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Title: Crush the King
Author: Jennifer Estep
Sub-genre: Fantasy
Alright, so Crush the King is the final book in this trilogy. As you might recall from earlier posts, I was given a copy of the first book, Kill the Queen, at last year’s RWA conference, leading me to believe it was a romance (since you know, romance conference), which it definitely is not. That made the first book a little disappointing for me because it didn’t meet expectations. But it was a good story, and so I read the second one Protect the Prince, which was definitely more romancey than the first. The third, however, is more in line with the first, in that the love story very much takes a backseat to the fantasy plot.
Evie has won and held onto her throne, despite multiple assassination attempts, and now she decides it’s time to go on the offensive. And what better time than during the continent’s Olympic style games, when all the countries gather together to compete. Evie makes a couple of brash moves early on in the games, but her real intent is to play the long game, by manipulating her enemies and turning them on each other before destroying them completely. There is a lot of action, a little bit of kissing, and some resolution and a happy ending.
I liked this book just fine. This is not one I’m dying to go back and read over and over again, but it was enjoyable while I was reading, and I was interested in seeing how the trilogy wrapped up. I really liked Evie overall, I think she was a great heroine. We didn’t see as much of Sullivan as I would have liked in this book, because again, it’s not really a romance. But they have a happy ending and so I’ll take what I can get! I think if you’re looking for fantasy and don’t care about the romance aspect, these are probably really great reads. I just need more kissing!
Overall Rating: 4 stars