The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Dark, twisted and addictive! The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is a delightful read, with a fresh twist of a small mortal girl in faerie land as the main character.

The main character, Jude, was such a favorite of mine. She’s a complete bad ass, strong and fearless and never whining or feeling sorry for herself no matter what ill treatments and injustice she suffers. And she always tried to protect her twin sister Taryn. (Who I did not like at all, by the way, she is Jude’s complete opposite - selfish, weak and insincere.)

I also loved Prince Cardan from the start. You could really tell that there was a good heart in there somewhere, and that he was having a lot to deal with in his own life. I cannot wait to continue read more about him and learn more about his complex personality. He has so many more layers that I hope will be revealed as the series continues!

There is also a lot of fey politics, betrayal and deception going on… The story is very dark and twisted, with so much bad treatment of Jude that I sometimes had problems to distance myself from the bullying that it in fact was. But once you started to understand everything that Cardan was going through, it felt easier to see through the maliciousness.

Even though it’s a fantasy novel taking place in faerie land, that’s not really the main drive of the story. The big spark here is the sparring personalities and enemies-to-(potential)-lovers fighting between Jude and Cardan. I cannot wait to see how their strange relationship will evolve!
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Some parts of the story and some characters were a bit too predictable, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and I absolutely look forward to reading what comes next.

Find out more about the book and the author here: Holly Black