Fairy Fantasy is a Can’t-Put-Down Delight

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is a sit-in-your-room-and-ignore-the-world-until-you-finish kind of read. When I first picked up this book I only put it down to take my dog outside and to eat food. It’s that good.

The Cruel Prince is about a human girl named Jude Duarte, who is stolen away to the world of faeries after her parents were murdered by the very faerie that steals her away. Ten years later, Jude and her twin sister Taryn are trying to fit in amongst the faeries, but the children of the faeries despise humans, which makes it quite difficult. One faerie especially gets under Jude’s skin, and that is Carden Greenbriaris, the prince of faerie, and also the youngest child of the king of faerie who is cruel to Jude along with his small group of friends. They include Locke, a faerie who loves to create his own stories, Nicasia, the princess of the undersea, and Valerian, a faerie who is flat out cruel.

As Jude is desperately trying to find her place in the world of faerie she receives an offer from one of the other princes of faerie that will give her a place in the palace’s inner workings. When Jude is starting to feel like she belongs, a huge betrayal takes place and Jude is shocked.

This book is amazing; as I mentioned, as soon as I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. Jude became one of my favorite characters. She’s brave and great with knives and swords. Honestly, after reading this I wanted my own sword. Jude is also inspiring; she not only sticks up for herself against faeries that are more powerful than her, but she also sticks up for her sister. I loved the secrecy of everything and how everyone was pining for a different goal and doing whatever it took to reach that goal.

The betrayal at the end is what really threw me because there were subtle hints throughout the book, so I knew something was going to happen, but it still shocked me. Plus, I loved the hints of romance. There was also so much growth with the characters in just one book and I loved it.

Overall, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. This book had my attention the whole time and it’s truly an amazing read. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a book with an amazing set of characters with different personalities and inner court dealings with betrayal and sword fights.

There are two more books in The Cruel Prince series, The Wicked King, and The Queen of Nothing, as well as the novella How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories.