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4 stars! This review will be spoiler-free for King's Cage, but will contain spoilers for Red Queen and Glass Sword!
Synopsis:
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner. As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back. When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Thoughts:
Decided to give this book 4 stars! This book was a bit slow to start for me, but once I was in, I was IN! Don’t expect a fiery, aggressive, passionate start in this book. The beginning of this story is much more subtle in its greatness. We get to see so much of Mare’s struggle with herself and trying not to become a monster. We get to see a lot of Maven, and understand MORE of the boy king that we have yet to completely understand. We get to experience Maven’s struggle with himself, his kingdom, and his obsession with Mare. The politicking is very very apparent in this story. Allegiances are constantly being tested and you never really know who is on who’s side anymore. And then we get to have multiple perspectives allowing us to see into Cameron and Cal’s struggle with choosing sides: loyalty to the Scarlet Guard or self? That’s what this book is in one word: STRUGGLE. And all of that makes the second half of this book so so so much more worth it when you’re reading. Don’t let the slow start fool you because once the pace picks up, your eyes will be glued to the pages. And don't forget to expect yet another classic Aveyard heart breaking heart wrenching endings! This may not have been my favorite book of the series, but I can tell you that the ending of this book was just as heart breaking as the last and I most definitely enjoyed it all the same.
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrators for this book, Amanda Dolan, Adenrele Ojo, and Erin Spencer, did an amazing job! I always loved Amanda Dolan as a narrator for Mare, but I was especially impressed with the narrator for Evangeline! I definitely recommend this series on Audible!*
Plot:
I seriously love how this book feels like a chess match. Everyone is taking sides and we don’t know who is making moves and who is on who’s side or anything. Betrayal after betrayal and twist after twist left me thinking I needed to write out who was loyal to who after some point. It was crazy. The politics that were woven into this story were very apparent and appreciated because it was nice to finally see Maven as a king. See how he makes his choices and who he wants to ally with. Speaking of allies! The map is expanding in this novel. The Lake Lands, Piedmont, Mont Fort! Who is on who’s side once again? We don’t know and we don’t know their motives, but yesssss we get to meet more people from other nations!
Not only that, but we get to see who he really is (or at least a good amount of who he really is) and everything we learn about him in this book makes him a much more complex villain. It’s probably because of that that Mare struggles so much with her previous feelings for the Maven she thought she knew. Seeing Mare and Maven interact was suspenseful. Every moment of it.
Also seeing Mare and Evangeline interact was interesting. I was always wondering what was going on in Evangeline’s head and then towards the end we get POV from her! I have a feeling she will become one of my favorite characters in this series now, when before I thought she was just infuriating.
On the Scarlet Guard side of the story, gears are turning and alliances are falling into place. We still don’t know a lot about Command and how all that works, but we do know that other countries are starting to get more involved. We get to meet so many new characters and see even more people with new abilities. And though there was a loss of someone special in Glass Sword, there is the addition of another specials someone in this book that anyone reading this series can look forward to. Farley is such a trooper man. An intelligent, conniving, caring, and very very clever trooper.
Then we get to the ending where SH*T GOES DOWN. One of the major turning points in this book is impossible to miss and such thrilling ride. I sucked up every moment of the last third of this book. Back to back to back craziness. All leading up to this closure that seriously breaking all sides of my heart for Evangeline, for Cal, for Mare, and for this entire series. I don’t know how the next book is going to play out at all after this ending.
Characters:
I like Mare much much more in this book than Glass Sword I think. She just has so much fire. She never loses it even when she’s being held captive by Maven. She’s always looking for a way to escape. Always trying to survive. I like that about her. And when she unleashes her powers, she a whole other type of storm.
Cal is brave and smart in battle, strong in his ability, sexy as anything basically all the time, cute when it comes to his romance with Mare, and yet he confuses me. I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I wish he just wasn’t so dense sometimes regarding Mare. His words at the end of the book though almost made me shed a tear. Gosh dang, I would’ve said yes. If you’ve read the book, you know what I’m saying yes to. I’m rooting for Cal guys, I want him to have happiness and success.
Maven MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW. Even so, his actions cannot be excused and Aveyard never suggests that they will be. There were hints though to an alternate possible maybe ending for this one and I’m excited to see how that turns out.
Evangeline! Such a badass and she is in love with a female. Could I not ask for a better turn around for this babe. She was always really cool because her magnetron skills are on point, but now that we get to know more about her and her background and have her own POV. She will most definitely become a fave of mine.
Cameron has her own POV in this book, but all I can say is her POV’s in the beginning made me so angry because I just thought she was super whiny and annoying and contradicting to herself. Towards the end, I could tolerate her better. I hope her character doesn’t continue to annoy me in the last book though, if she continues to have her own POV.
Overall:
I want the last book in this series to be black. I don’t know why, but I’d like that. My overall feeling about the actual content between the covers? It equals out to something like: ahsdkjghalkghaiuwehfieh! I want the next book already. I seriously have no idea what is going to happen next or how my babies and my ships are going to play out!
