The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black, is a fantasy novel and the first in the Cruel Prince series.
The Cruel Prince follows the story of Jude, a human living in the land of faeries. She struggles to fit in yet the difference between her and the faeries is obvious. Jude and her sisters live under the care of a faerie general and are thrust into the political landscape of the region. Finding herself in a position to move up politically and prove her worth, Jude makes decisions, forges alliances, and breaks friendships in this dark fantasy novel.
The Cruel Prince is an unique novel, based on an original concept. However, the plot of the book falls short: the main character is meant to be immoral but she comes off as annoying, the interactions between Jude and Cardan, the prince, don't have the spark that should be the driving point of the sub-plot, and the twists in the story are abrupt and have nothing leading up to them. A redeeming feature of the book is that the characters themselves are original. They don't imitate other successful characters despite the fact that the tropes in the books are common and predictable. Overall, I appreciated that The Cruel Prince didn't drag on and was fast-paced.