The King's Traitor by Jeff Wheeler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean


Against all odds, Owen Kiskaddon grew from frightened boy to confident youth to trusted officer in the court of Kingfountain—and watched its regent, Severn Argentine, grow ever more ruthless and power-mad. Robbed of his beloved protector, his noble mentor, and his true love, Owen has anticipated the day when the king he fears and reviles, yet loyally serves, will be toppled. Now, as Severn plots a campaign of conquest, the time has come to take action…and Owen’s destiny demands that he lead the strike.

Ordered to incite war with a neighboring kingdom, Owen discovers its beautiful, reclusive ruler, whose powerful magic might even exceed his own. Together they mount a daring plot to overthrow the corrupt monarch, crown the rightful heir, and defeat the prophesied curse threatening Kingfountain with wintry death. But Severn’s evil is as bottomless as the fabled Deep Fathoms. To keep his ill-gotten throne, he’ll gladly spill the blood of enemies and innocents alike.

“We learn much through suffering... But I think what we learn most is who we really are."


After what transpired in the last book in this series, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this one. Fortunately I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I love how the characters in this series learn and grow. The author manages to write depth into his characters while keeping the story easy to read. For example, as I said in my review of The Queen's Poisoner, the king is unexpectedly complicated and not just a cookie cutter villain. I appreciate that I can read these when I'm not in the mood for something heavy and real in-depth, and still enjoy the story and feel attached to the characters.

There is a span a several years between each book in this series and normally I'm not a huge fan of that, but this is one of the only series I've read that I actually don't mind time jumps in. I went into this feeling bad for how things ended up for Owen, but by the end I was glad at how things turned out for him, for Evie, and for most everyone else. Wheeler's stories are inspired by other tales, or events in history, and this series was very inspired by the Arthurian legends. This book in particular was inspired very much by the Lady of the Lake, and I loved how it was woven into the book.

After finishing this I wanted to dive right into the fourth book in the series, which moves forward in time to feature the children of the characters in this one. However, someone recommended reading the Legends of Muirwood series first, because there are heavy tie-ins, so I'm going to put the last three books on hold and jump on over to Muirwood for a while first.