Eva’s ghost: so I get killed by my faerie husband

Eva’s ghost: you’d think that would teach them something

Eva’s ghost: BUT THEN THEY BOTH GO AND MARRY FAE

Justin: I know honey.

And, unlike Rhys, Carden has 10000% more stay-at-home-dad energy anyway...

Do you know how committed that poor abandoned kid would be to making sure his babies grew up better than him?

Why is everyone so upset about the idea of Jude having a baby ten years after the end of her story? You do know that a woman's personality and mind don't get vacuumed out when they get pregnant right? She wouldn't change into some simpering caricature with no agency, Sarah J Maas really did a number on you guys...

Family has always been a major theme in this series: Jude was motivated in the first book by a need to protect her little brother. There has never been any suggestion from her that she doesn't want children, only an expression early in the first book that she's scared to always be powerless, and even her fairy children would be able to be cruel to her, which speaks to her desire to find her own power not a genuine drive not to have children.

It's completely understandable to be tired of all your characters having the same end: marriage to a guy, crown, babies, but I don't think this one character's fate after the conclusion of this one fantasy/romance series is the hill to die on.

Anyway, I love the idea and every time I imagine Jude as a mother I think of Najwa Nimri's amazing performance in La Casa de Papel, it was sooo Jude

trash!!!!

No Funerals

I haven't posted about it because I was too late to the discourse to say anything interesting, but Six of Crows is the absolute gold standard for fantasy romance (romantasy)

Best Characters - literally cannot choose

Best Romances - No triangles (almost), no favorites, troubles all organic and not contrived

Unique Fantasy world - a 1920s Amsterdam is so unique

Unique Fantasy obstacles - Crazy magic drugs on the market

Diversity in real way - People from different backgrounds that are fleshed out

Really fucking funny

Incredible use of POV shifting

Every fantasy i read I compare to Six of Crows

Six of Crows maybe? Not exactly the same thing, but its a hiest in a non-typical fantasy world with some stellar romances. People run around in costumes and disguises and gamble at casinos.

I NEED BOOK RECS SIMILAR TO CARAVAL PLEEEASE

I'm not a fantasy girl, I've always been a contemporary girl, but ever since I've read Caraval, I literally can't think of anything else.

Let me be straight, I'm not looking for just any fantasy with romance.

I love caraval because while it's essentially a fantasy, the mystery aspect of it drew me in. I LOVE THE MYSTERY AND ROMANCE IN CARAVAL. It's obviously not the kind of mystery we see in murder mysteries or in psychological thrillers.

I hope you get what I'm trying to say here.

The whole magical circus, "remember it's just a game", "you can't just trust anyone", the clues, the letters, the secrets, just everything about it I LOVE.

I’m not really into fantasy romances with wars and battles, powers, royalty, “we must save the kingdom”.

It’s just that Caraval really hit the spot for me. It’s fantasy, but there’s a whirlwind mystery and romance.

Please don’t say “just read the rest of the trilogy” or the Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy.

I think this is what I love about Prisoner's Throne. The address all of this.

Duarte Girls: Wow, our lives have sure been a lot. Thank god we saved Oak from the trauma that was a formative experience in our lives

Carden: Um, yes ...excellent job...

Meanwhile, Oak has essentially created a split personality between being Locke and Jude

What stuck out to me the most about The Prisoner's Throne was that the Duarte family is absolutely insane. Like, I already knew this. But it felt even more BATSHIT here.

Madoc killed Jude and Taryn's parents, raised them, tried to but his EIGHT YEAR OLD son on the throne as a puppet king, tried to depose his daughter from her throne and tie her to a snaky Cardan forever, stabbed Jude, was complicit in Wren, his future daughter in law's torture and imprisonment, and is still loved (twistedly) by his daughters and family. Taryn killed Locke, Oak's half brother, but the boy in question did not know about the relation. The Ghost, Taryn's lover, killed Liriope and almost Oak in the womb, and they didn't tell him that little detail until he was eighteen. Jude was Locke's lover as well and eventually helped her sister lie about her killing him. Oriana was Cardan's father's lover and pulled a baby Oak out of his mother's corpse. Vivi manipulated Heather at first and was (in the beginning) not concerned about her safety and care in Elfhame.

Its just. They are SO messed up and yet are still a weirdly loving and healthy (?) family.

Its just. Wow.

Am I the only one that thinks Wren and Oak are very much the opposites of Cardan and Jude? Yes, in both stories the fmc thinks the mmc hates her when he’s actually besotted with her but I wanna talk about them as individuals.

What I mean is, Cardan presents himself as monstrous but actually dislikes battle and would never kill. Oak comes across as a sunshine boy but can and will go into killer mode when provoked.

Now, Jude may seem weak because she’s mortal, but she can and will kill. Suren may look and be treated as if she’s a monster (and even presents herself as that at times), but she is actually so pure of heart.

I don’t know, just something I was thinking about.

Everyone is talking about Madoc wanting to kill Carden and forgetting the epic scene where he "hints" that Jude should kill Locke.

Literally, Locke walks out of Madoc's room after asking for Taryn's hand and Madoc is pulls Jude aside like "What if I have a suggestion that will help everyone in Elfhame?"

Madoc

Madoc has never met a lover that didn't need murdering.

'Today he sees a blond pixie laughing as she splashes someone else- a man in black with salt white hair.'

- Kaye and Roiben Lake of Masks cameo in The Prisoner's Throne

always nice to see them :)

Prisoner's Throne

The last fucking thing on my bingo card for this book was postmortem Locke.

Madoc

Madoc has never met a lover that didn't need murdering.

I finally let myself buy Stolen Heir today so that I could binge it and not spend a month in a frenzy waiting for Prisoner's Throne. I saw what Holly did in Wicked King and I want NONE of it.

Hell is really strong feelings about a book with no fandom.

Dark Ending

ACFTL spoilers/theories

Apparantly Stephanie had to do a re-write because the publishers thought the original plan was too dark. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the original plan was for Jacks to attempt suicide through the Phoenix tree.

The way Evangeline says she won't "let him burn", the way that Lala has to explain the two types of heart thing in expo last minute etc all suggest maybe a late change. It would have been cleaner for Jacks to just plan to throw himself on the fire rather than the weird heart-in-a-jar thing.

Both Apollo and Jacks are trying to re-write an uncomfortable history with their chosen "love" to force the girl to make a different choice.

If anything, Jacks is a little worse as by the end of TBONA he isn't even doing it because he remotely thinks he loves Tella. He cares way more about escaping (and therefore saving) Evangaline than actually making Tella care about him. He does not give one shit that he is trying to take Tella away from a future with someone who actually loves her so he can pantomime love with his second choice.

ACFTL SPOILER: It is wild that the book never points this out or holds Jacks accountable for his shitty plan in any way.

I know Apollo goes way more off the rails, but I definitely thought the point of Apollo was to make Jacks realize why his former obsessive and controlling actions were wrong and were not love.