Adored this and I require book 2 immediately! I loved the twists and turns, the thinly veiled violence and threat that hung over the whole book. I loved Jude and the enigma of the Court. Just...that ending! I did not see that coming. Fantastic!

Okay, where to begin.

Hype is a tricky thing to grasp, particularly in the case of whether to believe it or not.

For me, this whole book is laced with a whole lot of potential as a series – as soon as I started, there were little things that I was already getting excited about because I could see an array of possibilities of how it could tie into future events.

I enjoyed the writing style a lot, it kept the story going without dragging the storyline itself. I didn't quite understand why there were two "books", mostly because I felt that the split between one and two was a bit out of place. I understood why it was there but the beginning of "book two" seemed a bit disjointed because it had been split. I feel it would have suited better to just continue on without the split or to have an extra split that allowed for maybe three or four "books", which might have helped with the flow of those splits.

The flow of the storyline itself was good; it moved at a good pace and there wasn't that much room for lulls. Again, I see a heap of potential for those few scenes that seemed unfinished, or unresolved, for the next books. This is the same with the character development as well; Jude, of course, we saw a lot more of development as she was the main character.
Her twin, Taryn, we saw a bit of but not quite as much – in the end, I think she just came across as a bit shallow. She's supposed to have been brought up the same way as Jude and the Gentry, but Taryn honestly just seemed like she was ready to succumb to the charms of Faerie and be like any other mortal there. Their older sister was a great character though! Vivi is the character that we see stuck between being mortal and Faerie – she is that line between her two families that was really interesting to see evolve from a cleverly petty Faerie who would anger her father, to the same clever Faerie who goes to get what she wants. It was really interesting to see her at the end of the book compared to the start as well, I feel like I'd be able to read a short story on her just to understand more about what goes on in her head.

Cardan.
This is that hype thing again.
I'd heard so many incredible things about him and I think I put my expectations too high for what I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, I loved him, he was great – but he just didn't reach that same expectation of 'great' that I was hoping for. I think his character development was stunted behind the fact that we couldn't see anything outside of Jude's point of view. Of course, the whole book was in Jude's POV, so I can't expect much on other characters outside of her view anyway but I am really looking forward to seeing where Black takes his character. There is so much potential for some great things for Cardan and I'm looking forward to it!

The plot twists in this book. I don't know if they fell flat or not. If I didn't guess potential outcomes almost immediately, it was done not 3 or 4 pages before a big reveal, so there'd be excitement from figuring it out but also some kind of deflating at the fact that I knew of it. I'm trying to tell myself it wasn't predictable – as I did throughout reading the whole book, when I'd think "oh no, it couldn't possibly be that" but yes, yes it was that. I don't want to deny that it was predictable, because some of it was very predictable. But some of it wasn't and that's what made it all the more interesting for me – I'm thinking this series might be one of those storylines which the future events have a bigger impact with plot twists. (At least, I'm hoping so!)

An unexpected and absolute delight. I'm not a fan of Black's Modern Faerie Tales. I find them too angsty, tweeny and a wee bit dull and mediocre. This is absolutely nothing like them, it has characters with depth, interesting world building, a well thought out plot, and more twists than a twisty-turny thing! Sure, some smarty-pants readers could probably guess most of the plot twists, but there are still a lot of surprises. And the story is good! At times it felt more of a spy / heist / fantasy story that happens to be set in a dark, sinister, murderous fairyland than the swoony YA novel I thought this was going to be.

I found none of the main characters likeable, but I am super curious and intrigued about what will happen next for the Court of Shadows!

This book was absolutely brilliant. Holly Black is an absolute master at creating beautifully written stories filled with morally ambiguous characters, richly detailed worlds and interesting plots. I haven't been this excited and truly invested in a series in a long time.

The great thing is that I didn't particularly like any of the characters, however I completely understood them, their motivations and desires. We're not supposed to love the fae. They are devious and cruel and think very lowly of humans. Jude is the perfect POV, because she's not some starry-eyed mortal that wandered in--she grew up along side them. She knows what they are like, and yet she battles constantly between her humanity and her desires to be liked and accepted by them.

I also really enjoyed that the majority of the book was set entirely in the fae world. A world that was truly nasty and it wasn't glossed over like some perfect dreamy place. The politics, the bullying, the killings, the treatment of humans as second class citizens. It's as real a portrayal of this world that I've read in a long time.

It's also probably not fair to finish this review without a little shout-out to Cardan. I think his cruelty, candidness and apathy (especially when it comes to ruling) is a refreshing change from the standard 'hot fae' norm. He's not loving or a saviour or full of honour. He's a tough one to read, and I'm excited about it.

So I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs and not-so-patiently wait for The Wicked King!

The Cruel Prince was one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2018.  Released in January, it has already caused a stir among fans and newcomers to Holly Black’s books.  I’ve never read any of her books before, so when The Cruel Prince arrived in my January FairyLoot box, I was intrigued.

So just to get this out of the way: I hate books that feature the fae.  I think the fae are super lame. They’re never as cruel or as frightening as they’re supposed to be -- they always come off as cartoonish and ridiculous.  Now, to be fair, I have only read two fae books: A Court of Thorns and Roses, which I hate with a fiery passion, and An Enchantment of Ravens, which I found incredibly disappointing.  I figured that if anyone was going to get me to like the fae, it would be Holly Black, the Queen of Fae herself. And to my surprise, I did enjoy this book. It is far from perfect and I think it could have been a heck of a lot better, but I found it incredibly fun and entertaining.

I’m really struggling to write this review.  I can’t quite come up with complete and thoughtful paragraphs on this, so I’m going to use bullet points.

-Our story centers on Jude, who wishes to fit in at the fae court.  Her way of doing this is to become a knight, which she believes will grant her some authority and respect.  Instead, she becomes a spy in a powerful household. Which means she can’t really tell anyone what she’s doing.  Which means she can’t gain any authority or respect.
-Jude is a difficult character, which I actually really liked.  She’s got a cunning streak a mile long and is selfish and pig-headed.  Many of the decisions she made just didn’t make much sense to me. I get that she’s lost between worlds -- she doesn’t really belong among mortals or fae -- but it almost feels like she just cannot figure out what she wants.  
-Without saying too much, the thing that sticks out the most is the fight she gets into toward the end -- you probably know what I'm talking about if you've read this book.  She doesn’t want to fight, but she ends up nearly killing someone for pretty much no reason.  Why? Why, Jude?
-The plot of the book meanders so much that I can’t really get a firm grasp on what was supposed to happen. -The actual plot takes up about 30% of the book while the remaining 70% is her fighting with Prince Cardan and his crew.  There was so much here that was unnecessary and could have been cut out.  I really wished we had more politics and subterfuge! 
-The romance makes no sense.  No sense!!! So little time is spent developing it and I just don't think it was believable.
-Almost every character feels like a cardboard cutout.  There’s so little development with side characters that they just have no real personality.  They’re almost like stereotypes: the lovestruck teenage girl, the bully, the moustache-twirling villain (there are several of these), the disinterested stepmother.  Even Jude herself has little development -- she is very much the same person at the beginning of the book as she is at the end.  Nothing really changes for her, she learns so little.

So in the interest of balancing this book review out a little, I want to include some things I really liked about the book (or else none of you will believe that I actually enjoy this).

-The Cruel Prince is an incredibly fast paced book that's easy to read.  If you're looking for pure escapist fun, this is a good choice.
-Jude is a great example of an unlikable female character, which is something I find rare in YA and fantasy in general.  She’s definitely not someone you should like, but I admire her ambition and ruthlessness.  She could easily be the villain in another story.
-Although she's technically a secondary character, Vivi has the best story line.  I think I would have preferred this book to be about her!  She’s got depth that no one else really gets and she's maneuvering through an incredibly difficult position.
-I really like the way that the climax of the book comes together.  I’d say more, but you know, spoilers. If we cut out about 70 pages of deadly teenage pranks and added more to the plot, this book would have been spectacular.
-The way the book sets up the rest of the trilogy seems to indicate that a lot of my pacing and plotting issues will resolve themselves.  I'm hoping that we've got the background info out of the way and the next book will really pick up in terms of plot.


I initially gave this book 4 out of 5 stars, but it’s one that I really needed to think about before rating.  While there was a lot that was messy about The Cruel Prince I think that the series as a whole is going to be worth a read.

I knew this book would be on my Favorites list! WoW! Where do I even start! The story mostly follows Jude, Taryn (human twins) and their Fae born sister Vivi who are stolen away to Faerie to live with her father Madoc who is Fae & the murderer of their Mother & human Father. The High Court of Faerie, politics, dealing with being human in a magical world, spies, swords, murder, love and betrayal is not even the half of it. I don't want to go into much of the story as not to spoil it but it is filled with many intriguing characters. Ones to love and ones to hate. Holly Black is the Queen of The Fae! I love this story and can not wait to get the next book. I would most definitely recommend this to Everyone!

A fun and fresh YA fairy tale that fit very neatly into the genre.

I read this on the last few days of my Cyprus holiday, on my plane ride back and the day after. Yes, this was read in April and we are now in May but I pushed this back a few weeks (though if you look at my Goodreads and NetGalley, I have put the review up) because I didn't want to overwhelm you guys with reviews/write-ups and I don't like posting things up on the weekend (I know, I am weird book blogger) so it's now here, in May.

And before I go any further, I'm not much of a fairy fan. I don't mind reading them - I read Cassandra Clare and her books have fairies in them, have read the first two books in Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series many years ago (here are the reviews for Iron King and Iron Daughter) and a year or two back, I did read Holly Black's Darkest Part of the Forest, which was ok - I can't honest remember much from it barring it having a dark fairy tale quality to it and having an gay romance at its twisted heart, which I liked.

But everyone has been excited and raving over Cruel Prince! Even I got catch up with the buzz and requested an eProof of this, but due to my fantasy reading slump, I haven't gone near it. But, before I went on holiday to Cyprus, I was chatting to Olivia from That Fiction Life on instagram about Taken Moon candles and Cruel Prince was mentioned. When I was on holiday, and was finishing Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, I wondered what to read next when, out of nowhere, my brain started chanting "Cruel Prince!"

So, I read it. And here we go!

Cruel Prince is the first book in a new series set in the world of the Fey, which sits close to ours but not quite. In it, we follow Jude who, at the age of seven, saw a fairy kill both her parents and steal her, and her two sisters into the High Court of Faerie. They are now teenagers and Jude wants to fit in desperate. Shame the fey won't let her forget her mortality and the worse is Prince Cardan. But to win a place in Court, Jude has to defy him and her "father" and face the consequences...

But Court is full of backstabbing and political twistings of truth (fairies can not lie, but they are experts in telling the truth that reveals everything and nothing), and Jude will have to do unthinkable things to protect her sisters and Faerie.

Where do I start with this? This book is crazy. I kinda expected this as I was reading a fairy book and in most books that contain fairies, they are dark and tricksters. But these fairies are violent and terrifying at times, while hugely political and the twists/betrayals kept the book moving fast and I never felt settled on anything the characters said or did.

The characters themselves are intriguing. The fairies, like I said, are dark, blood-thirsty and manipulative. But so are the humans. Jude, our main character who's telling the story, is hugely flawed and manipulative herself. She's more of an anti-hero than I expected (no one warned me out that!), but she is so flawed and damaged that she does things then changes her mind with no real thought, she made reading this novel unpredictable and in an unpredictable world of the fey, this makes this a gripping, terrifying and compelling read.

Most twists, I saw or suspected coming, but there was a few near the end that made my jaw drop and I have to give Holly Black a huge applaud as I was so blindsided by them, I knew I had to read the sequel, The Wicked King, just to see how on earth the characters were going to recover from them!

Most things worked for me and made me click through my kindle over a course of four/five days. However, there were one or two things that did grate on me slightly.

The first was names. For the first 15-20%, I found it really hard to connect with the characters. It was because it was dark and I had to find my "in" with Jude, but the main thing was the names. There are so many names to get in your head and to keep straight in your head. I imagine the Court to be small so everyone knows everyone, but it took a good while for the names to sink in my head and them to stick. Once they did, I was flying!

The second was the romance. Yes, there is a bit of romance in here. And it's hard to describe how I feel about them. One made me go "Yuck" over it and the second was so complicated that I am weirdly intrigued to see what Holly is going to do with the characters. It can go one of two or three ways. None of them are good.

But even with the flaws that Cruel Prince have, I couldn't put this down and I know that I will be desperate to read Wicked King when it comes out at the beginning of next year (so I might need to reread Cruel Prince before the year is out - just to keep it fresh in my head)

I remember reading The Spiderwick Chronicles when I was much younger and really enjoying it but since then I haven’t read any of Holly Black’s work.

When I saw The Cruel Prince on NetGalley I just had to request it but figured I wouldn’t get accepted. However I did and then I got really bad anxiety about it not being able to live up to what I expected.

I don’t know why I bothered to get myself in such a tizz because d’uh I had nothing to worry about.

Holly Black creates such a great Fae world and from chapter one I was totally engulfed in this fantasy setting and had to know more and more.

I’m not sure I’ve read another book who’s opening shocked me so much that I was like “yes, this is for me. give me more”.

Jude and her twin sister are taken for Fae when they’re 7 years old due to their sister being half-fae. I think seeing this story unfold from Jude’s point of view as she is such an interesting character.

Her twin sister accepts living in fae and wants to do what is possible to live and survive there by conforming. Her elder sister isn’t happy about being their but due to her bloodline can get away with being bratty.

Jude though, Jude is fed up of living with this murderer. Fed up of being “weak”. Fed up of having to be scared to survive so she trains. Trains hard like bamf. Cause she wants to be accepted and maybe a little bit feared. She wants to exist here but in a different way to what her sister does. She’s smart, cunning, and angry. She is such a great protagonist and seeing the world from her point of view is perfect.

Then of course we have the fae. Prince Cardan is everything you expect a royal fae to be. He’s rude, overbearing, abusive and cruel. He hates humans. Especially Jude. Honestly fuck Jude amirite?

I also loved how the story unfolded. Black set up her plot line brilliantly and through well placed though not super obvious hints you could vaguely figure out where things were going to go. It was well crafted and still allowed room for a few surprises.

I highly recommend this fast paced and bloody read.

Well then. This is definitely my favourite book in a long time. I loved it so much that before I'd even finished reading it, I bought four more Holly Black books (this was my first -- how have I waited this long to read her books?!).

The characters and relationships were wonderfully complex and the story was delightfully dark and twisted. I was thoroughly addicted from page one.

I adored Jude as a narrator -- she was a bit of an antihero and I loved that so much and I loved the way it showed how she and her sister learned to navigate this world in such different ways. I loved the way it showed that they didn't fit in because they weren't fae, but they didn't fit in with humans either because they were raised as if they were fae.

I really, really loved the messed up relationship between Cardan and Jude too, hate-to-love relationships are my favourite and this one was particularly twisted and definitely a slow burner -- I need the next book to see what happens there.

If you've ever finished a book and just wanted to cry because you desperately need the sequel right then and there, then you'll know how I felt finishing this book. Waiting a whole year for the next one is not going to be fun (but hey, at least I have a stack of Holly's other books to read until then).

I'd rate this one 5 stars out of 5.

Oh WOW. I love fairy stories. But more than that, I love stories of how nasty and full of trickery the fae can be. Holly Black definitely does not disappoint here. The world she has created is both beautiful and deadly: just as you're beginning to envy Jude for her place in Faerie, something happens that is so horrifying you can't help but be repulsed. There are plenty of nods to the traditional stories, but Holly Black has put her own twist on various aspects too: I loved the grisly image of Madoc carrying his red cap to ritually soak with blood after every battle.

Jude is an engaging heroine, a strong female heroine but three dimensional too. I ended the novel not really liking her, but respecting her for her choices, which felt appropriate given how she has to live to survive in this gorgeous dangerous world. Pitting her against Cardan, who seems like your textbook villain for the most part with the occasional glimmers of something more interesting, was fantastic to read and I'm intrigued to see how that relationship pans out. Also all the love for the Court of Shadows: more stuff on those guys please! The Ghost in particular showed up far too little for my liking, I loved his and Jude's dynamic.

I was left feeling a bit empty at the end: after that climax because after that ending, no way am I done with hearing about Jude and Cardan! But I see this is the first of a trilogy so I guess I'll just have to try and wait as patiently as I can until "The Wicked King" comes out.

Holly Black is someone who's written many books and we're someone who's read many of those books. We've enjoyed them for the most part and we enjoyed this one too, but perhaps the hype that surround this Fae centric book overtook us and led us to disappointment.

Because this was not the epic, bloodthirsty tale of strategic plays and deceptions that should of hooked us. Instead it was a tale of bloodthirsty characters who's motivations felt weak and dull.

Perhaps the standout aspect of this book is the father daughter relationship between one blood drenched Fae and the girl who's mother he killed. It was fascinating to read and we're looking forward seeing how the revelation that your 'child' has turned out just like you affects interactions going forward.

We'll he continuing this saga in The Wicked King and from snippets we've read so far, it looks sure to be more of a hit with us than this installment

The Cruel Prince gets off to a really gripping start when Madoc murders Vivi, Jude and Taryn parents in front of them, and takes the girls back to Elfame to live with him; all casual like, nothing to see here folks! Move it along. It certainly hooks you in.
To give Madoc some credit, Jude and Taryn don’t belong in Elfame. They are not fae, but Madoc takes them in and raises them as his own anyway. They are the children of his wife and he sees them as his responsibility. He determines to raise them with all the privileges afforded to fae children. This is one example of Madoc’s bizarre morals: he is happy to murder the girls’ parents and be called a murderer, but not to leave another man’s children behind and be seen to shirk his responsibility to his wife (even if he did kill her). Are you confused yet? I was. I switched between loving and hating Madoc for most of the novel and I still have mixed feelings towards him now. I did love the inclusion of a non-traditional family in this book. Representation of non-traditional family structures in YA was something I studied at university, and I am always drawn to books that represent this well. Holly’s representation of family in this book is perfect: she shows us the love, the tensions and difficulties of being a complicated and unusual family.
The fae loathe the girls, particularly Jude, because Madoc insists they are afforded the same rights as any other fae. Prince Cardan and his friends are particularly cruel to her. Their bullying made for uncomfortable reading at times. Cardan is a character you will love to hate. He’s the BAD bad boy, but my feelings about him also changed a lot as I read. Holly really knows how to give you those yo-yo feelings for her characters. I started off thinking he was The Cruel Prince of the title, but his brothers prove themselves to be equally cruel in their own ways. They’re an interesting family and their antics add some serious plot twists.
The story mainly revolves around Jude and her view of events. Jude is complex. She hates being mortal more than anything and seeks the approval of Madoc, even letting go of the fact that he killed her parents. Jude is stubborn and feisty, and I love her even though she does some really questionable things. She has some issues she clearly needs to address, but instead of seeking the help and guidance she so clearly needs, she trots off to become a spy instead. This is too cool: I love a story with subterfuge and spies. It’s important to her to feel like she has somewhere to belong and a purpose in life, and she finds this in the Court of shadows. I enjoyed seeing Jude develop as the story went on and I look forward to seeing what she does next.
The world building in The Cruel Prince is wonderful. Some of the rules of fae I knew of from other stories (Cassie Clare eg) but Holly immerses us in a world that soon feels as familiar as real life. I love being so involved in a world that the real world starts to seem not-quite-right when you put the book down, and this was exactly the kind of feeling I got with The Cruel Prince.
There is so much going on in The Cruel Prince that I’m finding it almost impossible to read without giving away all the spoilers. So go…read it.

As a lover of Faerie worlds I went into The Cruel Prince with high hopes- all of which were met. Jude is such a complicated, and at times unlikeable, character which truly made her seem like a bubble of normality in this crazy faerie world. I particularly loved how the usual trope of "he's mean because he likes you" was turned on its head by saying that he was mean because he hated himself for liking her.
All in all a fantastic new world that I shall definitely be following through with!

I am in awe as to how this books stands out from any other YA Fantasy. And lets be real this book should have been called The Cruel Princes. Since it's impossible to write a worthy review, I portrayed the feels in a video booktalk! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug_gKw3CgLk

Jude and her two sisters witnessed the death of their parents at a very young age only to be taken by their parents murderer and raised in the land of faerie. Jude struggles being mortal In a world where almost everyone is immortal and it leaves questions on her mind, how far is she willing to go to fit in? To feel safe and to truly feel like she belongs.

I found this book very interesting, it's the first fantasy book I've read in a long time and the author really well setting up this world, I felt like their was so much detail and I felt right there along with the characters. As for the characters there are a lot of them so you may get confused at times but aside from that it's rather easy to follow.

I will be reading more in the future by this author

The Cruel Prince is a dark, sumptuous story, filled with twists and turns that you don't see coming. Filled with complex relationships, beautiful imagery, and the darker side to the Faerie Courts, I loved this story and I cannot wait for the second book.

'If I cannot be better than them, I will be so much worse.'

I won’t lie – I want to live in Faerie. Even with all the danger, the intrigue, the trickery, the brutality, I love it. And I especially love Holly Black’s imaginings of the Fae world. The Cruel Prince is full of darkness and cruelty, non-stop action, moves and counter-moves, and I was living for it.

Jude is a mortal, stolen away to Elfhame after the murder of her parents, with her twin Taryn, and half-fae sister Vivi, by Vivi’s father, Madoc. Although Madoc protects and loves Jude and Taryn, they are seen very much as ‘other’ amongst the Fae and have to protect themselves against enchantments, Fae food, and glamours. Throughout the novel, Jude struggles with wanting to fit in with the Fae whilst being aware of how dangerous they can be; most of the other Fae are rude or cruel to Jude and Taryn (especially Prince Cardan and his cronies), and Jude can’t help but rise to the bait, which usually makes things worse.

'I can see why humans succumb to the beautiful nightmare of the Court, why they willingly drown in it.'

I loved Jude – she is smart, sarcastic, tough, and relatable as a teenage girl trying to find her place. She wants nothing more than to become a knight and serve the High King, but soon finds herself embroiled in the messy world of politics, and surrounded by murderers, thieves, and rogues – she has to try and be smarter than the Fae, more cunning that centuries old immortals who have no time or inclination for human kindness. I also loved Prince Cardan, though I’m still not sure whether I’m meant to or not. He has the whole beautiful, cruel, and brooding thing going on, with the hint of something deeper beneath the surface. I’m a sucker for a pretty Fae prince.

'Storms are less fickle than they are, seas less capricious.'

Although the novel didn’t quite play out like I wanted it to – the last one hundred pages or so were a bit hit and miss for me – I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I know anyone interested in the world of Fae, or Holly Black’s previous novels, will do too. It’s an incredibly twisty plot, full of politics and intrigue and cut-throat Fae, and I fell in love with the characters and their murky alliances.

This is my first Holly Black and I absolutely loved it!
Stolen away from their mother's mortal world, Jude, her twin sister Taryn and their half-fae half-sister Vivi have to find a way to live in the world of Fae. Not only is the world around them strange, but they are forced to live in the household of Vivi's Fae gentry father - after he has murdered their mother and removed them from all they know..
Holly Black weaves a world of beauty and horror surrounding the girls, as you are drawn into their lives. How will they survive the intrigues if the Fae court? How are they destined to affect the fate of both the Fae and Humankind?
I cannot wait to find out more!

I enjoyed this book overall, particularly the descriptions of the world of Faerie. It did take me a long time to get in to but I found the second half of the book much faster paced.