Review--The Queen by Jennifer L. Armentrout

From #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes the next installment in her Wicked series.

The King must have his Queen....

Bestowed the forbidden Summer’s Kiss by the King of the Summer fae, Brighton Jussier is no longer just human. What she is, what she will become, no one knows for sure, but that isn’t her biggest concern at the moment. Now Caden, the King, refuses to let her go, even at the cost of his Court. When the doorway to the Otherworld is breached, both Brighton and Caden must do the unthinkable—not just to survive themselves, but also to save mankind from the evil that threatens the world.

Much too late I finally read Jennifer L. Armentrout's The Queen...what I believe might be the last Wicked novella, but you never know! This continues the story arc of Brighton and Caden as they struggle to find a way to be together when duty, honor, and other forces seem to be driving them apart.

Brighton is still healing from what Aric did to her only to learn that she is pregnant and she knows without a doubt it is Caden's child as they were intimate just before she was taken. Though Caden says he's breaking his engagement to Tatiana, Tatiana confides in Brighton that in order to save their race, their kingdom, and thus Brighton's world and humanity, Caden needs to marry one of his kind to have a queen and heirs.

So naturally, Brighton tries to take herself out of the picture by going home, our of sight out of mind, right? But Caden's not having that. He's willing to fight to get Brighton back. But since there's the still the threat of a traitor among their group, as Aric mentioned an inside man, Caden isn't willing to let Brighton out of his sight.

All the while Brighton deliberates over what she should tell Caden about the bun in her oven. She wants Caden to be happy and she wants to have a world to live in with their child. But danger is ever lurking closer and the threat of Queen Morgana coming over to the Earth side of things is eminent.

In some ways this story felt like it was missing something. I assume this is the last of the Wicked novellas and while it ends in a satisfying way, I can't help but feel like there's still more story to tell. There wasn't much happening really, the mystery of the missing fae is somewhat addressed, but it wasn't fully fledged out to me. Like just what exactly happened to these fae?

Then there's the coming war that constantly gets thrown around, I had anticipated seeing this happening this time around. Perhaps Jennifer has secret plans for another Wicked novel? I mean anything is possible. But as far as short story arcs go, this one does resolve the issues between Brighton and Caden and addresses the traitor among them. But yet, even that felt like there was still more to have from that outcome.

I did enjoy the rekindled romance between Brighton and Caden. I've nearly forgotten his role in the Wicked trilogy, however much he wasn't apart of it. Brighton and Caden had such a sweet romance that took time to build into and when everyone was finally on level ground it was explosive! It's everything that I love about Jennifer's romances!

The bad part about being tossed on the outside of this series after being inside for two years is not knowing where it's going. I can fully believe this is the end of the novellas, but if Jennifer perhaps has something else up her sleeve I haven't learned yet. And honestly, it's that not knowing that is making my rating difficult to give. If I knew if this was the absolute end of this world series, I'd say that I was a little disappointed about all the build up to war and a greater enemy and have no follow through. However, if something else is in the works and this is just the end of Brighton and Caden's story for the moment, I'd be happy and excited for the next adventure. But since everything is so unclear I don't know which route to go.

I'm going to go on the belief that this is the end of it all. This is where the Wicked series ends, so my rating is...


Overall Rating 4/5 stars



And should something else come up, it's totally a 5/5 star read! ;)