The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Series: The Folk of the Air #1
Genre: Fantasy | Young Adult
Length: 370 pages
Published on 28th March 2015 by Hot Key Books
Purchase: Amazon | TBD
Holly Black: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
eCopy received from Publisher via NetGalley, physical copy bought via FairyLoot and B&N
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.
I remember reading The Spiderwick Chronicles when I was much younger and really enjoying it but since then I haven’t read any of Holly Black’s work.
When I saw The Cruel Prince on NetGalley I just had to request it but figured I wouldn’t get accepted. However I did and then I got really bad anxiety about it not being able to live up to what I expected.
I don’t know why I bothered to get myself in such a tizz because d’uh I had nothing to worry about.
Holly Black creates such a great Fae world and from chapter one I was totally engulfed in this fantasy setting and had to know more and more.
I’m not sure I’ve read another book who’s opening shocked me so much that I was like “yes, this is for me. give me more”.
Jude and her twin sister are taken for Fae when they’re 7 years old due to their sister being half-fae. I think seeing this story unfold from Jude’s point of view as she is such an interesting character.
Her twin sister accepts living in fae and wants to do what is possible to live and survive there by conforming. Her elder sister isn’t happy about being their but due to her bloodline can get away with being bratty.
Jude though, Jude is fed up of living with this murderer. Fed up of being “weak”. Fed up of having to be scared to survive so she trains. Trains hard like bamf. Cause she wants to be accepted and maybe a little bit feared. She wants to exist here but in a different way to what her sister does. She’s smart, cunning, and angry. She is such a great protagonist and seeing the world from her point of view is perfect.
Then of course we have the fae. Prince Cardan is everything you expect a royal fae to be. He’s rude, overbearing, abusive and cruel. He hates humans. Especially Jude. Honestly fuck Jude amirite?
I also loved how the story unfolded. Black set up her plot line brilliantly and through well placed though not super obvious hints you could vaguely figure out where things were going to go. It was well crafted and still allowed room for a few surprises.
I highly recommend this fast paced and bloody read.
Northern Plunder 
Fast paced and bloody? I’m all in!
Fab review :)
I loved it for the same reasons, and was hooked from the start.
Cora | http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk
Yay!!! You loved it too I am so happy!!! Holly has fantastic characters.
I’ve had this sitting on my bookshelf since January and you’ve just listed all these reasons I know I’ll love it! Hopefully I can get to it soon…great review, Lauren!
Glad you liked this book–it’s so awesome :)
I plann to read this soon! Thanks for the review, it’s a great one :*
And this one’s also one of my hype-resistance books xD it’s so cool that you were accepted for the ARC! And glad you loved it too :)
I have this on my TBR, so I barely skimmed your review. I just wanted to know if you loved it or not :D And I’m very glad you did – five stars means good things are waiting for me.
Yay so glad you liked this too! Completely agree about the opening – it stuck in my mind so much I remember exactly where I was when I read it and that was mid-January now! (I was on a bus heading to watch The Greatest Showman for the first time haha). I’m glad we had Jude’s point of view too – but I love how Holly wrote such complex characters that I’d have still enjoyed reading from another POV!
Great review! ^_^
The Cruel Prince is such an amazing book. I adore Jude and her give-no-mercy attitude. I don’t know which was more shocking, that bloody opening scene, or that jaw-dropping double-cross ending.
I’ve seen so much hype for this book and have been curious because the cover is to die for, but I always hesitate to pick up wildly popular books and try not to build up any expectations. I’ve yet to read anything by Holly Black so this may be a good introduction for me to her work. I’m glad that you enjoyed it, good Fae books can be tricky!