Good evening, everyone!
It’s that time again when I put my heart on my sleeve and talk about my thoughts on a book I’ve recently read. And this week, it’s The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.
Premise/Blurb:
Jude was seven 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.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal 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.
“There’s always something left to lose.”
My thoughts:
So if any of you follow me on Instagram, you would know that this book utterly DESTROYED me. I was so afraid of this book not living up to the hype that I took my time to read this book. However, I now regret doing so as I loved this book and everything about it.
Plot – The storyline was incredibly intriguing and new to me. I knew that stories about the fae weren’t all that cutesy and innocent, but this book really opened my eyes as to how mischievous and ruthless they can actually be. That being said, I wish I could have seen a little bit more world-building, as it felt a little rushed towards the end, and there was more of a preference for action and events.
Characters – This book had a very interesting ensemble of characters, with a number of them leaving quite an impression on me; most notably, Jude and Cardan. Taryn and Locke also made me feel a lot of things, mostly bad, and if you read the book you’ll definitely understand why.
Cardan is pretty much my life right now; even though he starts off as being very callous and demeaning, once I learned more about him and why he is the way he is, my heart couldn’t help but melt. His relationship with Jude is pretty much a hate-to-love trope and I am HERE for it. Also, whilst Jude herself may not be the most likable protagonist, she went through quite a development and I love how deceitful and ruthless she became.
The characters in this book pretty much bring out either the best or worst in each other; and it’s very interesting to see that even though the Fae and humans are shown to be enemies and polar opposites of each other, as events unravel, the line starts to blur. Are the Fae as indestructible and cold as they seem? And how far is Jude willing to go to maintain her power?
“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”
My Rating:
Obviously, this book gets all the stars! I can’t wait to see what happens next. If you love books with suspense, betrayal, dynamic characters and a captivating plot, this book is for you!
If any of you have read the book already, please let me know your thoughts on the book. What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!
Written by: Alexia DeBono
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