Gemma
The Cruel Prince took booktube by storm even before the official release date. I remember the buzz surrounding this book as various members of the community read the arc and began gushing about Holly Black, “the queen of fae fiction”. I'd never read anything about fae, or anything by Holly Black so while the hype had me interested it never convinced me to read it immediately.
Later, after the buzz died down I read some reviews that dimmed the hype surrounding the Cruel Prince. And it was after the publication of the second book and only a few months before the third book I decided to pick it up.
At eight, Jude has two sisters and a set of parents who love her. But with the arrival of the biological father of her eldest sister, she loses her parents and her connections to the mortal world in one fell swoop. The book picks back up around the age eighteen where Jude and her twin sister are the only mortal members of the gentry class in Faerieland. They are in uniquely dangerous positions as the most vulnerable members of society but they can change that by becoming permanant members of faerie courts. And this book really is about how Jude wants to prove herself and become a member of the court so she can live a safe and ‘normal' life amoung the Folk.
I really liked this book, and I think that was down to the characters protrayed in the story. It focuses on Jude, but probably most importantly on her connection to her twin sister and Cardan, one of the farie princes. There were quite a few moments over the course of this book where I expected the plot to do something, and it would completely upturn those expectations. I also really enjoyed that the faeries were exactly as cruel and brutal as the title suggests, and doesn't really hold back on those aspects. I had expected that due to the YA label, and that I had heard so much buzz about a particular romanitc relationship developing, the book would pull short of really making me believe how cruel the fae were. In reality, the fae were terrible characters with redeeming qualities that did not wash away their true nature. It made the characters who filled this world a lot more interesting and fleshed out.
This one is a surprising four stars from me, and I would reccomend it!
The Cruel Prince took booktube by storm even before the official release date. I remember the buzz surrounding this book as various members of the community read the arc and began gushing about Holly Black, “the queen of fae fiction”. I'd never read anything about fae, or anything by Holly Black so while the hype had me interested it never convinced me to read it immediately.
Later, after the buzz died down I read some reviews that dimmed the hype surrounding the Cruel Prince. And it was after the publication of the second book and only a few months before the third book I decided to pick it up.
At eight, Jude has two sisters and a set of parents who love her. But with the arrival of the biological father of her eldest sister, she loses her parents and her connections to the mortal world in one fell swoop. The book picks back up around the age eighteen where Jude and her twin sister are the only mortal members of the gentry class in Faerieland. They are in uniquely dangerous positions as the most vulnerable members of society but they can change that by becoming permanant members of faerie courts. And this book really is about how Jude wants to prove herself and become a member of the court so she can live a safe and ‘normal' life amoung the Folk.
I really liked this book, and I think that was down to the characters protrayed in the story. It focuses on Jude, but probably most importantly on her connection to her twin sister and Cardan, one of the farie princes. There were quite a few moments over the course of this book where I expected the plot to do something, and it would completely upturn those expectations. I also really enjoyed that the faeries were exactly as cruel and brutal as the title suggests, and doesn't really hold back on those aspects. I had expected that due to the YA label, and that I had heard so much buzz about a particular romanitc relationship developing, the book would pull short of really making me believe how cruel the fae were. In reality, the fae were terrible characters with redeeming qualities that did not wash away their true nature. It made the characters who filled this world a lot more interesting and fleshed out.
This one is a surprising four stars from me, and I would reccomend it!