Review: The Cruel Prince - Vilma Iris | Lifestyle Blogger

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.

Series:

The Folk of the Air

Book 1

Book Type:

YA Fantasy

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The Cruel Prince
By Holly Black

Review: The Cruel Prince

“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

Famed YA author Holly Black delivers a spellbinding dark fantasy rife with danger, deception and royal intrigue. Exploring themes of belonging in the magical, perilous, utterly brutal world of Faerie, this series starter is everything you hope to find in a series. There’s never a dull moment, the sense of danger alive and hot from the first page to the last.

We meet Jude, who at seven years old saw her parents brutally murdered, only to be whisked away to Faerie with her two sisters. Ten years later, Jude struggles to belong amongst the fey, finding herself the target of her unbearably cruel classmates. Worst among them is the wicked Prince Cardan, who hides secrets of his own.

Despite being a human, Faerie has become her home and all Jude wants is to belong, to eradicate that sense of powerlessness she feels. With dreams of paving her own path and ambitions to claim her own power, Jude inadvertently embroils herself in a dangerous situation she doesn’t fully comprehend.

In trying to figure out what she must do, Jude struggles with her morality in a way that feels real, because it is so messy, complicated and often contradictory. Before the novel’s end, a sea of red will run on the dais and Jude is forced to face the consequences of her decisions.

This riveting coming-of-age story is a riveting mix of fantasy, suspense, romance and more. Deception runs deep as ambitions run high… nothing is as it seems in this must-read novel that will have you clamoring for the next book before it even ends.

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