litty_lydi's Reviews (123)

Might come back. Just wasn’t digging it and had other reads i wanted to prioritize 

This one fell flat for me. The twists were predictable and that one twist in the epilogue just felt so unnecessary. 

I listened to the audiobook of this one and I was thinking “my god this is a long book” but when I checked the published page length I came to the realization that nope, just dragged a lot. Felt like we were never going to get to the end, just consistent talking around it by the main character. Could definitely have probably cut 100 pages of this and still had the same affect. 

It was still entertaining though and I spent the day reading it so I think I’d still recommend it, just don’t go into it with all the hype that has been surrounding it. 

One random spoiler thought that I must briefly mention:

As soon as we met Marlene and got the description of her relationship with Richard I was immediately creeped by the not so subtle incesty vibes. By the end of it I was 100% on that theory train and I feel uncomfy about how that plot point was left unfinished ….

Having this book be the follow-up to The Wicked King, it had some big shoes to fill for me, but unfortunately it didn't quite hit all the marks that it's predecessor did.

I do think this is a satisfying conclusion to the series, and I can't picture it ending a better way. I think it was more the progress to get to that ending, tied into some pacing issues. I typically wouldn't care too much about the book being relatively short when comparing to most final books of a series, if the story could be properly concluded in that time. But it just wasn't quite there for me. I felt like I needed a little bit more in the beginning, and a lot more in the end.

Gotta go into spoilers to really sum up my thoughts around this.

So the resolution to the exile twist from Wicked King fell a little flat for me... look I loved the Notebook-esque missed letters plot just as much as the next person, but given the usual more politically motivated decisions this one just didn't cut it. Especially given Cardan would've pardoned Jude almost right away. Just comes off as a more petty response which is not the vibe I wanted. In my opinion, Holly Black definitely had the pages to flesh this out more and come up with something that had a little more ~spice~.

Speaking of places that could've used more pages to flesh them out, the SNAKE PLOT. Look I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened there, where it came from, and more importantly why it only came in the last 20% of the book. I don't hate the idea of it, I can get behind it, but I need a bit more set-up and explanation there. There's always a chance that I am just a surface level reader and HB has been dropping serpent hits throughout the other two books that I was not picking up but ... give me some extra pages to help me make sense of it all.

On my personal Wishlist, I'd also like more pages dedicated to the post-"war" (I hate to call it that because for an author who wrote quite a bit of gruesome deaths in this book, she took the Stephanie Meyer Breaking Dawn out of not having to write a war because talking helped lol)Jude/Cardan relationship. 

Also, wishlist-y, I think this was the only book of the series where I was really missing some multiple POVs. Give me the scene of Cardan showing up in the human world looking for Jude.

This book definitely regins supreme compared to books 1 and 3 

I don't even know where to begin with this one. It was a ride, and I was buckled in. My advice, do not finish this book at 1 AM, because you will have to immediately start reading the third book. 

The twists and turns in this one really had me going the entire time. Holly Black really showed her best in this book in terms of moving the plot along, while also adding blind-siding twists that make you question everything you've learned thus far.

I'd recommend reading this series just to read this book. I can definitely see myself simply going back and re-reading The Wicked King.

I feel dumb waiting so long to read this series.

I think this was a great first book to set-up the series. I'll admit it took me a little bit to get fully engaged (my reading progress for this book speaks to that), but I'd say by the first 30% I was in. I'm also a sucker for political intrigue so once that plot started rolling I was in. 

I also dig the more classical fae world ... although I can't decide whether I love the whole Fae world being adjacent to Human world ... obviously did not deter me in anyway but I did learn it's not my favourite plot set-up.

f you want to read this book, I strongly recommend you go the audiobook route. The full cast helps immerse you and it simply feels like you're listening to a documentary. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and although I wouldn't consider it a sad book I was still somehow crying at the end?! Power of Taylor Jenkins Reid, I guess. 

I see this book as more of a character driven vs plot driven story, honestly not that much happens in the book, but instead it's more of a journey of following this 70s band to their rise and fall, and hearing the experiences from the various perspectives. Because of this there is a lot of "he-said, she-said" but given the context I didn't mind it. 

Now moving on to the "issues" I have with the book, but putting those below the cut due to spoilers:

First off, let's talk about the elephant in the room, I have a hard time believing that Daisy and Billy did not sleep together. And I don't mean they should've had a full blown affair or anything. I just think that the fallout from that night would make so much more sense if they had sex. Take the same beats leading up to that moment, add in a passion/lust filled moment, and then still have it end the way it did. Billy choosing his family and that same great line: