Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - The Cruel Prince

1. pacing is slow for most of the book, but there is enough complicated intrigue and weird world building to keep you reading.

2. It does not feel like a story or world that I have read in fantasy before, and that’s hard to do. I enjoyed that.

3. Romance is basically non-existent in this book, but it does feel like a very long and elaborate set up for future romance in other books maybe? If anything this is really a political intrigue book with a very subtle romance subplot. If that’s your jam, you’re going to love this.

4. The person I am fairly sure is the future hero is A LITERAL ASSHOLE for 99.9% of the book. Like zero redeeming qualities, not even described as attractive? If you aren’t patient with very long redemptive arcs for characters, or if you can’t tolerate not knowing who the true love interest is, maybe skip this book.

5. The heroine feels really young and also not particularly moral??? Like she is decidedly not justice-motivated. She seems really immature and self interested at times. This makes for a surprising read if I’m honest and I think we will watch her develop a lot in the books. This book feels a bit like a prequel somehow?

6.

The hero has a tail

and it is unforgivable. Although I guess it has some sort of symbolic meaning in future books, but to me it’s just a step too far. Yuck.

7. I would have given up on this book entirely if it wasn’t for some really surprising shit that goes down around the chapter 26 mark that had me WTF-ing all over the place. It’s like it suddenly turned into the book I wanted it to be. The last four chapters are, in my opinion, amazing. They had me on the edge of my seat. I hope they reflect what future books will be like.

Oh, final thought: I think listening as an audiobook kinda made this book worse for me than it was, because the narrator didn’t do distinct voices for the characters, and it made it really confusing. Would recommend reading it as a book.

Lots of content warnings on this one.

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

cedes_er's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

4.5

It is slow at first but picks up pace as it goes on.
If you like fantasy and romance it's a great book for you plus it has the added bonus of a women fighting for power and playing a game of cards with fate.

Content Warnings

bookmark3brodi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.0

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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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)

Content Warnings

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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