Book: The Serpent Prince by Jacquelyn Gilmore
Reviewed by A.Hampton Reads
Rating: 5/5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
I thought I was invested after The Elf Witch , but The Serpent Prince somehow pulled me even deeper into this world.
The emotional rollercoaster in this book was everything. The stakes grew, the world expanded, the characters traveled into new realms, and there were plenty of dangerous people and situations along the way—but for me, the heart of this book was Imani and Kiran.
Because the story remains entirely in Imani's POV, we learn the truth about Kiran alongside her, and getting answers about him is a wonderfully slow crawl. He's powerful, ruthless, manipulative, secretive, and absolutely infuriating. Yet the more I learned about him, the more compelling he became.
Their relationship is complicated by the fact that neither fully trusts the other and both are keeping secrets. There are moments when even Imani isn't sure which parts of their relationship are genuine, and that uncertainty worked especially well because Kiran's feelings often came through in his actions long before he was willing to communicate them honestly.
And somehow I found myself rooting for this terrible man.
But what I loved most about this sequel was watching the power dynamic begin to change.
Imani spends so much of The Elf Witch and the beginning of this book being underestimated, manipulated, and denied information about herself. Slowly, she begins to understand not only her own power, but Kiran himself. She learns how he thinks. She becomes more confident in what she's capable of. And when that growth finally pays off, it pays off.
The worldbuilding also becomes even more immersive. We explore more of the realms and learn more about the magic and mythology without losing the intimate character story at the center. And, as someone who initially had to work a little harder to learn the terminology in Book 1, I appreciated when I opened this one and discovered a glossary.
The pacing never lost me. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the story and trying to predict where it was going. I guessed a few things correctly (and I would personally like credit for one particular theory I had all the way back in Book 1 💅🏻), while other developments completely surprised me. I also expected the story to move toward one particular kind of ending and was VERY wrong.
There is more blood and gore here than I normally gravitate toward, while the intimate scenes actually felt more emotionally intimate than those in the first book. That combination worked surprisingly well for the darker story being told.
By the end, Imani and Kiran feel much closer to equals. They're both powerful, complicated, and, honestly, both capable of a certain amount of ruthlessness. The book answered questions I'd been carrying while creating even bigger ones, and I finished it even more invested than I was before.
I gave The Elf Witch five stars.
I liked The Serpent Prince even more.