**4.5 stars rounded up to 5**

Man, I really loved this series. It was a really fun, quick read with a surprising amount of character development despite the books only being about 300 pages a piece. I loved Jude and Cardan and Vivi, and so many of the other cast of characters. All while also despising plenty of others, including Madoc but also understanding Jude's conflict of simultaneously hating him and still loving him as the one who raised her. This book in particular really had me just hoping things would finally go right for Jude and Cardan, and getting so close so many times just to have the ground ripped out from under them again and again. When Cardan broke the crown and turned into a snake, not only was the described imagery horrifying, but my heart also broke for Jude who was so close to her happy ending. I was really convinced this series was going to end on a bad note. My one wish was that she would have just had Madoc killed at the end, I think the guy kind of deserved it