King’s Cage is book four in the Red Queen series. I won’t say much about the plot here but I did find the beginning a bit slow. It took me ages to read the first third but after that I flew through the rest of the book. I warmed to Mare a bit more in this book, I wasn’t the biggest fan of her in the first two. The ending fell a bit flat for me but that’s probably because I finally felt like there was some momentum and then it ended. Hoping the final book will wrap up everything nicely.

This series started out pretty strongly. The first book was a gripping read in the vein of The Hunger Games meshed with Game of Thrones. It was pretty great actually. Book two wasn't quite as good, but I still enjoyed it, but book three? Not great to be honest. Rather than improving, this series is going down, down, downhill. Everything in this book was just a bit too similar to other books that have already done it, and done it better. Also, I feel like there was some weird ethnicity switch going on with Mare. I am all for inclusivity in characterisation, but I feel like this was added after the fact, and not written with inclusivity in mind. This book was poorly plotted, poorly characterised and poorly ended. Definitely not a series to fill any YA voids.

Verdict: Good but long.

Or at least it felt very long to me.

I almost tapped out at book two. If I'm honest, my main complaint of book 2 – that it’s overwritten – still holds true for this book, except for everything else works so much better this time around. The plot could have turned any which direction, and that made me read on eagerly.

Mare has handed herself over to the king in order to spare her friends, giving Maven a powerful tool to twist against the Scarlet Guard. She isn’t whiny this time – she's utterly trapped, and does what little she can to help her cause. She stays strong in a way that shows how far she’s come, and I found myself liking her again.

The writing is what made it feel long to me, yet at times it's worth it. It might be superfluous, but it’s still beautiful and vivid, full of emotion. Every word evoked a new emotion in me, although it did tend to hit the same nerve until it was deadened… You can see I went back and forth with this one.

I thought it was interesting to show the side of Cameron, a newblood aligned with the Scarlet Guard. While Cam didn't feel like a very important character, she provided a window for the ones I did care about. We even get to see Evangeline’s point of view, and while I couldn’t help but noticed how similar it was to Mare’s, it still helped develop Evangline from cliche to intriguing.

On a side note, I got a bit muddled with the names at times. Mare, Maven, Cam, Cal, Elane, Elara… It’s asking for trouble. I'm wondering if anyone else noticed this, or was it just me?

Anyway, I have faith again in this series! I enjoyed this instalment, and will probably read the next too

Source: From publishers via NetGalley.com

2.5 stars

If this book has a quality is that it confirms two facts:
- Mare has absolutely no taste in men
- Cal is an idiot, liar and a power-obsessed (as I clearly knew already from the beginning)

"You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flames? Who would ever choose a monster over a god?"

It was hard to witness Mare's suffering while being held prisoner, seeing how the powerful lightning girl was almost reduced to an empty shell, an obedient puppet for propaganda.
But what really hurt me was seeing her using the love Maven feels for her against him. Because even if it's true that his behaviour is like the one of deranged person, I personally find horrible such an attitude.
In "King's cage" a little bit of Maven's past is finally revealed: secret and dark atrocities of his childhood that left me deeply shocked. However, he doesn't reveal just his past self, but he also tries to show Mare that there still is some parts of the old Maven in him. He really, really cares for her in his own way, he protected her from being horribly killed, and still... for her point of view, his love is nothing but a weapon to weaken him.
This is why I didn't feel pity for her at the end of the book, just a little satisfaction for having foreseen how things would have developed. Well, to be honest I've never been a huge fan of this heroine, so my opinion doesn't really change.

Even though I appreciated this side of the story, I must also admit that for the most part I was rather bored. There are just very few plot twists concentrated in the second half, while in the first one the focus is only on Mare's imprisonment, and honestly some parts could probably be at least reduced because the pace was a bit too slow considering all the things happening. For the majority of the time there was no tense atmosphere, no scheming, just a scared and powerless girl.
Things got a little better later, considering the new alliances, betrayals and various news, but still they weren't as good as the events of the first book.

The book is built through three differents POVs belonging to Mare, Evangeline and Cameron. A patchwork of complex feelings, hopes, thoughs that allowed indeed a wider knowledge of the events, but should probably have been more balanced and better chosen. I personally wouldn't have chosen Cameron as third voice, preferring rather someone like Cal or Maven. Characters with more complex - and obscure - personalities, difficult to grasp without a first person narrator.

All in all it wasn't really that bad, but I miss that fascinating, intriguing, tense atmosphere that I loved so much while reading Red queen. Being constantly on a razor's edge, being constantly surprised by the events, being really into the story.

King’s Cage was one of my most anticipated books this year and I was so excited when I was approved for an ARC. However I am not sure if my expectations were just too high or what but this story was for me a huge let down.

The whole book is very slowly paced and nothing really significant happened before at least 60% in the story. And even then when there is more action the plot doesn’t really move the story along.
Based on the quite disappointing stagnant story progression I am convinced that the series started as a trilogy and when a fourth book was ordered/negotiated the plot points of book 3 has been split in two books making this one a bit too slow paced.

I also had a problem with the characters and I know I am not the writer or anything but even if most of the characters were different I have to admit that Mare seems to be the character that surprised me the most. She spent most of the time feeling sorry for herself and somehow harbouring some compassionate feelings and even I dare say some caring for Maven which seems out of character.

Now talking of Maven he had been obsessed to find Mare all of book 2 and yet he is barely present in this opus – Leaving her alone most of the time – which again doesn’t seem to match the characterization that Victoria seem to set in the previous opus.

In conclusion – I found this book rather disappointing, slow paced and out of character. I will most likely read the final book of the series as I have already invested a lot of time in the series but sadly waiting a year to read it will not be difficult.

Stars 1.5/5

One of the best YA series around at the moment.
I really do enjoy reading these.

We are on book 3 of the Red Queen series and it is just getting stronger and stronger, with multiple layers and intrigue being woven into every separate novel, deepening the mythology and making all the character arcs ever more gripping. Therefore I add a cautionary note to readers to ensure they read Red Queen and Glass Sword first, before entering the utterly riveting story that is King’s Cage.

I love these. There are a very few absolute stand out series in this genre, although a lot of very good stuff, but with Red Queen and beyond Victoria Aveyard has created an immersive, beautifully described and intensely addictive other world with a cast of eclectic and troubled characters and a divisive and ever changing political landscape.

I won’t say too much about this instalment just in case you are reading this cold, but suffice to say our heroine Mare, is in an untenable situation, brought about by the events of Glass Sword, she is now living the consequences. For a lot of this book you live that pain with her as she wonders if the life she has is worth continuing on with. Meanwhile more political maneuvering and a war that is widening its grip goes on both around Mare and in the background, leading to an explosive, thrilling and emotionally charged finale. Oh what will happen now? I can’t guess – another one of the reasons this is so good – but boy am I keen to find out.

I like that the author throws surprises at us regularly, not only with regard to the ebb and flow of wider loyalties but with how you view individual characters. One of the mainstays of the series showed us a whole new side in this, it was both fascinating and made you view previous actions in a different way, that is what Ms Aveyard does so well. There is good and evil in here – but good is not always honest and evil is not just born but made – those are the themes that come to the fore a lot in the Red Queen series, none so much as they do in King’s Cage. Murky motivations abound on all sides.

The magical fantasy elements are just ingrained into the stories now, its like that is just life, the abilities of different groups within the varying factions just pretty much the norm and having them there makes for some extensively thrilling, edge of the seat battle scenes. The intricacy of the world building is intensely good, more understanding of the history and the way different factions came into power, all beautifully imagined and flowing through the narrative, you never quite know where the next friendship will be thrown aside as the battles, both civil and extended, rumble on with often powerfully emotional consequences. Especially when you are invested. I’m invested. I love these characters. I’m probably slightly weird in that my main sympathy lies with Maven. But you know. I like the divisive ones, the ones who show so many sides you can’t grasp onto a single one of them..

Overall King’s Cage was a gorgeous, intense and beautifully written rollercoaster ride of a read, it took me but moments to be absorbed once again into Mare’s world and I seriously cannot wait to go back.

Highly Recommended.

After longing for Maven for the duration of Glass Sword, I was thrilled to see him make a welcome return! King`s Cage excels at displaying Aveyard`s immense world building skills. Mare continues to be a worthy YA heroine who walks a fine line between complex and likeable. Adding two new PO V`s at this stage in a series took some getting used to, but Evangeline`s story kept me engaged and definitely added another layer to the series. Cal continues to underwhelm (me personally). I look forward to seeing how the series concludes (hopefully with Mare rising alone)!

4.25 stars out of 5

I finished this book over the weekend, and all I can say is that I wish I read it slower, because the wait for the next book is going to be painful.

King’s Cage started off with Mare as Maven’s captive. What really got me about this portion of the book, where Mare was still unsure about what was going to happen to her, is that that she seemed to have a sliver of hope that there were certain things Maven wouldn’t do. After all the terrible things he had done in the last book, she was kind of subconsciously still holding out that maybe when it came to her, things would be different (and I think Cal thought the same, as pointed out by Cameron). And while certainly she could have been treated much much worse, Maven was still happy to chain her up and deeply mess with her mind and parade her around, despite the fact that he apparently loved her. Mare started to realise that she couldn’t rely on anyone but herself. She had to beat Maven at his own game – the game he played with her in Red Queen. I had to commend Mare for some of the things she made herself do or say in this book, because it must have been so hard to do what she did when she hated every second of it.

Maven was severely messed up. In this book, we got to see the real extent of the damage Elara’s powers did to him, and while I really didn’t want to feel sorry for him (he was, after all, a murderer), it was very difficult not to feel disgusted at how Elara had basically restructured his entire personality by chopping and changing his mind as she pleased. The things she did were horrific. And while I don’t think this excused Maven’s behaviour, it did make him a more complex character. It was impossible not to think of the person he might have been without Elara’s influence. I found the political aspects of this book really interesting, especially since Maven’s obsession with Mare was clouding his judgment and certain parties were taking advantage of that for their own purposes. Most of the Silvers really had no remorse when it came to their treatment of Reds and the entire time I was trying to figure out just exactly how everything was going to work out.

Evangeline started to grow on me in this book. She still had no regard for the lives of the Reds, but from what we saw of her in King’s Cage, I think that could change in the next book. She didn’t want to marry Maven, but she couldn’t marry the person she actually loved, Elane. She was essentially a subject of her father’s will, and had to do whatever he wanted. In that sense, she didn’t have much freedom. I generally enjoyed the chapters from her point of view, though there were a few parts that seemed a bit forced since her POV only cropped up in the latter half of the book. Cameron also grew on me in this book. I wasn’t the hugest fan of all of her chapters, but I like that she was blunt and to the point. It was a stark contrast to Cal, and I appreciated her honestly, and determination in regard to finding her brother.

Cal…what to say? He was clearly desperate to get Mare back. He loved her and would have done anything for her, and I suppose that was a strength. But for all of Maven’s many flaws, he was right about Cal in one of his early conversations with Mare in this book. Cal was somewhat weak-willed. He was always on the fence – in Red Queen, he couldn't say that he actually wanted anything to change because he was too afraid of the consequences, and he was the same in King’s Cage. He may have been strong and an excellent fighter, but decision-making, and understanding what needed to be done – these were areas where he was severely lacking. I think this will really cost him in the next book. More so than already. I’m hoping that his character will change in this sense, but I’m also wondering if it’s maybe too late at this point, which leaves some very interesting questions about what will happen between him and Mare.

Plot-wise, there were so many revelations in this book. I found Glass Sword slightly predictable, but King's Cage kept surprising me. The pacing was slow in a few parts, but I think some of the really good scenes made up for this. Maven didn't seem as sure of himself, and I think Mare handled him the best she could and learnt a lot of useful information. Farley was pretty awesome in this book, being her usual self even while pregnant, and I liked getting to see the Scarlet Guard and finally learning more about their true plans. Mare’s family and Kilorn weren’t very prominent in this book, and neither was Julian – I hope we get to see more of them in book four. I also think the fact that [minor spoiler]loads of lightning users turned up in this book was a bit strange – I thought it was a really rare, unheard of power? How come no Silvers possessed it but a whole bunch of newbloods did? And on that point, I wonder if they will find a whisper newblood...[end of spoiler]. I have to say though, while there is usually a book in a series like this where the main couple is separated for most of it, I actually didn’t mind it too much in this book, which is surprising for me, because that is one of my least favourite tropes. I think I was okay with it here because we got to see Mare in a lot of interesting situations, so I wasn’t just constantly waiting for her to meet back up with Cal.

The ending needs its own separate paragraph because kjhigjkwb. I don’t even know what I expected, there was foreshadowing and everything. What the hell is going to happen in book four?

Overall, I really enjoyed King’s Cage and am looking forward to completing the series with the next book (though I can’t believe we have to wait a whole year…).