# The Wicked King by Holly Black

### The Wicked King

**Holly Black** · The Folk of the Air, book 2 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-wicked-king](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-wicked-king)

Jude holds the throne through a bargain with a year on it, and spends the book trying to keep a king who resents her from noticing how little power she actually has. The best-plotted book in modern fae fantasy and the source of one of its most famous endings.

- Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. One extended kiss and a great deal of suppressed everything else.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 5/5
- Worldbuilding: 5/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 5/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc, he-falls-first
- Creatures: fae, humans
- Setting: Elfhame, from the throne room
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: ya
- Content warnings: violence, manipulation, drowning, betrayal
- Best for: Readers who want scheming and yearning rather than spice.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

## Sources

- https://openlibrary.org/search?q=The+Wicked+King+Holly+Black

## What to read next

- [The Cruel Prince](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-cruel-prince) by Holly Black — spice 1/5. ACOTAR readers who want the fae court politics without the explicit content.
- [These Hollow Vows](https://houseofareader.com/books/these-hollow-vows) by Lexi Ryan — spice 2/5. ACOTAR readers who want the fae courts at a much lower spice level.
- [Six of Crows](https://houseofareader.com/books/six-of-crows) by Leigh Bardugo — spice 1/5. Readers who want found family and yearning with no spice whatsoever.
- [Uprooted](https://houseofareader.com/books/uprooted) by Naomi Novik — spice 2/5. ACOTAR readers who want the same premise handled by a much stronger prose stylist.

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Ratings are editorial judgements applied against a published scale at
https://houseofareader.com/lessons/spice, not aggregated reader scores. Editorial policy:
https://houseofareader.com/lessons/how-we-choose. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements.