Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

25 reviews

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book took me a while to enjoy. I almost DNF'd this at the beginning as it was not gripping me like I wanted it to. I just had no interest in the characters and having known the end pairing of the series, which I thought would happen by the end of this book, I couldn't see how this was going to work.

The issue I found was that every time I have heard this book it was talked about as a enemies to lovers, which is not doing it justice. This is a fantasy book with some romance but not a romance fantasy book.

Once i got a bit more into the book and into the right mindset for it, it defiantly became more enjoyable. I do love the Court of Shadows. I think most of their scenes were my favourite in the book, and the ending intrigued me enough to pick up the next book.

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aya_h's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Jude + Cardan = ❤️❤️❤️

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grommit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fantastic politics, cruel people, and sucks you into its world

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thelibraryofjen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Jude is my new favorite character and I get the hype about Cardan. THE TAIL WAS CRAZY THOUGHHHH. The only reason why this isn’t 5 stars is because I was expecting enemies-to-lovers, but this is more like bully to friend to
lovers. I loved the plot and the overall political intrigue which really kept me entertained. Some people find this book boring because of that aspect but personally me I really enjoyed it. I will be continuing on to the second book whenever I get around to that. 

Jude was an absolute badass and I was rooting for her through the whole book
why tf would Tyran do that to her SISTER?!!! I was utterly shocked and betrayed when that happend and Locke is an ick in itself. I loved the little found family with the Bomb, Roach, and Ghost that was very heart warming to see. The ending was ABSOLUTELY NOT EXPECT and I have to say I didn’t see it coming I really though Oak was going to be crowned. I really got immersed into the story and I just loved the characters and the world.

If you Love:
-found family
-bully-to friends-to lovers
-knife to throat 
-batter
-lots of tension between love interests

Genre/Type: Fantasy Fiction 15+
(paperback)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 
Spice: 🌶️
Series or Standalone: First book in a trilogy (has a spin off series with oak this needs to be read first in order to understand the spin off series)

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starryeyedreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Non-spoiler bit: The book is great. If you like Holly Black's other fae books then you will like this. If you haven't read anything by Holly Black, I would recommend starting with the Modern Faerie Tales series, because it chronologically happens before this series does.

The spoiler bit:
expect betrayal, trying to figure out what's going to happen next only to be wrong cause the book sets up for multiple unexpected plot twists. Enemies to lovers trope is present. Some of the characters are just down right evil, but well written. In terms of diversity, there isn't much in the way of POC representation, but there is LGBT+ rep, and the folk are very diverse and you can definitely find yourself in the characters regardless of their appearance.

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noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

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4.5

 Content Warnings: Blood, murder, death, loss of loved ones, abandonment, infidelity, cheating, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, violence, emotional abuse, bullying, physical abuse, kidnapping, slavery, drug abuse, loss of body autonomy, classism, gaslighting, suicide, pregnancy, and attempted murder of children born and unborn.

OMG how do I even start this review. I just finished reading...not even 10 minutes ago and my brain is still processing everything that happened.

This was a recommendation [and book gift] from Roni...I got fomo seeing all her updates when she was reading the series and decided I needed to read it too...and she was awesome enough to gift the trilogy to me 🥰

I've heard a lot of people talk about the trilogy but not really giving any real spoilers away...like literally all I knew before reading was that there was a Jude and a Carden...someone murdered her parents and she was raised in fairy...and that there was an entire page of just her name over and over. Which really...those 3 facts don't make for much info 🤣 Ngl I think I loved that though...I really had no idea what I was getting into.

From the start I sympathized and loved Jude. I had weird feelings of distrust towards certain characters...which ended up being well founded!

Maybe I can formulate my thoughts better soon...but until then I'm going to go marinate my thoughts and probably start book 2 😝 

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margaret_k30's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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giulianalb99's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


⚠️Esta reseña contiene spoilers⚠️

Este libro es fantástico. Ya entiendo el hype que tiene, está totalmente justificado y merecidísimo. 
Me encanta cómo escribe Holly Black, nunca había leído ningún libro de ella y la verdad es que su pluma es increíble y preciosa. El mundo de Faerie es súper original, pero me hubiera gustado saber más acerca de él. Si que es verdad que al principio se me hizo un poco lento y, a veces, me pareció que los capítulos eran demasiado largos, pero se me ha pasado volando y lo he disfrutado un montón. 

Jude (la protagonista) es genial. Me encanta que la autora plasme sus defectos y cómo va evolucionando su personaje a medida que va avanzando el libro, y su relación con Cardan es un enemies to lovers 100% que he amado y que no puedo esperar más a leer cómo va tomando forma su relación. Al principio Cardan no me gustaba tanto por el tema del bullying (ya que es un tema que no puedo apoyar bajo ningún concepto) pero al final van saliendo a la luz varias cosas que te hacen cambiar de parecer. Los demás personajes, en general, me han parecido buenos (menos Taryn obviamente, y Locke🤮), y es súper curiosa la relación que tienen Madoc y Jude teniendo en cuenta su situación extraña.

Poco más tengo que decir al respecto. No puedo esperar más a seguir con esta trilogía y ver cómo los personajes van creciendo/evolucionando y cómo su relación se va creando. 
No le doy 5 estrellas porque creo que el segundo me va a gustar mucho más y porque he sentido que este libro ha sido más bien un “calentamiento” para los que se vienen. 
Si te gusta la fantasía y el romance, tienes que leer este libro sí o sí.



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This book is fantastic. I understand the hype it has, it’s totally justified and well deserved. 
I love how Holly Black writes, I've never read any of her books and the truth is that she writes so beautifully. The world of Faerie is super original, but I would’ve liked to know more about it. Yes, at first it was a bit slow for me and, sometimes, I thought the chapters were too long, but I read it so fast that I didn’t even noticed and I enjoyed it a lot. 

Jude (the mc) is amazing. I love that the author captures her flaws and how her character evolves as the book progresses, and her relationship with Cardan is a 100% enemies to lovers that I loved and I can't wait to read how their relationship evolves. At first I didn't like Cardan so much because of the bullying issue (I cannot support that under any circumstances) but in the end several things come to light that make you change your mind. The other characters, in general, were really good (except Taryn obviously, and Locke🤮), and the relationship between Madoc and Jude is super curious considering their strange situation. 

I have little more to say about it. I can't wait to continue with this trilogy and see how the characters grow/evolve and how their relationship takes shape. I'm not giving it 5 stars because I think I'm going to like the second one much more and because I've felt that this book was more of a "warm-up" for the other books that are coming. 
If you like fantasy and romance, you have to read this book no matter what.





(English is not my first language, if you find any mistakes, please let me know)

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theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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sierrabowers's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really liked this book! Holly Black sweeps you away into a magical world, and keeps you entranced the entire time! I was NOT expecting the twists and turns, which is good, because usually I can tell when something is about to happen in a book. Not the case with this one. I did see a spoiler on Tiktok so part of this book was spoiled, which makes me sad. If I hadn’t seen it, it would have been a total shock! Going into the book with a preconceived idea changed how I read it. I think I would have liked it more if I hadn’t seen the spoiler which is a shame. All the while, I loved the story and world building. It reminded me of a childhood daydream! 

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