Vee's Reviews > The Prisoner’s Throne

3 stars ~ [5.57/10]

I enjoyed the first book in this duology a bit more than this one. I liked the adventure/journey aspect of The Stolen Heir and I thought it was a good move to go that route because it made it feel more separate from The Folk of the Air trilogy. However, book 2 felt a bit erratic and it often seemed like the pacing was trying to compete with the whole of the story. I know Holly Black is kind of known for writing fairly short books but there was quite a lot going on here for a book under 400 pages. It could have benefited from more breathing room and more time spent on making me fall in love with the characters, instead it was much more concerned with plot. I did enjoy being back in Elfhame, the courtly politics and I liked seeing more of Jude and Cardan, but when I'm coming away from this duology still having more of an attachment to the MCs from the previous series then I know these books were just a nice little coda addition, they won't have a lasting impact on me and won't be the tastemaker that tfota was.