I really enjoyed this series.
Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favourite tropes and I so rarely see it done well. I think Black did an excellent job of portraying two people who resent, fear, and mistrust each other who are still irrevocably pulled into each others’ orbit. Their relationship is so fraught they are both surprised by the love confession.
Black also does a great job of making the ending not-obvious. I mean it’s a romance, you know they are going to end up together, but I never knew how she was going to pull it off.
This book was rated as a YA when I looked it up and I do find that designation a little deceptive. Sure, there is almost no sex, but there is so much violence – Jude almost gets killed by her adoptive father and that’s gotta be traumatizing. In fact, Jude gets stabbed a lot. (And poisoned, and almost drowned, and starved, and dropped from a great height.) And some of the situations are incredibly creepy. Queen Suren and that bridle are pure nightmare fuel.
Another thing I really appreciated, Black did not turn Jude into a fae. She’s still a mortal with all that entails. In fact, it’s an essential part of the plot – the fae underestimate her, they assume they can glamour her, they overlook her constantly because mortal slaves are always in the background and always ignored. These scene where a guard is reminded that human women smell like blood once a month legit made me cackle. (And I loved how the weirdness of having a mortal on the throne discombobulates everybody.)
Apparently there is a short series that focuses on Oak and Suren, so I will definitely be picking up some more Holly Black in the future.