The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Series: The Folk of the Air, #1

Publication:January 2nd 2018 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Description:

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.

My thoughts:

The Cruel Prince is a new all time favourite of mine! The Cruel Prince has the perfect mixture of an intriguing and engaging plot and characters you can't decided if you like or not. I had so much fun reading this dark story and was blown away with the second half of the book in particular.

Holly Black did an amazing job with the characters. I love how morally grey they all are, there's no good guy really which makes it so interesting to read.Jude was a great protagonist to read about. I really liked how I didn't always agree with her actions. She tough and determined I'll give her that. I loved how she would go to any lengths to achieve her goals. One of my only complaints is that I would have liked more from Jude's older sister who is half fae. Her story sounds so interesting but she is very absent from the story for the most part.

The plot was definitely slow in the beginning but that does not mean I wasn't completely engaged. The action definitely happens in the second half of the story. There was a good few plot twists which kept me on my toes and I only saw them coming a few pages before they happened. I loved how much political scheming and manipulation was going on; it kept me thoroughly engaged. One of the side plots involving Jude's sister had me theorising like mad. I was so intrigued with her storyline.

I loved how the romance in the book was very side lined and almost non existent for the majority of the story. There was this one scene though were the tension between Jude and one of the other characters was through the roof- so good! I think the romance storyline will be very minor in this series going forward which I like.

The world building was very detailed but never info dumpy. I think having all the court politics and the monarchy and everything really made it easy to get a grasp on the world. It also helped that Jude wasn't new to the world so she wasn't constantly asking for explanations which is what usually happens in books with these kinds of stories.

The ending had me like WHAT!!! I seriously cannot wait for the next book! I wasn't a fan of Holly Black (I read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown a few years ago and wasn't a fan) but now I want to give her another chance!

Overall it was a fantastic read and I would recommend it if you are looking for a dark fantasy with lots of political intriguing and morally ambiguous characters. 

Thanks for reading,

A :)