“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black

Summary

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 Thoughts

The summary above is just for the first book to get you into the series. This will have spoilers, but I’ll try to keep it vague! I literally cannot express more how much I adored this series. It was marketed to me as just an enemies-to-lovers romantasy novel, but it is so much more than that. To be honest, romance is the B-plot; the main focus of the book is on political intrigue and power. We follow our iconic main character, Jude Duarte, who literally terrifies everyone by the end of the series, and Cardan, who is a brilliant and manipulative character. They both grow so much, not only learning about power, but also about how to accept love and softness as well. Every single interaction between the two makes me squeal, and there’s even an iconic knife to throat scene.

The book is really about power; and what someone will do to get it. Jude manipulates, lies, and slaughters her way into power, and it is only at the end of it all that she realizes that it is not worth it without someone who she loves next to her. Holly Black is amazing at writing complicated, nuanced relationships. The relationship between Jude and her twin sister Taryn is complicated and evolves continuously, and by the third book, my dislike of Taryn has evolved into grudging respect. The relationship between Jude and her father, Madoc, is even more complicated, and I absolutely love the way it ends between them to be honest. It’s well-written and perpetually changing, and it is clear that they care for one another despite them being on opposite sides of conflict many times.

I’ve been reading nothing but dark academia for a year, but this series has genuinely snapped me into a romantasy phase. Kudos to Holly Black, and I this is probably the best enemies-to-lovers I have read outside of fanfiction ever. There is a sequel duology following Jude’s younger brother Oak, and I’m excited to get started on it!

(I also read the collection on Cardan, called How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, and it gave me so much beautiful context on him and his relationship with Jude from his point of view, not to mention beautiful art.)

Book 1: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Book 2: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Book 3: ★ ★ ★ ★
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

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