Series Review: Wicked Trilogy by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Hey all! I'm back with another series review of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Wicked Trilogy!

Are you ready for it?

Wicked:

Ah, Wicked. Such a gorgeous cover. Definitely in love with all the characters! Ivy Morgan was as kickbutt as always, Ren was swoon-worthy, and Tink was, well, Tink. I really loved how they all seemed to have an obsession with sugar, because in this healthy-food fuelled world, sugar has become literally the most unfortunate devil of a being. But I digress.

True to any JLA book, this book was filled with her trademark romance and strong heroines. I loved the idea of fae roaming through New Orleans, and how there exists a secret order. Even more fun was the idea of a secret order within a secret order, which of course Ren was part of. I particularly liked how accurate the author portrayed Ivy's frustration of not being believed when she said she was attacked by a fae with unnatural abilities, and how only Ren was the one who believed her. There were a few twists in the book, and the ending itself was definitely a cliff-hanger!

Torn:

This book picks up literally a second from the first book. Ivy has just made a huge, crazy discovery that has sent her entire world upside down, and not in a good way. We go through a lot of her headspace in this one as she tries to grapple with what she's discovered and whether, or even how, she should tell others. Including Ren. Which, of course, is a huge source of romantic tension that the author has no qualms about exploiting much to my delight :)

The plot of the second half was something I definitely didn't see coming. At no point did the first half even hint at what was to come. I won't spoil it, but basically, it puts the hatred of the Fae Prince to a whole new level. No cliffhanger ending this time, either, which was a relief!

Brave:

I knew from the start that Ivy was going to be dealing with some serious PTSD from everything that happened to her in Torn. What I didn't expect, and was pleasantly surprised by, was the mental health aspect to it. But that just makes me want to kick myself, because mental health is just as important and relevant to recovery! This book really helped stress and emphasis that being not okay is sometimes okay. Ivy really struggled with trying to get to that point, where she could confidently say she wasn't okay instead of pretending otherwise. Especially since the rest of the world saw she wasn't. It's definitely new territory that books commonly don't explore, especially in sci-fi or fantasy books.

As a result of this, there wasn't as much of Ivy and Ren getting along and working together as I would have liked. There was a lot of arguing and other forms of tension in their relationship all through the first half of the book, which kind of threw me off. But the plot continued on, despite it all.

The ending was...unexpected, if I"m going to be honest. I'm not too sure what to make of it. There were definitely a few twists and turns that happened in the book leading up to it, but I'm not too sure how I feel about the series' conclusion. If anything, I feel like it's a conclusion to the budding romance between Ivy and Ren, but not the overall plot. But I also know that there's a novella series set after the events of this, so hopefully loose ends will be properly wrapped up in that!

So all in all, I'm giving this series 4 stars! The characters were likeable and there were tons of twists that happened. The plot could have had just a biiiiiiiit more to it, but I'm still satisfied with everything that happened!