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A review by treadsbooks
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
3.0
Tropes Featured: enemies to lovers, betrayal, faerie x human, morally grey mcs
Final Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️
I want to start off by saying that as a kid I LOVED fantasy books (shoutout to the shadowhunters series, which was my childhood favorite), but I sort of ventured away from reading fantasy as I got older - drifting more into the contemporary romance genre. That being said, The Cruel Prince was my first official fantasy book as an *adult* and it definitely reignited my love for the genre! I really had to get used to the level of world building involved in fantasy books again, so naturally this book felt a little slow to me. However, it was still the enjoyable kind of slow where I still wanted to read, not like the painful forcing-myself-through-it kind of slow. The writing style here was very descriptive and flowery, so if you’re not into that then definitely steer clear.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that each character’s motivations for their actions were clearly explained and outlined. Every character is slightly morally gray and the reasons why make sense. It helped me to understand and connect with each character throughout the story. I liked Jude’s character - she was strong, bold, and not afraid to go after what she wanted. I have seen a lot of other people say that she’s such a bad person and she killed people and blah blah blah - but she literally watched her family die at the hands of her now father-figure, was kidnapped and taken to a entirely different world where she is constantly bullied for not being like them so of course she is going to do whatever she possibly can do to have some sort of power over this world that she loathes.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and will be continuing with the rest of the series! The pacing definitely picked up at the end and I was not expecting the plot twists so I have high hopes for the next two books!
Final Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️
I want to start off by saying that as a kid I LOVED fantasy books (shoutout to the shadowhunters series, which was my childhood favorite), but I sort of ventured away from reading fantasy as I got older - drifting more into the contemporary romance genre. That being said, The Cruel Prince was my first official fantasy book as an *adult* and it definitely reignited my love for the genre! I really had to get used to the level of world building involved in fantasy books again, so naturally this book felt a little slow to me. However, it was still the enjoyable kind of slow where I still wanted to read, not like the painful forcing-myself-through-it kind of slow. The writing style here was very descriptive and flowery, so if you’re not into that then definitely steer clear.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that each character’s motivations for their actions were clearly explained and outlined. Every character is slightly morally gray and the reasons why make sense. It helped me to understand and connect with each character throughout the story. I liked Jude’s character - she was strong, bold, and not afraid to go after what she wanted. I have seen a lot of other people say that she’s such a bad person and she killed people and blah blah blah - but she literally watched her family die at the hands of her now father-figure, was kidnapped and taken to a entirely different world where she is constantly bullied for not being like them so of course she is going to do whatever she possibly can do to have some sort of power over this world that she loathes.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and will be continuing with the rest of the series! The pacing definitely picked up at the end and I was not expecting the plot twists so I have high hopes for the next two books!