The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black

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Series: The Folk of the Air #1

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fae

Release Date: January 2, 2018

Pages: 370

About Book: 

 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 Review

The beginning of this books just sucks you in and that should come as no surprise what with Holly Black being the author of such a wicked book. The Cruel Prince is no fairy tale, it opens up with the murder of Jude's parents at the hands of her now Fae father whom she hates but can't help but admire since he's the one who raised her, fed her, and clothed her as well as taught her all she knows. 

First off, there's just something about the writing of this book that makes you feel a sort of darkness or foreboding coming over you and honestly it made me relish reading it. I just honestly loved this book. Holly Black's depiction of the Fae and how beautiful and lavish their world is and yet how cruel and unrelenting it is...is just unfathomable.

Moving on towards the characters, I love Jude with all her anger and desperation and hatred filled heart, I honest to god love her. Jude holds so much inside her that I'm not surprised at half the things she did. Jude is no snowflake or even a Mary Sue she's somehow something else, something that has no name as for her twin sister she's something alright something I'd like to punch. I know Jude will probably decide to forgive her but honestly Taryn just irritated me and I know she's her twin sister but I just...I digress (I'm vague on purpose in case any of you haven't read it).

Moving on to the love interest, Cardan whom you'll love to hate and feel frustrated with just like Jude. Cardan is the sort of character whom you feel anger or loathing towards for acting a certain way, only to then realize he's none of those things or well he is but only half.  A love to hate kind of romance is just my kind of romance and I was in the mood for something dark and bloody and lo and behold I found it. 

Although this book is by no mean perfect, I loved it with all my bleeding heart and will probably end up buying it along with the rest of the series when it finishes since I rented it from the library.  

4 out of 5 stars.