Book Review – The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

(Cover and blurb taken from Goodreads)

Official Blurb:

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. 

My rating:  four stars out of five

Let me just say that I am a Holly Black fan. I am. I love her world of faeries and her characters and her unique style.

But about a little more than halfway through this one, I put it down for a few months. It just dragged for me. I understand the need for setup, but I just wanted things to start moving forward. After a while I gave up.

When I finally picked it back up and read the last 20 percent or so, I loved it. This is the kind of story I thoroughly enjoy; darkness, betrayal, love, bloodshed, magic, and (of course) a plot twist. And all this was pretty much squeezed into the last bit of the story.

I wanted way more time to experience the relationship between Jude and Cardan. It left me feeling a little bit cheated, given that they just started really interacting and then the book ended.

As always, I loved the writing style. Holly Black’s storytelling abilities are quite impressive. It always keeps me turning the page. She spins words together like magic.

The whole structure of the story was rather strange to me, but I loved the action when it finally did happen as well as the writing itself. I will be continuing on to read The Wicked King. Now I’m hooked.

Have you read The Cruel Prince? What are your thoughts?

(Disclaimer: I get commissions for purchases made through this link. This did not influence my review.)