King's Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard

Amy     
Lynnie  

young adult, fantasy, action/suspense

King's Cage picks up where the last novel in the series left off with Mare captured by Maven and imprisoned. This is the story of her incarceration and the next round of battles.

Amy's Review

Another great installment by Victoria Aveyard!
I really enjoy this series because it’s full of action and adventure and is able to surprise me with its storyline at times. Having said that, this one had some seriously slow-moving sections which dimmed the brightness of this novel compared to its predecessors. But, I will concede that these slower sections were not unnecessary so I won’t judge it too harshly. As before, with so much going on in the story, I’ll need to take notes that I can review before the next sequel since it won’t be released for another year. Otherwise, I have nothing much to say that I haven’t said before about this series. I look forward to the next one.

Lynnie's Review

Maybe I've been in a literary cave but I had no idea this wasn't the last book of the series. Around 80% through the novel I had the epiphany that there simply wasn't enough time left in the story to resolve anything so I looked online to learn there is another book coming out!!! That really affected how I felt about King's Cage- I went in looking for a finale and instead, I got a middle book. ARGH!

The first half of the book is slow, sometimes painfully so. As I mentioned in my review of the second book in this series, Glass Sword, Mare's bad attitude really affected me- it's hard to enjoy a story when the person telling it is mopey and full of gloom. Of course, she has ever reason to feel that way, but Aveyard conveys how bored and miserable Mare is really well, almost too well because I was bored & miserable, too.

Things pick up exponentially in the second half of the story which was far more entertaining to read. There's romance, action, and some plot. Ultimately, I'm not sure this moved the story forward very much. Sure, some characters were added & some things happened, but if I skipped this & just read the final book, would I care? I'm not sure.