WHAT A PHENOMENAL BOOK! I eagerly await the next one in the series. Why must it be so far away?! The story follows Jude, who is a human girl swept away to a land of fantasy, along with her twin and older sister. It begins with tragedy and through this tragedy, the siblings develop differently. Not all is great in the land of the Fae...in fact, Holly Black's book is tragic in a lot of ways. There's rivalry, attraction, deception, murder, and many other things that I didn't expect when I opened the first page of the book. However, the characters (especially the Cruel Prince, in my opinion) were wonderfully created. While I did have a hard time getting into the story, once I fully submerged myself into this world - I was very sad to finish the book. I can't wait for more of the story to unfold!

Jude and her twin live among the fae but are mortal. Madoc is fae and the father of Jude’s half-sister, Vivi. Despite brutally murdering Jude’s parents, Madoc has raised Jude and her two sisters in the world of fairy. Vivi, the older half-fae sibling, fits in better but is nevertheless unhappy and just wants to live like a mortal. Jude suffers continual harassment at the hands of her classmates. She yearns to be knighted so she can earn a secure spot at the fae court. Her twin is not as desperate.

Jude’s chief tormentor is Prince Cadan. He taunts and persecutes her. It’s not surprising that Jude hates him more than the others. Cadan is the youngest son of the King and not likely to ever sit on the throne. But there are ruthless people surrounding the king who have plans to control the kingdom, creating high intrigue.

The characters are well-drawn and one can’t help but like Vivi. Jude is the typical strong-willed daughter and Cadan is more complex than first thought. He has more than just his dark side and yet not someone easily categorized.

Black’s writing is smooth and flows seamlessly. The plot is riveting and captures reader’s interest, never letting go. There is tension right up to the last sentence and readers will be holding their breath, desperate for the next book in the series.

I loved this book! This is the first book I have ever read by Holly Black, even though she has been on my to read list for years. This is definitely one of those series I will be counting down the days until the next one is released. It's going to a painful 2 years. I highly recommend reading this book and definitely have been recommending it to co-workers and patrons..

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the opportunity to read and review The Cruel Prince by Holly Black! The opening of the book immediately grabbed my full attention with action, intrigue and violence! Jude and Taryn, human twins, are raised with their Faerie older sister, Vivi, in the Faerie kingdom. Jude and Taryn attend school with faerie teenagers and, while Taryn seems to stay off their radar, Jude is constantly being teased by Cardan, Valerian, Locke and Nicasia. Valerian takes the teasing to violent extremes. For this reason, Jude works daily to become stronger (by taking small amounts of poison daily to become immune) and to become a warrior. Little does she know how much her self training and practice will help her kingdom until the future of her kingdom lies within her hands. Fantasy laced with action and intrigue make The Cruel Prince a must read, 5 stars! I’m anxiously awaiting the sequel.

HOLY!!! I believe I am suffering from emotional whiplash here. I have never felt so many emotions while reading a book an kudos to the author. This is not your average Fae book. I find a lot of authors try and romanticize the fair folk but not in this case. This book literally opens up with a murder and kidnapping. Jude, Taryn and Vivienne witness their parent’s death at the hand of Vivienne’s biological father and then kidnapped to live in Faery. Viv although being half Fae is accepted but detests it and vows to make her father miserable. While Jude and Taryn who are twins but 100% human are detested and bullied. Life is not great. Taryn to survives tries to assimilate to fairy while Jude whose tired of the cruelty of the Fae lashes out and antagonizes which is the catalysts for the events that happen in this book. I don’t think I have felt so much anger on how Jude and Taryn are treated and I am secretly happy that Jude although foolish at the time gets some small justices. Holly Black portrays faery Court superbly and I honestly believe back in medieval times this is exactly how some of our royalty would have acted and treated others. Cruel and dismissive. Filled with political intrigue, spies, espionage bloodshed and deceit with just a hint of romance I think this will have a lot of people hooked and talking about next year. And I am salivating for book two

When I reached the end, I was sad to leave the characters and put the world away. Wonderfully dark and addicting. I can't wait for the next book in the series!

OMG what a book!! I love this author and everything she writes!! A definite must read!!

I try to avoid book hype as much as I can these days, but even I heard about the rave reviews for The Cruel Prince. I thought there was no way it could be as good as everyone said, but honestly, it is.

Holly’s Curseworkers series is one of my all-time favorites, but I admit I haven’t read anything else by her. I’m also not a huge fan of fairy stories as a general rule. But with this book, Holly shows what a master writer she is.

First, the characters are excellent. Everyone is multi-layered and (dare I say it?) terrible, including our protagonist Jude. But despite their flaws, it’s impossible not to be drawn into their world and root for Jude the underdog. Also, I have to admit that the aptly named Cruel Prince (aka Cardan) is both horribly mean and also deliciously complicated. I can’t say I ship him with Jude, but I also can’t say they don’t deserve each other.

While the characters are great, though, I’ve got to say I was most impressed by Holly’s magnificent plotting. This book has so many twists and turns that it’ll keep you frantically turning pages. I guessed a few of the twists, but that one at the end totally surprised me - in a wonderful way.

Overall, this book deserves the hype. A few cliches like over-describing fairy beauty and a little too much emphasis on sexual tension when murder was afoot kept me from giving this a full 5 stars, but I’ll definitely be anxiously awaiting the sequel!

This is by far one of my favorite books by Holly Black. It is about a fierce human girl living in a cruel fairy world and how she longs to fit in at any price.

Beautifully written and excellently paced. A must read for 2018

A beautifully descriptive, dark, and gorgeous story - told in Holly Black’s seductive, and haunting world of fey. I was absolutely blown away by how much I loved this book! It was a great tie in for fans of Black’s Ironside trilogy (which is where I fell in love with her work) - complete with cameos from some of our old favourites. This was unputdownable, and I can’t wait for the next one!

I loved the twists and turns in this story. I started out thinking that this book was going to be about Jude trying to find her place in the faerie world, and ended up being completely surprised at the direction the story actually went. Plenty of court intrigue, crazy faeries, and characters that all have their own faults and flaws. Honestly, I think the only character without many faults in this story was Vivi. She was pretty awesome.
I think the biggest shock was Cardan's complete and immediate change of character. I'm really looking forward to how he develops in the upcoming books. And that cliffhanger was totally unfair! How dare you Holly Black!
I've only read two Holly Black books before this, and now I'm really interested in reading more, especially the ones set in her faerie realm. I think I have a new favorite author!

This is an exciting story about Jude and her two sisters who live among the Fey but started their young lives in the real world. The three of them are teetering on the edge of the society, each hoping to fit in, but in very different ways. There are big themes of acceptance, family loyalty, political intrigue, and finding your true self. I sincerely hope this the beginning of a series because this was a terrific read.

A page-turner of a book from Holly Black, who continues to improve with each successive novel I read (not a huge fan of Tithe; loved The Coldest Girl in Coldtown). The worldbuilding felt very solid, as did the complicated family dynamics in play. For those who are still reading faerie-flavored urban fantasy, this will be a slam dunk.

As much as I kind of over the whole fey-are-the-new-vampires trope, I've loved the two previous Holly Blacks books I read so I knew I was going to pick this one up. And I'm really glad I did because I really liked this book and am excited to see where the story goes from here!

Thanks so much to Hachette Books for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

The story follows Jude, a girl whose parents were brutally murdered in front of her when she was just a little girl. The murderer, Madoc, happened to be a general to the High King of Faerie, and Jude's mother was once his wife, Jude's oldest sister his daughter. Jude and her sisters are taken to Faerie and raised by Madoc and his new wife. Many fey dislike mortals, perhaps no one more than Cardan, the youngest son of the High King. Jude is determined to prove herself as a fighter and will stop and nothing and no one to do so.

First off, the concept of this story was really interesting, but not super original. I've read a few fey books and most of them involve hating humans. Where this story becomes more engaging is the development of palace intrigue. For better or for worse, there were times when I forgot this was a set in Faerie and just imagined a regular high fantasy with problems in the palace. Then there'd be some crazy magical thing happen and I'd remember what was really going on.

Before I get too far into this book, I just want to talk about why I didn't give it a full star rating, even though I really enjoyed it and am so ready for the sequel. THE ROMANCE was my number one issue in this book. I don't think it was necessary for the story and I really don't like how it came to be.

This might get a little spoilery, so look away now if you don't want to be (although, if you read the synopsis, you'll know who's involved).

I really thought that we were past the elementary school trope of "I only bully you because I like you." Apparently not. There is a reason this book is called The CRUEL Prince. He is absolutely horrid to her, bullying her, making fun of her, and letting others hurt her. This is not the basis for a relationship. You can be mad at yourself for liking someone, but don't be mad at them. And then, after we see how absolutely terrible he is to her, he's all "But I like you," and she goes for it! Perhaps I wouldn't have minded so much if he was kind of mean, but, up until this point, Black depicted him as a full-blown jerk. And then I'm supposed to just get on board with a romance, heck no!

End of possibly spoilery section.

Anyways, was not a fan of the romance. But the rest of the story was really good. I liked Jude a lot, she was strong and tough (although she didn't always make great decisions, see spoilery section). I wasn't the biggest fan of Taryn, her twin sister, but I don't think we saw her enough to make a decent judgment. Vivienne, the oldest was cool and I wanted to see more of her, hopefully in book two?

Overall, the end of this book wrapped some things up, but I cannot wait for the next one!

"And despite myself, despite what he'd done and what he was, I came to love him. I do love him. ... It's just not a comfortable kind of love." 

- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black 

WOW. The Cruel Prince is definitely going to be on my (and many bloggers') best of 2018 list. How can I say that when it's only January 1st? Well, if you want to know you're going to have to read this incredible feat of faerie literature, because otherwise I'd be spoiling it for you. 

Holly Black has done something remarkable in The Cruel Prince. She's taken the world of faerie, blended it seamlessly with the modern world, added a kick-butt female heroine with a tragic past, a hunger for more, and a thirst for proving herself, and tied it all together with enough intrigue to keep readers second guessing and gasping their way through this delicious novel. 

Basically, you can't trust anyone in this book. Everyone has a hidden agenda, and the politics are ridiculous. We've got an evil prince who is seemingly the scum of the earth, but whose story might just shock you. We've got Jude, who is probably my favorite female heros since Alanna the Lioness from the Song of the Lioness quartet. I freaking want to BE Jude. I never knew what she was going to do next. I'm a serial ending-predictor but by the end of this one I was still going WTF at every single turn. I did not see these twists coming, and Jude's story is just flawless. 

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

I'm not sure where Jude is going in the next one, but I can see her heading towards an antiheroine situation because some of the decisions she makes are straight up dark. She does what she has to do, and I just couldn't get enough. She becomes a spy for one of the princes at court and it just gets insane from that point on.

Am I blabbering yet? Because I don't think I can even form coherent sentences after reading this one. It's got me all wound up. 

I seriously am shaking because I just need the next book right this second, and it's not going to be out for at least a year and ahalkhdfklsahg;kjlshdg;lksjg;lkashdg that hurts me. 

Rating: 5+/5 stars

I have been insanely excited about this book since I saw Holly Black talk about it during her panel with Ryan Graudin at BookExpo last year, so when the ARC showed up on NetGalley, I jumped on it. It was worth the wait, because The Cruel Prince is Holly Black at her high fantasy, intrigue and betrayal finest.

Jude is a mortal girl, raised with her twin sister, Taryn, and half-sister sister, Vivi, in the Court of Fairie. By the main that killed her parents, who also happens to be Vivi's father. The two human sisters want desperately to belong, but are looked down upon for their mortality; the Folk use every opportunity to sneer at and humiliate them, and fiery Jude takes most of the abuse. Cruelest of them all is Prince Cardan, the youngest son of the High King. When Jude is given the chance to become part of a shadowy group of spies, she grabs at the chance, and discovers her own capacities for bloodshed and double-dealing. And that will serve her well as the Court of Faerie moves toward a big change: one that will see Jude making and breaking alliances to save those closest to her.

There is SO much to unpack here, and it's all brilliant. The characters are as loathsome as they are amazing - and that's said with the highest compliment. The faerie folk are beautiful, cruel, entitled, and immortal; we love them as much as we hate them. Jude emerges as a strong heroine; conflicted by loving the man who raised her as his own, yet murdered her parents in cold blood; conflicted by her desire to live among the Folk as one of them, yet disgusted by their capacity for cruelty. There are plot twists that you won't see coming, and betrayals that will make you yelp. If you're a high fantasy fan - or have readers who are - this is a must have for your shelves. Now, to tensely wait for the next installment. (In the meantime, pick up Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows.)

If you are a fan of Sarah J. Maas, this book has to be on your list of most anticipated 2018 releases! The Cruel Prince was very well written and such a compelling story that you will not be able to put the book down. This is my first Holly Black book and lets say I was not disappointed. I was immediately drawn into the story as well as loving all the characters. This book will be one of your favourite books of the year!

Jude is only seven when her parents are murdered. Along with her two sisters she is now living in the High Court of Faerie. The book begins ten years after where the fey despise humans. Then we meet Prince Cardan, the wickedest son of all of the High King's sons. I really enjoyed seeing the way both Jude and Cardan both interacted throughout the book. But he was definitely cruel to Jude throughout most of the book. He can definitely not be trusted...... or not.

Holly Black is well known for writing fantasy featuring faeries. It had a bit of everything like action, drama, romance (you will see!) and tons of surprises that will make you want to throw the book across the room. The ending will not disappoint you, but it will leave you wishing you had the second book in your hands! If you are looking for a great fantasy this is the perfect book for you to start!

Fans of Holly Black will not be in the least surprised to find that she has created another world full of rich details and fascinating characters. Jude, the narrator, is half-sister to the daughter of a faerie lord. When Lord Madoc comes looking for his missing heir, he takes not only his own child, but Jude and her twin as well. The girls grow up in faerie, constantly reminded by everyone that they are only human and mortal, not part of the glittering throng. Jude yearns to earn her place as a knight of the court, which will offer her some protection. Taryn has plans of her own, and their older sister Vivienne wants to return to the human world and her lover there. If Jude takes the offer of one of the princes and becomes an agent prying into palace secrets, will any of the girls survive?

The character of Jude captures all the angst of growing up, in any world. She misses the human world, but wants to fit in where she is. She feels herself growing apart from her twin, each of them with dreams and secrets of their own. The privileged young members of the faerie court that torment the girls are like any group of rich bullies, sure of their own untouchable status and furious with anyone who doesn't seem to fear them enough. The descriptions of the inhabitants of faerie include the bold, the beautiful, and the hideous. Everything from the sparkling costumes at palace balls, the blood and violence of battles to show the prowess of the young, the dangers of the beautiful fruits and wines, to the misshapen faces and figures of the hobs and other servants are all described in detail that allows us to see them.

If you enjoy stories of humans in fantasy settings, using their skills and even their weaknesses to foil the plots of powerful faeries, then you should pick up The Cruel Prince. Since this is the first in a series, you will be able to follow along and see how Jude and her siblings do their best to stay alive and even succeed in spite of all their enemies.

Admittedly, this book started out pretty slow for me. I love Holly Black so I was so excited to get a copy of this one early… but it took a bit of time for me to get into the characters and the story more than usual. Honestly, I think that this is because the characters were so not at all what I was expecting, AND I ended up loving it because of that so, so much!

Jude is human… and living in the fey world. She stands out because she’s so unlike those around her and all she wants is to find her place in this world she’s been forced to inhabit. The fey hate humans though, and Prince Cardan is worse than all the rest in how he treats her. And she hates him. He torments her in ways that I found unexpected because OMG this is the main dude of the book and how am I supposed to love him… nothing will redeem him. Only, Black finds a way to make me appreciate his character in a way that was completely unexpected.

When we meet Jude, she is determined to become a knight of the high court… it’s the only way she feels like she’ll truly fit in. But as the king announces his ‘retirement’ the royal family makes their plans to pass the throne to one of Cardan’s brothers. Jude is approached by one of the princes and offered a position as a spy and from there… well, let’s just say things do not go smoothly, and as plots are schemed and plays are made for the crown, so many unexpected things will happen that you’ll be staring in awe at the pages you’re reading.

This book has a bit of everything and Black has created a brutal Fey world of politics and deception, and twists and turns that you will devour. Her storytelling is engaging and her characters are so captivating and unique that if you’re like me, you’ll get to the end of the story and immediately look to see how long you have to wait for book 2.

I want to start by saying that the last 40% of this book was amazing!!! It was so good! It was everything!!! It was full of backstabbing, of mystery, of double crossing agents, of spies and espionage, family feuds and so much death. Seriously, so much bloodshed. I loved this part of the book and I can't wait to read the next books.

I also want to say I had two very big problems. Problems I hope will be solved in the next book. Because this series could easily become my favorite.

1. All the description. At one point the twins lunch was described in multiple paragraphs in the span of two pages. Two pages!! I'm too lazy to go back and look because I didn't highlight that part...but it happens and it was excruciating to read through. This has an easy fix because now that everything was described it won't have to be repeated in any of the other books. Right?

2. I don't think I liked any of the characters. I hated some more than others BUT the fact remains that I was not emotionally invested in any of the characters. I especially disliked Taryn (view spoiler)

Don't even get me started on the cruel prince and his group of drunken bullies. The book title is completely adapt. Prince Cardan is truly cruel.

Now to point out some other reasons why this book was great and why I can't wait for the next books. Even though I didn't really care for any of the characters I'm completely invested in Vivienne or Vivi (Which I like and I never like shortened names) and Oak. I wish there was more of them. I can't wait for the next books because there will be more of Oak as a big kid or young man. I get the feeling he'll have to come back sooner than expected. Poor kid. I really liked these two.

I also really enjoyed Jude's growth into becoming the badass we all knew she could be. The training and espionage was believable. I loved how real that felt.

The beginning is a slow burn, if you care for that then it's perfect for you. Since I don't I struggled to read through it BUT once the action starts it's non stop and so very good. I recommend this book.