The Wicked King by Holly Black
3 out of 5 stars.

I’m not posting the Goodreads summary, because I don’t want to spoil The Cruel Prince for those that haven’t read it yet. Read at your own risk if you haven’t read the first book, because possible spoilers of The Cruel Prince.

I received an ARC of The Wicked King from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Release date tomorrow, January 8, 2019.

It’s no surprise that I loved The Cruel Prince as much as everyone else did. The hype was real, you guys! I was so stoked when I was approved for the ARC of The Wicked King. I couldn’t wait to dive into it! I needed more of the story. I needed to know what was going to happen next. I needed more Cardan and Jude! I pretty much instantly fell in love with the story right from the beginning. There was excitement and things happening on every page. I was looking forward to more of that with The Wicked King.

It wasn’t there though. I didn’t instantly fall in love. Nothing happened until the last 30% of the book. It was a very slow start and with nothing that exciting happening. Nothing that really stood out to me or made me go “omg” or freak out like I did with The Cruel Prince. The last few chapters of The Wicked King were the highlight of the book and had the shock factor. I was disappointed with the story, because it lacked so many things that the first book had.

Cardan was even different. He didn’t have the same attitude or wickedness that he did in the first book. He was a bit of a bore. You didn’t see the old Cardan until the very end of the book, which was sad, because I loved his character so much! He’s part of what made the story exciting, so I was sad that it wasn’t like that this time. Jude was a bit annoying and whiny in this book, which sucked because I loved her in the first book. The two characters I loved the most were not the same to me. They just felt too different and maybe that’s because of what they’ve been through being thrown into being King and a new life.

But then with that being said…The Wicked King was a short book and felt rushed. I feel like so many other things could have happened or have been added if it was a longer book. Like more of Jude and Cardan right after the ending of The Cruel Prince instead of it taking place five months later. Not a lot of things were explained or shown. So we didn’t get to see the change in Cardan or Jude with their new roles and lives, because it started five months later and maybe that would have helped to explain why they felt like different characters to me?

I did like the book though, so it wasn’t a completely bad sequel. The ending had a lot of excitement and twists to it. One that even left me shocked. Overall, I liked it and it had it’s enjoyable moments. I was just really sad and disappointed that I didn’t fall in love with it like I did The Cruel Prince. I’m still really looking forward to the third book and can’t wait to get my hands on it to see what happens next. The ending left on a pretty crazy cliffhanger, so I’m still stoked.

In case you missed it;
Reading the Alphabet.
2018 Year in Books (Reading Stats).
2019 Reading Goals.

I hope you have a great day!