With this being one of the most anticipated releases of 2018 and both Leigh Bardugo and Victoria Aveyard loving and praising it, I had pretty high expectations and Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince really did live up to my expectations.
Synopsis:
Jude and her two sisters see their parents murdered at a very young age. And nobody else than the coldblooded assassin takes them with him to the world of Faerie. Being mortal in the Faerie world, Jude must prove herself more often more intensely to be approved than any other faerie itself. She must be as dangerous, as dreaded and as smart as the Fey themselves to survive and to receive the thing she wants most: power.
She no longer wants to me mocked for being mortal, she no longer wants to threatened, she no longer wants to be belittled by the arrogant prince Cardan. But as she finds herself in the middle of the downfall of the world she so fiercely tries to prove herself to, she has to decide: her own desires or the future of her world.
My thoughts:
To be honest, the book startet a bit slow and I didn’t know what to think of Jude’s obsession with power, but it surprised me at the end. The end offers so much more than the cover text as the ladder only talks about Jude’s “stairway to power” other than political intrigues and the future of the world she grew up in.
I could really identify myself with Jude in most points, as she grows up to love her parents’ assassin but never quite forgives herself for the important role he plays in her life. And the struggle she goes through, her behaving more and more like a faerie and feeling like a faerie in her heart but never being treated equal.
I think talking more about the book’s development would give up too many secrets that one must unravel during reading, so I guess this is the end of the review! Although the book started slow, it turned out to be a fantastic plot with many turn points.
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