"The Queen of Nothing" by Holly Black

The Queen of Nothing is the third and final book in The Folk of Air trilogy that began with The Cruel Prince. Overall, this was a satisfying conclusion to the story, but my initial thoughts on Holy Black's writing stay the same. The plot is not well fleshed out, it lacks depth and complexity. The world is not well developed, and we do not get a lot of interaction between Cardan and Jude even though theirs is the main romantic story in the book.

In general, the entire enemies to lovers tension is created because Jude misunderstands and fears him. We get the story only from her perspective, and she does not spend much time with Cardan even in book 2 where she is his seneschal. This third book is also disappointingly short (305 pages). I definitely think Black could have done more with the world, given how popular this series has been.

In my reviews of the first two books I mentioned that I did not like Jude. In book 3, she is more likable. I definitely felt that she was less desperate and more sure of herself. I guess becoming Queen helped in that regard too, as she is also acting less power hungry.

My overall rating for this installment is 3 stars. If this is Holly Black's best work, I am not sure I want to read her backlist. This trilogy is extremely over-hyped and underwhelming.