The Cruel Prince – Holly Black

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.

Goodreads

My Rating: 5 Stars

This book was EPIC. Beyond epic. Is there a word greater than epic? Let me supply you with a few choices: breathtaking, stunning, a damn masterpiece. Have I convinced you to drop everything and read this book yet? No? Damn, I must be losing my touch. I suppose I’ll have to write a full review then. Sigh.

The Cruel Prince has been one of my most anticipated releases of 2018 since the moment I heard of it. I have been DYING to get my hands on this book. But honestly, this is one book that I’m so happy to have waited for (not by choice, but still). Why, you ask? Because, unlike you suckers who read the ARC, I only have to wait a year for the next book. You have to wait much longer…unless you get an ARC of the second book…in which case, I may end up hating you just a bit.

The main character in this book, Jude, was just everything I wanted her to be. She was relatable, a little bit evil, a little bit coldhearted, and whole hell of a lot badass. I loved her from page 10 through the end of the book. I’d marry her and adopt children with her. She was that amazing. She was a scheming, blood thirsty mastermind, who somehow managed to stay just relatable enough for me to like her.

Now, Holly Black is known for slipping just a hint of romance into her books. True to form, The Cruel Prince is plot driven, not romance driven. The romance that was present, however, GAVE ME LIFE. She played on my absolute favorite trope – hate to love. The best part thought? She added in a nice, simmering, slow burn. The romance was unexpected but so welcome. I actually went on a journey with Jude – I despised her romantic interest (I think its safe to call him that) at the beginning of the book. I now adore him. Hell, I’d have his babies too. We’d be a giant new aged Brady Bunch.

The plot was fast and intricate, weaving and bobbing in unexpected ways that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. There were small things that I was able to guess here and there. I guessed two plot twists over the course of the book. I did not even imagine that the final twist was a possibility though. I audibly gasped – something I haven’t done since Tower of Dawn released in 2017 (SJM, you wonderful human).

Now, if you are still reading this and haven’t yet purchased the book, I am not nearly as good of a reviewer as I’d like to be. If you are already in possession of The Cruel Prince, do yourself and me a massive favor – call in sick to work and read it. RIGHT. NOW. Do it. Have I led you astray yet?

My Takeaway: The Cruel Prince was a deep and epic fantasy that kept me scrambling to keep up even as I begged for more. It was better than anything I’ve read in a long time, and if you follow my blog, you know I’ve read some pretty epic books over the last few months. It absolutely took my breath away, and unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be waiting at least a year for Holly Black to return the air to my lungs.