Author: Holly Black
Publishers: Little Brown
Release: January 2, 2018
Pages: 370
Review: 5 Stars
Synopsis:
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 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.
You Can Find it At:
Goodreads
Indiebound
Barnes and Noble
The Regulator
First Impressions
At first I wasn't that interested in reading The Cruel Prince. I got the ARC, but it sat on my shelf. I've enjoyed some of Holly's previous books, so I figured I'd get to it eventually. But then I noticed people talking about it. Person after person, both on Twitter and in person, told me just how amazing this book was. I finally gave in, and while home for fall break I grabbed the book. Let me tell you, reading at college isn't always the easiest task. That said, I devoured The Cruel Prince in an afternoon!
Characters
These characters were as amazing and awful as I was promised. Holly made Cardan very easy to hate. Jude, while often the victim of faery pranks, has learned to adapt pretty well to the world of faery. To that end, she can give just as much as she gets. While Cardan and Jude hate each other with a palpable tension, their sexual tension is also apparent.
After this point is where Google lost my review. I don't remember what all I wrote, but I'll try to keep the gist of it. *stares angrily at Google*
While Cardan can be pretty mean, Jude can give as good as she gets. Having grown up in Faery, she had to decide whether she wanted to be a victim to the Faeries wiles or attempt to best them. She decides to try to become as close to them as possible, and that means manipulating the heck out people.
While Jude was busy manipulating Faery to her hearts desire, her twin sister became the opposite. She submitted herself to the whims of Faery, and was constantly trying to get Jude to become less conspicuous.
There was also the side character Locke. I won't say much so as not to spoil things, but I want to punch him in the face. For reasons.
Worlds Building
The world of Faery is utterly wonderful. The Cruel Prince, while its own series, also builds upon a larger world that Holly Black has been building for years. I happened to read her Tithe series a while back, and it was fun to see some of those characters pop up in The Cruel Prince. The world of Faery obeys many of the common tropes from other books with faeries, such as not being able to lie, it also takes some of them to the next level. The faeries here seem extra crafty. While faeries are often cunning and manipulative, these faeries can be straight up cruel, hence the title.
After reading this book, I understand why everyone was talking about it all year. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to read The Wicked King. Luckily, I had the ARC waiting for me at home!
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little Brown
Release: January 8, 2019
Pages: 336
Review: 5 Stars
Synopsis:
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
You Can Find it At:
The Regulator
Indiebound
Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
First Impressions
Sadly, it was a little while between reading The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King. While I took Prince to school, I'd left The Wicked King at home, thinking it might take me a while to read book one. Boy was I mistaken. After devouring book one, I was left waiting a few weeks to read book two. Finally, after Thanksgiving break, I took The Wicked King back to school. That book didn't sit long before I dove in. After starting it, I plowed through the book, surprising my friends with how fast I read it.
Characters
Jude, Jude, Jude. For as smart and cunning as she is, Jude has a hard time dealing with her own emotions and interpersonal relationships. By this point, both Jude and Carden have realized they have feelings beyond hatred for each other in some capacity. But do they deal with this in an emotionally healthy way? Of course not. Instead they manipulate each other at every term, all the while I was yelling at them to just kiss already. This might have distracted my friends from working on their homework.
At some point I would love to get a glimpse inside Carden's head. That boy is a confusing mess. To be fair, I don't think he knows what he's feeling at any given moment. Also, I want to bash him over the head a little bit after finishing the book.
Unlike in The Cruel Prince, Taryn and Locke do not feature prominently in The Wicked King. Jude has mostly brushed them aside from her life like the toxic messes they are. Seriously, I do not support forgiveness of any kind for those two.
World Building
While there's a lot of interpersonal drama between Carden and Jude, there's also some larger political machinations in the works. The underwater faeries (I can't remember what they're called) basically want to take over the world. And of course Jude doesn't want that. Any time when Jude and Carden aren't staring into each other's eyes, Jude is trying to prevent the faerie uprising. The world after this book is irrevocably changed, and I can't wait to see what happens next!
