I'm a big fan of Holly Black (ever since her first novel Tithe), and I have thoroughly enjoyed this series, which was wrapped up so nicely in the last novel.
To be honest, the most impressive thing for me in this conclusion of the series is how much I realized I'd come to love and become attached to the secondary characters such as Jude's sister Taryn and her foster father Madoc.
The ending was almost a bit too neat, but there was plenty of intrigue and romance to make up for it. :)
I have been a fan of Holly Black for awhile now. I love her first Faerie series starting with Tithe, so I had been excited to see her return with a totally in-universe Faerie tale trilogy! The Cruel Prince was wonderful and thrilling as usual, but The Wicked King makes good on the first book's premise and promise and develops the characters and plot in a wickedly delightful fashion (as fitting the world of Faerie) with enough wonderful twists to have you not prepared for the biggest one.
I was thoroughly captivated. <3
Fabulous ending to a thrilling, beautiful trilogy. Definitely the best of the three. As usual, Arden weaves together magic, religion, spirits, and history into a wonderfully vivid and lush tale. I really appreciated seeing Vasya coming into her own in this final chapter. This was chock full of lovely character development and pain and grief and adventure and romance.
I debated between four and five stars, but decided on five because this book is so COOL.
Intricate world-building. The main magical power system in the book is fully fleshed out. Furthermore, while it takes just a little while to get going, once it does, it just doesn't stop. There are so many wonderful plot twists.
I'm very much looking forward to the second book!