Series: The Folk of the Air #1
Author: Holly Black
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Source: Bought
By #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue.
This Barnes & Noble exclusive edition features a special jacket and bonus story starring fan-favorites Kaye and Roiben of the bestselling Tithe series, allowing readers to witness the pivotal coronation scene from an alternate point of view.
Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
Find The Cruel Prince online!
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. Not only did it sound super dark and interesting, it's about faeries. And faeries are my jam. Seriously, give me everything faeries. That being said, I hyped this book like nothing else. Whenever that happens, I always worry that I'll ruin the experience of reading the book by holding my expectations too high. That said, this was absolutely not the case with The Cruel Prince. I adored this book and was drawn into the world and the story in a way that I haven't been with a book in a long time. This is the type of novel that would have ignited my love of reading and that continues to build my passion.
Ohhhh boy, was this a good one. I honestly don't really know where to start but I guess Jude, our main character, will do! Jude was . . . so amazing. I loved how strong and morally gray Jude was -- she was so dynamic and complicated which I really appreciated. I love it when books are full of morally ambiguous characters and The Cruel Prince had tons of them. This made for a more complex and interesting reading experience! Especially once we saw them all interacting with each other. I was really interested in seeing the way Jude interacted with Prince Cardan, a faerie who is wicked and mean. Characters like Cardan are my weakness and I honestly just couldn't help loving him. I wanted to much more of him and Jude interacting and I'm hoping we see more of that in the books to come. I also am really interested to explore the relationship between Jude and her adoptive faerie dad. After what happened in this book . . . lets just say that their relationship is more complicated than ever and I LOVE IT.
I've heard from a lot of people that the main problems they had with this book was that it was pretty slow, especially in the beginning. Honestly, this wasn't something I even noticed or cared about when I was reading. While the plot was maybe a little slower moving, I was completely entertained by the cool and complex world and the interesting characters. There was clearly a lot of world building being done to set up for the next books in the series (which I'm pumped for!) But, like I said, this slow pace and set up didn't bother me in the slightest. I just enjoyed spending time in this world that Holly Black has built and with these characters.
As one of my most anticipated reads of 2018, The Cruel Prince lived up to and exceeded my expectations. I'm completely taken with the world and the characters. This is my first Holly Black book and I'm looking forward to reading more of her writing. AND I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this series goes!
“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”
Five out of Five Teapots!
No comments:
Post a Comment