The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Holly Black
Star Rating
★★★★★
Reviewer's Rating
Jan 8, 2022

When she was younger, Jude and her sisters were taken to a strange land, different from their earth. The High Courts of Faerie where different types of fey live. Though, her and her sisters were the only humans in this kingdom. The fey are not fond of humans and think of them as inferior. Jude wants to prove herself worthy and become a knight in the court. As she tries to make her way up, betrayal happens within the court, making it crumble. Jude uses deception and other tricks to work her way in which then leads to her having to create bonds with feys to keep her sisters, and herself. 

Jude wants to be respected in the fey world and become a knight for the court. But Cardan, one of the prince feys (who also is infatuated with her, but hates himself for it) stands in her way. So, Jude deceives Cardan by tricking him, and using his crown for her own benefit. Then Jude and Cardan end up having an alliance together, along with other feys. But more trouble arises when others try to steal the crown from them. Which continues in the second book.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought the characters had a lot of depth to which it made you love them, even if they somewhat sucked as a person. The deceptions and lies in this book make you mad, but Jude makes up for it. She is a very strong willed and amazing woman, by far one of my favorite characters of all time. Even though Cardan somewhat sucked at the beginning, you end up loving him, especially his sarcasm and ways around saying the truth. This book definitely has some romance in it that you’ll love, but it’s mainly about politics surrounding the fey world and how Jude tries to find her way around that.

Written by
Elyea S.

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