The Father Who Made Both of Them

Every villain in this series has been a shadow of one man, and Court is where Tracy Wolff finally puts him on the page properly.

Cyrus Vega is the vampire king, Jaxon's father, Hudson's father, and the architect of everything broken in either of them. He has ruled for centuries, he views his sons as instruments, and he is the reason Hudson spent a hundred years being called a monster for something he did not do.

Court is the confrontation. And it is, by a distance, the most propulsive book in the series.

What It's About

Grace holds the Gargoyle Court, a crown she did not want, over a Court that has been extinct for a thousand years, at the age of seventeen. The Circle, the governing body of the supernatural world, is fracturing. Cyrus is moving openly. And the group of teenagers at the centre of this has to somehow prevent a war they are catastrophically unqualified to fight.

Wolff finally lets her ensemble function as an ensemble here. Macy, Flint, Eden, Mekhi and Remy stop being background and start being a team with distinct capabilities and real exposure to harm. The found-family dynamic that the series has claimed since book one becomes actual.

The final act delivers. There are losses that stick, and the confrontation with Cyrus pays off four books of setup without cheating.

What Works

Cyrus is a genuine antagonist. Cold, plausible, and monstrous in a specifically paternal way. His scenes with Hudson are the best material in the book.

The friend group finally matters. After three books of characters existing mainly to react to Grace, Court gives them agency and consequences. Flint in particular gets an arc with permanent cost.

Hudson and Grace are settled without being boring. Wolff manages the difficult trick of writing an established couple who are still interesting, largely by keeping their dynamic argumentative.

The pacing is the tightest in the series. Court moves.

Where It Struggles

The teenage-queen premise strains. Grace holding a Court, negotiating with centuries-old politicians and leading a war effort at seventeen requires a suspension of disbelief the book does not entirely earn, and the surrounding adults are conspicuously useless in order to make room for her.

Wolff's habit of having characters explain the plot to each other reaches its peak here. Several chapters are functionally briefings.

And the ending, while satisfying, has the shape of a series conclusion, which creates a problem for the two books that follow it.

The Velvet Coven Verdict

Court is the climax the Crave series spent four books earning, and it delivers. Cyrus is the villain the story needed, the ensemble finally functions, the losses land, and the pacing is the best Wolff has managed.

It is also, for a significant portion of the fandom, where the series should have stopped. That is not a criticism of Court. It is a compliment that became a problem. This book resolves the central conflict so completely that the two volumes after it have to manufacture reasons to continue.

Read it as the finale it feels like. What comes next is a different kind of book.

Quick Reference

  • Author: Tracy Wolff
  • Published: 2022 (Entangled Teen)
  • Series: Crave, Book 4
  • Setting: Katmere Academy, the Vampire Court, the Gargoyle Court
  • Tropes: Reluctant queen, tyrannical father, found family, war, sacrifice
  • Spice level: 3/5: YA register, more explicit than earlier books
  • Status: #1 NYT Bestseller