her being a bad-ass female character that is annoying but overall likeable, but I really don’t get that from her. She is just insufferable. She is terrible at her job and fails repeatedly to listen to those around her who actually know what they are doing. I have no idea why she is so determined to win over the fae folk when we know that they hate mortals, and that this isn’t going to change. Honestly, in my opinion she completely got what she deserved – I saw so many people saying that the last chapters were such a twist and a shock, but you can see it coming from a mile. Cardan is obviously hating being at Jude’s beck and call and of course he isn’t going to just step aside and do what Jude wants. HOW DID SHE NOT SEE THIS COMING. When he marries her in secret and gets her to take the command off – my god I really facepalmed, how can she be so incredibly stupid I do not know. I felt like cheering for Cardan when he chucks her out and I strongly dislike Cardan.
ALSO, how is she still going backwards and forwards on her feelings on Madoc; she makes a comment about how it’s good to be hugged by him HE KILLED YOUR PARENTS CHILD. get a grip.
Which brings me onto him, and the rest of the characters. Literally every single one is a background feature to Jude. Cardan does nothing the whole book apart from being shot at and poisoned; what is the point of him. Considering this book is titled after him he is incredibly non-present and really doesn’t do anything. Apart from his betrayal of Jude at the end of the book it’s easy to forget he’s there. Locke and Taryn pop up every now and again; and considering again that a main plot of this book is their wedding it’s laughable. Neither redeems themselves; Locke tries to kill Jude AGAIN and humiliates her AGAIN in front of Cardan and what does Taryn do? oh marry him of course and then betray Jude AGAIN. Like jesus do these characters not know how to do anything else?? And finally Vivi, the only character I liked in the first book, who I now incredibly dislike. HOW CAN SHE BE SO STUPID. She fails to tell Heather, her girlfriend, about the fae world and just expects her to be chill with it. She then fails to prepare Heather for what they do to mortals and leaves her alone only for her to be attacked. AND THEN SHE GLAMOURS HER. I just cannot with any character in this book – anyone who is fae or part fae has such an arrogant sense of entitlement hat they can just do whatever the fuck they want, of course Heather isn’t happy when she finds out COLOUR ME SURPRISED.
And for the plot itself; I was just so incredibly bored and it just felt dull. The book is all about politics and it just doesn’t work well when the characters half-ass their jobs and are so unlikeable. I literally only tabbed this book with orange tabs and that is the tab that means “this annoyed/pissed me off”. ALSO we have a time jump at the start of this book – it jumps 5 months and completely skips what Jude and Cardan have been doing since the end of the other book, which arguably would have been quite interesting watching them trying to manage that dynamic.
Every relationship in this book is problematic; whether it be Vivi and Heather, Locke and Taryn, or Cardan and Jude. Not once in any of these relationships is the power balance equal; Cardan and Jude sleep with each other whilst he’s under her control and then he tricks her into marrying him and gets rid of her. Also, she essentially orders him into sleeping with whatshername for information but then says it wasn’t an order. Locke and Taryn’s relationship is just disturbing – he spends the first book toying with Jude and using her to get Taryn to prove he trusts her, and then he spends this book humiliating Jude and trying to kill her and dallying around. I’ve already discussed my issues with Vivi and Heather…
I just feel like Black writes increasingly problematic relationships and promotes these to YA as if they are acceptable.
In all honesty I just found this book to be incredibly dull and boring; the characters were boring as was the plot and I am so so happy that I do not need to read the next installment of this book. I will be happy never knowing (or caring) what happens to the characters.