King's Cage

A Kings's Isolated Cage

---

---

BEFORE READING

Oh, hello there! This review contains spoilers about one of my favorite broken-romance books, King's Cage, by Victoria Aveyard. I read this book a month ago, and loved it with all my heart. It's extensive, it has romance, it has broken boys... and my favorite: an unlikely ship. Let's get on with the review!

SUMMARY

“In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.

As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.

When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.” – Goodreads.

BOOK REVIEW

I absolutely love this book. It’s wonderful, it’s magical, it’s everything I could ever ask for—and there’s romance buried beneath it all, wow!

I’m reading this particular series in disorder… because I had no idea if this was the first book or not… guess what, I loved it!

I want to know exactly what happened with Maven’s childhood, though—I would love it if we also got a background story with Evangeline!

Honestly, we all get stuff that happened with the Reds. It’s like, “Reds, Reds, Reds, Reds,” and what about Silvers? I want to know more about them. I want background stories, spin-offs, family issues, and SO MUCH DRAMA PLEASE!

I’m a drama eater, like people are cake-eaters. I eat drama, they eat cake—I eat fights and love triangles and much more, they eat cake with soft sprinkles and frosting and artificially flavored loafs full of baked cocoa or vanilla beans.

Did I just make you hungry? Yep.

King’s Cage was a great, great book. It starts off with Mare’s POV, and I must say that this girl was ruthless. She was like a living razor, and omg, while people say she was selfish in the other two books, she didn’t seem selfish to me at all. Only at the end, but we’re not exactly there yet.

Maven is a broken boy—a boy that did not experience love throughout his life, because his own mom took that ability away from him. I mean, who would do that?? Why, Elara?! WHY?!

So, to take the pain he has suffered, he captures the girl he “loved” (he didn’t exactly love her, I mean, he’s obsessed with her and all… but I’m such a strong #mavenandmare shipper because I feel like they deserve each other… because I think that Cal is kind of selfish?

Anyway, Maven keeps Mare as his prisoner, with Silent Stone as her cage, and his lethal abuse of not talking to her made me go cray-cray (and I never go cray-cray, I’m telling ya).

But Evangeline (Maven’s cruel, cruel fiancée), just makes everything even worse by bringing her to one of Maven’s lavish parties.

And Maven is angry when he sees Mare… because, um, she’s trapped, away from the real world and all of that stuff… and Evangeline, who hates Mare, brings her to one of his parties?! I would be mad if that happened to me, so I relate to Maven.

The real reason why Evangeline brought Mare is revealed in the next few paragraphs, and that is that she wants Mare to be interrogated. And Maven’s cousin, Samson, grants the wish. He’s a whisperer, like Elara, Maven’s cruel mother, who was nothing more than a bad mother and an unloving wife to the deceased king of Norta.

I just, at this moment, feel like Evangeline is an entire sweetheart and certainly deserves better. She deserves a prince who cares and loves about her—but the thing, her family wants her to be with a prince, an heir or someone that will be king in near future. I just feel that, during this moment, it is revealed how much of a cruel soul Maven really is. He might be handsome, yes, but uh—he literally tortured the girl he “loved” a few months ago. I think he’s in fact obsessed with Mare, and just keeps her there because of her lighting abilities.

Time flashes, the Royal houses that are supposedly “loyal” to their new king rebel against him, and decide to leave. Most of them are currently dead, but some are alive. The ones that still remain, though, are kept for an interrogation. It doesn’t go well.

At this moment, I then noticed that Maven has a brother, Cal. I investigated about his brother and says that Mare loved him before she was captured and thrown carelessly into the prison like she was trash. And in a few chapters, it is revealed Cal loves more and wants to get her out of the cage Maven has built (aka his castle walls).

So, Cal rescues Mare, proclaims his love for her, they passionately kiss, leave, then the Samos house literally dissolves and escapes after Maven marries and creates an ally with their enemy kingdom, and Cal’s grandmother is so possessive, Cal’s granny wants him to be king—and leave Mare. So, being really selfish, Cal decides he’ll be king and leave poor Mare in tears. Yes, that’s exactly what happens but I left a few major scenes for y’all to find out!

I really liked the length of this book—and yes, I love big books and I cannot lie. I just love being immersed into a giant, complex story and enjoy all of the character development and stuff. It’s just magnificent, don’t you think?

I feel that, since Victoria Aveyard told us that one of the most beloved characters in the Red Queen series is going to die, I think Maven will probably die. And no, I haven’t read any spoilers regarding War Storm—so please don’t leave any in the comments. Thank you!

Don’t judge me, but I absolutely adore love triangles. Like…. omg the drama, it’s just so wonderful and unbelievable. For once, I don’t ship the protagonist with the good guy. I ship Mare with Maven… because I feel like if they were in a different world, they would be meant for each other. #mareven

You can comment who you ship in the comments and remember that this is a hate-free zone. We are all bookworms that read my reviews once a month… because we’re all awesome and eat drama like cake, right?

The thing is, I give this book 8/10 stars because, uh, the character development was amazing, I got to see a side of Evangeline I didn’t even believe that existed, and even if I got a horrible #mavenandmare kiss, I got it. Thank you, Victoria Aveyard. You made my day.

There were so many things I would’ve added, such as Silver background, like, when Evangeline’s mom and Maven’s dad were teens, stuff like that. That would’ve been so interesting I would’ve eaten it right away like when the sun melts ice cream. Yep. That fast.

I love Victoria Aveyard’s writing. It’s like… she can transport us readers to a magical place I now which that exists. I wouldn’t be a Red—I would love to be a Silver and be Maven’s sister and be a whisperer because… I don’t know. Yes, I would like that to happen.

Ms. Aveyard’s writing is so wonderful I have no idea what I’m gonna do if she doesn’t bring Silver spin-offs after War Storm, or I will cry a river and watch Netflix all day long or write blog posts.

FAVORITES QUOTES

“Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.”

“To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.” 

“You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flame?”

“In what life can I trust anything out of your mouth ever again?” 

I hope that you guys enjoy King’s Cage as much as I did! It’s too awesome and shiny for my reader eyes and drama-eater tasting buds. This book is just wonderful (though I recommend you read it in order, but if you read it like I do then it’s perfectly OK) and I want to congratulate Victoria Aveyard for breaking my small shipper heart by marrying Mare to the Lakelander princess. I can still ship #mareven from the outside, anyway. I can always go to the old books and submerge myself into the first one, when there were… so many scenes! I was so happy!

Anyway, dear reader—enjoy this book!

Don’t forget to comment what you think about it if you have read it… and if you haven’t yet, what are you waiting for? Victoria Aveyard is such a splendid author I cannot imagine how my reader heart will be if she stops writing fantasy and fiction. Never stop, please, Ms. Aveyard.

​Thank you for reading, dear readers! Until next month! 😊

Congratulations King's Cage you passed the Pink Smoothie-Confirmed Book Process. This means you are Pink Smoothie-Approved! You won a Pink Smoothie Sticker.

©2019
​
Pink Smoothie!

---

---