She holds a cruel prince’s crown by a thread of blackmail — and neither of them can tell the game from the want.
- Score
- 81.7
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
If you liked this, read
What readers think
Readers broadly regard The Wicked King as a rare second instalment that outpaces its predecessor, with Kirkus calling it 'a heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction' and Goodreads voters awarding it Best YA Fantasy of 2019. The escalating stakes, sharper political scheming, and Jude's ruthless competence earn near-universal praise, and the gut-punch ending is divisive only in the sense that it leaves readers desperate for Book 3. Common criticisms include a slower first half weighted toward court maneuvering over action, some inconsistencies in worldbuilding (merfolk biology, poison-immunity continuity), and frustration that Cardan shows little growth through much of the novel. A vocal minority of readers also wanted more on-page romantic payoff, finding the chemistry simmering but never boiling. Overall ratings cluster at 4–4.5 stars.
Read it if
- · Readers already invested in Jude and Cardan who want higher stakes and a jaw-dropping twist
- · Fans of political fantasy where the heroine's greatest weapon is intelligence, deception, and nerve
- · Readers who love slow-burn tension stretched to its absolute limit before any release
Skip it if
- · You haven't read The Cruel Prince — the sequel drops in with no re-orientation
- · You want a romance that delivers warmth or significant payoff; this book is almost entirely cold power play
- · Content around child abuse, torture, captivity, and on-page parental violence is a hard limit for you
If you liked this
- · For fans of A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas — a second-book leap in stakes with a heroine seizing power in a deadly fae court
- · For fans of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas — morally grey scheming, political intrigue, and a fierce heroine playing a very long game
- · For fans of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir — a mortal navigating a world of immortal cruelty through cunning rather than strength
- · For fans of Graceling by Kristin Cashore — a fierce, strategically brilliant heroine in a fantasy court with a deeply complicated romantic dynamic
In this series
Part of The Folk of the Air — read in order:
Full series profile & spice/trope breakdown →Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.
Take the quiz →