Written by Jennifer Estep, Crust the King is the latest and last novel in the Crown of Shards series, and picks up a few months after Protect the Prince. Evie has her prince, Mr. Sully, but now they have the Olympic style games coming up and will have to meet their enemy in person for the first time – and figure out how to destroy him.
The plot was moving and the mind games they played interesting, though a number of times I wanted to just shake Evie for not understanding who was really in charge. But, it was good and the stakes were higher than in the last two novel (a feat I wasn’t sure would happen).
However, this was my least favorite of the three. Sully, the leading man, really wasn’t there except for the hot and heavy moments (WARNING, NOT FOR CHILDREN) and still, even with that, it felt like those scenes weren’t needed. Overall, it felt like Sully wasn’t even there. He is a force in his own right to be reckoned with, someone who probably could have taken on the Morton king himself, yet he is left on the sidelines for the personal guard. I expected him to be the personal guard. Yes, he is her consort (are they actually married? anyone know?), but that is all he really is. He just slides into the background with the rest of the friends, if not behind them.
He is arguable the second most interesting character in her band of friends, if only because of the amazingly strong personality we got in the first book. Now, after climbing up a cliff for her, he just slides into a romance only role?
Other than that, this novel did a great job of wrapping up everything that we wanted to know and giving us more intrigue and doing a great job of keeping characters with depth while facing extreme situations.
Overall, would still recommend with the caveat of Sully.
This novel comes out March 2020, and I was given a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
