All Hail A Queen of Faerie

When I was 12, I picked up a Holly Black book for the first time. Her novel, Tithe, made me fall in love with faerie tales, a love affair that I'm still in today. After Tithe came Valiant, then Ironside, and I feel deeper into Black's beautiful descriptions and dark faerie tales.

She presented a faerie world that was beautiful and whimsical but also unafraid to delve into the darkness that rests in some of the oldest faerie lore. Those books, her Modern Faerie Tale series, are still close to my heart today. Fifteen years later, I still pick up Tithe and dive back into the world of a changeling finding herself in the wild underhill of faerie and the streets of New Jersey (my home state).

Over the years I knew Black was still working on other series, but I had started to really explore all that fantasy had to offer and found other places in my heart for Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, and many others. Earlier this year, I became a member of NetGalley which lead me back to Black.

I was approved to read an ARC of The Cruel Prince, and that old love was reignited, and I fell back into the world of wicked and beautiful faerie.

Important to Note...

Although there are quite a few characters who pop up from the Modern Faerie Tale series, The Cruel Prince holds its own and doesn't require you to have read Black's other books. I'm sure you can tell from my opening remarks, but I HIGHLY recommend you read her Modern Faerie Tales regardless.

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The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince was an intriguing opening to this new series. Taryn and Jude are twin sisters whose lives are turned upside down when a dangerous stranger (their half-sister's biological father) come to seek his long-lost daughter and wife.

After their parents are killed, the girls are brought to faerie to live with Madoc, a faerie war general and the man who slaughtered their parents. If you think growing up is hard, try growing up in Faerie when the blood coursing through your veins is 100% human.

Taryn and Jude are the subjects of ridicule and scorn, the outsiders who are "lesser than" the gentry teens that surround them. While Taryn seems content to find a way to blend in and survive under the radar, Jude wants more. Thirsting to do something important with her life, to show those around her that she has never been lesser than, she finds herself in a dangerous bargain that throws her deeper into political intrigue and the midst of cruel Prince Cardan than she could have predicted.

The Cruel Prince has some hints of romance (though I found that a bit predictable), faerie lore, political conspiracy & espionage, and the typical "be careful what you wish for." I loved Jude's fiery spirit, and her desire to be more than what others have designed for her, to make a fate for herself other than what the world tells her must be. There's also such hope for Prince Cardan; Black lays him out, at first, to be the villain that everyone would expect. He's an irredeemable bully, a bigot who preys on Jude for the humanity that she had no choice in.

Minor spoilers ahead...

Instead of relegating Cardan to this role, Black gives him more depth. As Jude learns more about the royal fae, she starts to see that there may be more to Cardan's hatred and violence than she originally thought.

When unexpected betrayals (of course there's more than one!) force her into an alliance she never dreamed she'd make, she has to make some choices that will change the course of her own life and the future of faerie itself.