An instant bestseller!By #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue. 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 … 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.
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I have been trying to branch out into different genres instead of just reading romance, and I have read so many good things about this trilogy on book tube. I decided to try it out and see if I would like it, and I was pleasantly surprised! The characters are very dynamic and felt real.
I was surprised that along with being prominently a fantasy book, this story focuses highly on politics, plotting, and death. The romance is second and not really there until the end of the book. Carden still seems to be the “bad boy who is tortured inside” since of his bloodline. I really like Jude. She is trying so hard to fit in somewhere that she is not excepted, unlike her older sister. But unlike her twin, she is going the political route to fit in, instead of marriage and children.
I am interested in what happens in the next two books, and the smut. I am here for the smut I am about to get.
I absolutely adore this book. The characters are so incredible that you just have to love them. I recommend this book 100%.
It’s a very entertaining book. Great start for this fantasy story. Everything is told from Jude POV. She’s an interesting heorine. A mortal girl in Fairyland.
There’re characters easy to hate but as long as you go reading we find out more about them and their situation and not so easy to hate.
I enjoyed the plot a lot. Sometimes it seem like a young adult Game of Thrones. Pretty good writing.
After seeing The Cruel Prince, the first book in the Folk of the Air trilogy, be hyped up so much on Instagram and TikTok I decided to give it a chance. If everyone loved it so much, surely I would to, right? Bonus points: it included some characters from the Modern Faerie Tales series I read earlier this year.
The Cruel Prince, written by Holly Black and published through Hot Key Books, is kind of the opposite of Modern Faerie Tales. There you had faeries living in the mortal world. Here there are mortals living in the faerie world.
When Jude was seven, a mysterious man–later identified as Madoc, the redcap–appeared at her door, murdered her parents and stole her and her sisters away to the world of the fae. Ten years later, Jude and her twin, Taryn, try in their own ways to belong to the faerie world but they are bullied ruthlessly for being human. Especially by Cardan–the beautiful, cruel prince. Jude decides that winning a place at court, maybe even being a knight, will earn her a rightful place in their world. But as her ambitions are high, she discovers betrayal and bloodshed in the court, right under her very nose. Will she risk everything to save a world that doesn’t care for her?
Holly Black has written over thirty fantasy books and has won the Mythopoeic award, the Lodestar award, and a Nebula. Her first book was Tithe in 2002 and her latest book is The Heart of the Moors, published in 2019. The Cruel Prince was published in 2018. Currently, Holly Black lives in New England with her husband and son.
The next four paragraphs is a quick summary of the whole book to remind those who have read it! If you haven’t read it, these four paragraphs contains spoilers so skip ahead!
The first quarter of the book sets the scene for Jude. She is stolen into faerie land and adjusts to those customs. Cardan and his friends endlessly bully her in class and outside of class, with pranks that could be dangerous if not lethal. Through it all, Jude wishes she was more powerful.
In the next quarter, Prince Dain appears to Jude, knowing her wish. He exploits that, and the fact that she can lie as she is human, and hires her to be a spy. He puts a geas on her that protects her from being magically controlled. Jude’s first mission is to sneak into Prince Balekin’s house and find anything incriminating–she finds a note about blusher mushrooms which can be a potential poison and also sees Prince Cardan get beaten by his brother. She also steals Cardan’s book and inside is note with her name written over and over. Jude brings the note of poison to Dain and meets the inner circle of spies–The Ghost, The Roach, and The Bomb. Afterwards, Jude decides to start poisoning herself to build resistance. Jude and Taryn also find out their older sister, Vivi, who is half-fairy has fallen in love with a mortal girl. Taryn declares she too will fall in love. Jude scoffs at this but she has also captured the attention of a fae boy, Locke, and they begin a flirtation, though he is Cardan’s friend. Meanwhile, another of Cardan’s friends, Valerian, tries to kill Jude but she stabs him. Wishing mortals had a better life, Jude sneaks back to Balekin’s house and sets free–or tries to–a human servant.
In the third part of the book, Prince Dain visits Jude and he is angry. Jude thinks he knows about the servant, but it is actually about the stabbing of Valerian. Though Valerian has recovered, Dain makes Jude stab her hand as reparation. After their meeting, the girls stepmother shows them their coronation dresses and warns Jude not to be the lover of royalty, especially Dain. Being a courtier of the royals is no easy thing and she would know. Jude balks at that–she never guessed that Oriana had been a king’s consort. That night, Valerian sneaks into Jude’s room and tries to kill her again. Jude, though, gains the upper hand and kills Valerian, hiding the body. The Roach picks her up for their mission, none the wiser. They go to find a messenger for their enemy, but the message only had one command–“Kill the Bearer of this Message.” They were played. Jude also notes that the messenger was wearing the colors of Madoc, her adoptive father. Trying to pretend everything is all right, Jude’s flirtation with Locke continues. She is also trying to guess who her sister’s lover is. Too soon, coronation is upon them. Jude is on the lookout for danger but also tries to have fun, dancing with Locke. Until he tells her if she loved him, she would let him go. That’s when she puts two and two together–Locke is her sister’s lover. Before she can do anything, they are shuffled into the throne room for the crowning. Just as Dain is about to be crowned though, Balekin and Madoc go on a killing spree. All of the royal family who refuse to crown Balekin is dead–except Cardan who is drunk and hiding. Jude finds him and captures him, taking him to the spies headquarters, trying to decide what to do.
In the last part of the book, it is all up to Jude to save the faerie land from a ruthless king. She’s not sure what to do, though. She has Cardan tied into a chair and revealed she was a spy. She makes a deal with the other spies to include them on any reward she can find. Jude goes home to see what Madoc has planned. Of course, though, she is distracted by her twin who stole her lover. They duel in anger, and that seems to be the final straw in their relationship. Madoc tells Jude if she knows where Cardan is, she will be rewarded greatly for turning him in and she considers it. However, after a meeting with Oriana, Jude finds out that her stepbrother, Oak, is actually another heir to the throne. She promises she can save him. Vivi also confronts Jude and tells her to run away to the mortal world with her. Returning to her prisoner, she finds out that Cardan is actually obsessed with her. She kisses him to annoy him but finds that she likes it. So they both hate that they like each other. At Balekin’s banquet, Jude’s plan with her fellow spies and Cardan unfolds. She takes Madoc out with a non-lethal dose of poison and tricks Oak and Cardan so that Oak crowns Cardan. Afterwards, Vivi sweeps Oak away to the mortal world to train him to be king someday. Cardan, however, is angry he has to be king until then, but he has sworn to be a servant to Jude for a year and a day. That’s where the book ends, with a king who doesn’t want the crown, a spy with a nickname The Queen, and a boy who didn’t know he was a prince whisked away.
Okay, the spoilers are done! If you had to skip those, you can come back now! You can also enjoy some of my favorite quotes from the book:
“If I cannot become better than them, I will become so much worse.”
“There’s always something left to lose.”
“We don’t need to be good. But let’s try to be fair.”
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So what where my favorite parts? Can I say the whole book? Just kidding, but I did love this book. I love that there were so many plot twists and reveals I didn’t see coming. I loved that Jude was bloodthirsty and unapologetic about it, when so many stories have heroes who try to be unequivocally good. Yet, she will be bad if she has to. I loved the complicated family dynamics–though Madoc kidnapped her and killer her parents, she had come to love him as a father and she hated that. It made their story very interesting. I love that who I liked and who I didn’t trust changed and morphed throughout the book–that’s what makes betrayal so effective. I love Cardan’s sarcastic comments towards the end of the book–though I hated him for most of the book, I now love him for his sarcastic humor alone.
Was there anything I didn’t like? That’s hard to say. Like I said before, it was cool to see characters from Modern Faerie Tales. Another reference to Modern Faerie Tales was the appearance of Nevermore. But it was never explained how Jude knew to call it Nevermore, as that was a name coined by just a few mortals in New York from an earlier series. The fae don’t call it that, and that’s where Jude lives. It’s really not that important of a detail, but it is something that bothered me. I also didn’t like how the epilogue ended. It felt too abrupt and made it seem like Jude was selfish, only craving power, and not caring about the fate of others when that was the reason she did what she did. I suppose, though, I’ll see more in the next two books.
I also keep waiting for a romance to bloom based on fanart I’ve seen. I don’t know if it’s something readers ship that doesn’t happen or if it is a slow burn romance. I am all for slow burn romances, but I am impatient.
Overall, the book was SO GOOD. I was worried when I started it because I wasn’t too keen on Modern Faerie Tales, which was more Urban Fantasy. However, The Cruel Prince is high fantasy and enrapturing with ambition, action, politics, love, friendship, enemies, betrayal, and more.
5/5 stars!! Though I loved books I’ve read, this is my first five star book of the year so far. It was amazing. I highly recommend to readers of fantasy.
The Story
Jude Duarte is a human girl living among the faeries in the magical world of Elfhame. Her past is dripping with tragedy and her future is uncertain. As a human, she will never fit in among the folk of Elfhame, but due to the positions of power her father holds, she has to live up to expectations.
And then there’s swoony Prince Cardan, the angst-torn love interest who’s an absolute jerk even though he’s gorgeous. As one of the faerie folk, he’s got magic and mystery woven into everything he does. But, he also has a uniquely tragic backstory.
The story itself switches at break-neck speed as Jude knows what she wants, only for it to be destroyed over and over again. There is a lot of drama and surprising violence wrapped up in each choice she makes. When she joins the secretive Court of Teeth and learns to be a spy and an assassin, it feels right for her, but wrong for everyone else.
While in the end Jude does have a few wins, most of the book is her losing and regrouping.
My Review
There is a lot to like in this book. The Faerie World is unique and beautifully created, the attention to costume and dresses, sparkly and magical. Lots of eye candy everywhere. This focus on beauty makes the violence that much worse. The tension among each of the characters is stretched so tight that often the reader doesn’t know who is allied to who.
But, the story is really complicated. There are what feels like dozens of factions fighting for control over the faerie world. Jude is caught up in the middle with no real claim to anything, but because her brother is heir to the throne, she can’t help but insert herself where she doesn’t belong out of concern for him.
Recommendations
The Folk of the Air series is definitely intended for readers highschool age and up. Like I said before, there is quite a bit of violence. There are also a fair amount of romantic situations that push further than I expected. There’s some language and plenty of magical drug use.
That said, there are also strong characters willing to do what’s right and sacrifice for the greater good, which is a win for me.
Actual rating is 3 and a half. The first I 7 chapters could have been almost deleted and been cut down to one. The story unfurled very very slowly. I feel like the first half of the book was mainly world building.
But wuhu the last half was a blast! Spying, backstapping, politics, lies, game of thrones. I had so much fun. Even though I had geuss what Jude would end up doing, it was still amazing.
DNF @ 6,5%
This book feels like a children’s story trying to be adult, mixed with A Court of Thorns and Roses vibes, but none of it in a good way. I really couldn’t keep reading.
There’s nothing remotely likeable about any of the characters and I really didn’t enjoy the read.
The writing is excellent but all the characters are selfish, unlikeable, and violent or cruel.
This was like a train wreck, I couldn’t stop reading even though I didn’t really like anything about this one.
The only reason this book wasn’t 2 stars was because the writing is admittedly excellent and the story is fantastic. I just didn’t like it at all.
I’m curious how this series ends, simply because I can’t believe it will be good. But I don’t know if I’ll read the rest of the series.
Not sure how I feel about this story. I thought it was more per all the reviews but I thought the beginning was slow, and not sure what to make of the main characters. Good world building, plenty of cruelty, some action and betrayal and unique.
My second foray into a Fae world after AN ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS. The world building is exceptional and the ‘ship has me hooked. However, it was very predictable for its main plot twists–but if you’re a more casual reader you probably won’t notice that. I still plan to buy the sequel because the ending sets up a very interesting dynamic for book two!
Not sure I liked or cared for any of the characters until near the end of the book but the political intrigues of the fairy court kept my attention. By the end I was more invested in Jude and Cardan and I definitely wanted to read the next book.
Before I read The Cruel Prince, all I ever heard about was Cardan.
Cardan is hot.
Cardan is mean.
Cardan is everything!
After reading it, I’m like, Cardan who?!
Jude is the clear star of the show! She’s intelligent, cunning, courageous, ambitious, and bad fucking ass! I love her strength and her willingness to work with what she has to achieve her goals. She’s an imperfect, complex character that’s a bit morally gray. In other words, my favorite kind of heroine!
Aside from Cardan being a god, I was lead to believe this story was romance heavy. It seems to be the focus of most of the online conversations about the book, so imagine my surprise when that turned out to be a bunch of bullshit.
The big romance I was promised is minimal at best, but it does seem to be setting up for more in the next book. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see it! I’m down for some Carden and Jude sexy times, but in the meantime, I’m cool with my new girl crush!
The Cruel Prince is an incredibly well-written, young adult fantasy novel with spectacular world building, twists and turns galore, phenomenal characters, and a dash of romance! It’s one of my favorite books of 2020, and Jude is one of the best heroines I’ve ever read! Fuck Cardan! Read the book for her!
YA fantasy fans, this one’s for you!
Ok, I know it took me a while to finally review the series, I absolutely love it. This book starts a bit slow but picks up and will have you grabbing the next ones. Jude is a fantastic character, Cardan is absolutely my type of anti-hero, a bully and I just love those in my books. The audiobooks are fantastic so I suggest you get those, the narration is brilliant.
Not what I was expecting at all!
I love this series by Holly Black! I’m an avid reader and I didn’t want to put this book down. Love the world and characters.
I really didn’t think I was going to enjoy this series, but it took me by surprise. I found that I quickly loved it and devoured it just as fast.
A human girl growing up in a world of immortal creatures, Jude has always felt as an outsider and desperately wants to earn her place. She doesn’t want to marry into it or to be granted a favor, but to make her path into the higher ranks of the court by her own merit and when her most viable door closes, she’ll receive an offer that will place her in the middle of a tangled web of intrigue and murder.
In a world where nothing is as it seems and one doesn’t know who to trust, the people who bully her on daily basis might become her allies and the family she knows may be her mortal enemies.
This was my first read by the author and I was very impressed by the complex story of Jude, her family and their dealings with the High Court of Fairie. An epic story of moral dilemmas, secrets and political intrigue, The Cruel Prince was quite the surprise.
One of the greatest .
A really fantastic choice . Loved the world black created it . It was a phenomenal book.
Would 100%recommend!!!
I am an absolute sucker for enemies to lovers romance. It sucked me in hard. The only reason this isn’t a 5 star for me is part 1 was a bit too slow, however it’s definitely necessary for everything in part 2 and further to make sense. I definitely recommend it if you love romantic fantasy and enemies to lovers.
I was bored one uneventful, quarantine, trying-to-avoid-dying- day so I decided to open my library app and picked a book out of the extensive selection. I’ve heard of the Fair Folk trilogy by Holly Black quite a lot, especially when I watch booktube videos; it’s been recommended to me like a million times. Well okay not that much, since…I don’t know that many people. But you get the point. It’s been recommended a lot. It was published January 2nd, 2018 and I just read it this year (2020) though it’s been on my radar ever since it came out and a bunch of other times since. Better late than never amirite?
My interest in faeries has been growing these past few weeks, so it just felt like the right time; everything was aligning. I didn’t get the ebook, instead I opted to listen to the audiobook. I tend to sometimes miss some things when I listen to audiobooks because I get distracted by different things, and I’m too lazy to go back. So apologies if I forget some details, but this is a spoiler free review (for the most part) so it doesn’t matter.
I won’t lie, even though I’ve been wanting to read this book for years- I went into it with little to no expectations. I didn’t know what I was getting myself in seeing as I’ve never read a book by Ms. Black before. Suffice to say (as you can see by my rating) that I was pleasantly surprised. This book felt like coming home- which is mainly why I gave it four stars instead of five; it didn’t blow me away but it did comfort me. As soon as the narrator finished chapter 2, I was hooked. I needed to finish. Now this doesn’t sound like much, but I usually only finish very select audiobooks; I return most of them half read because I just do not get as into them as I would if they were physical books.
I don’t really care for the narration of books so let’s get that out of the way, I usually listen to them at 1.50x speed so everything just kinda jumbles together so it doesn’t matter.
The writing in this was nothing short of magical. Very YA fantasy book, especially if it has faeries but with Black it’s different (I am very well aware that this contradicts my previous statement). Just hear me out. Black brings her own touch to it, she writes like no other author I can think of. It’s not the epitome of good writing by scholarly standards but I’m not a scholar and I think they’re pretentious anyways, so here we are. I really enjoy her writing; it was easy to digest, beautiful, and had some of the most memorable quotes for me. Some of my favorite quotes, as well as fan favorites, can be found below;
“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
“If I cannot be better than them. I will become so much worse”
“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you often. It’s disgusting and I can’t stop” (now this one, this one is THE ONE)
“Desire is an odd thing. As soon as it’s sated, it transmutes. If we receive golden thread, we desire the golden needle.” (close second!)
I know those are super popular quotes, but they’re popular for a reason so.
Moving on. Before I move on from the writing segment, I just wanted to say that if you were to think about modern faerie writing, I feel like Black’s style of writing should come to mind. The diction… was very on theme. “Because you’re like a story that hasn’t happened yet. Because I want to see what you will do. I want to be part of the unfolding of the tale.” I mean COME ON.
Plot. Oh the plot was excellent. It gave me everything I craved and more. It had the dramatic sense of what you would expect a YA book to have, but with the conniving political sense that adds that extra hmmph that seems to be missing from most YA fantasy books. I live for a political plot, especially if it has to do with a family of royals who all have this palpable tension because of the prospect of power. And then to have someone who is not part of the royal family but craves power for herself, completely go for it; balls to the walls, doing whatever it takes to gain even a smidgen of it, absolutely delicious. I also enjoyed the school drama involved, with the petty remarks that had vile undertones; I won’t lie it kept me on edge, because the unimportance of humans in the world of faeries is so heavily implied that I was scared she-Jude- was gonna experience some brutal things. And oh, did she.
This is a great segway into characters.
Jude. Absolute badass, she did not need any man in her entirety. She did not want any man, and even when she got her heart destroyed she was in-different because she had other goals. Her sole purpose for the book was not based on the romantic aspect but instead on her search for power. I actually find her character to be very realistic, and yes I know I am calling a fictional book about faeries realistic (but you’ll be surprised, my fellow witches know what I’m talking about). So let me explain my previous point; Jude had no power in this world and she knew it, she knows that she’s human and that she has no magical powers whatsoever; she does not fool herself into thinking that she is an equal to her peers, but still she trains harder than them to make up for the things she’s lacking. She is defiant in her ways to present this facade of this strong girl who does not fear death if it means that she has proved her point; but this is all to hide the hurt and incompetence she feels everyday. Ever since she was a little girl, she has felt helpless (cue Hamilton) but instead of crumbling under the pressure or trying to run away or fit in, she hardened herself. Became someone worthy of power. But also extremely vulnerable, don’t tell her that though.
Taryn. I hated her. Don’t get me wrong, I understood her and the motives she had (also the fact that she was manipulated), but I’m allowed to have my own personal opinions and I did not like her at all. She gave me very “kiss ass” vibes. But her character is not like that just to make her seem difficult, or a burden to Jude; she was actually quite a complex character and I don’t think too many people talk about that. She was thrust into this world abruptly, she’s not as good as her sister or the faeries around her. The only thing she has going for her is her charm and her submissive nature and as her only tools, how can people blame her for utilizing them? She knows her sister can look after herself, so she tries to save her own skin. Now, that’s not to say that she was not still annoying and I couldn’t stand her. Though, very deep down I relate to her… maybe that’s why I found her so infuriating.
Cardan. I liked how different he was from other male characters in the YA fantasy world. He didn’t have the whole toxic masculinity thing going on for him, and I love that. He was just a dickhead and bully but at least he respects women. I really enjoy his fashion style and how flamboyant he is, you just can’t help but gravitate towards him. Also, even though he is part of the royal family he still doesn’t like to be associated with them for the most part. Lastly, I do not give two fucks about how hot or different he is; he was an asshole and for that *lifts both middle fingers*.
Locke. Your name is ugly and so are you.
Madoc. Your kids have daddy issues but I respect you.
The others are cool, they were just there for me. They added to the story and they were important but I wanted to talk only about the ones mentioned above.
Now all the hats off to Ms. Holly Black. Her rendition of faeries has been the most accurate I’ve seen on a YA book to date. Even the little details that one would overlook like not saying thank you; the protections used against them; the contracts discussed. She has clearly done her research, from what I’ve heard from other witches that work with faeries most of the faerie details included in her books are accurate. Obviously, I wouldn’t suggest reading her books to educate yourself on faeries but it’s a good start to get a feel around before doing your own research. Always remember though that this is a fictional book, so not everything will be completely accurate and you will have to do your own research. But I just wanted to gush about how excited I was while reading her book and comparing her faeries to real ones. Of course, I’ve never worked with one and don’t plan to since I’m a beginner witch but if any of you reading this have worked with faeries before, don’t hesitate to fact check me.
You made it to the end!! Thank you so much for reading my review! Tell me your thoughts down below if you have read this book or plan to and we can have a discussion about it! Have a great day y’all!.