A review by astravars
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

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

5.0


Sometimes I forget how much I love these kinds of books. Fantasy Politics. Scheming. Mysteries. Twists. Betrayals.

Having read and loved the cruel prince trilogy for the same reasons two years ago, especially with one of my favourite characters being Oak, of course I picked this one up as fast as I could.

This book follows Suren ("Wren"), the former child queen of the Court of Teeth we first get to know in The Queen of Nothing who joins Prince Oak, a knight of Elfhame and their prisoner on a journey North where her mother, Lady Nore, is creating monsters and plotting her revenge on Elfhame.

I adore the way this is written and while I did predict some of the plot twist, including one of the ones happening at the end, that did not take anything away from the story. In fact, it might have been a little intentional. Every time I thought the outcome was obvious there was still another detail I'd missed.


I loved experiencing this story from Wren's point of view. I was a little sceptical at first but I grew fond of her rather quickly. Her character development throughout the book is so well done. And while Jude and Cardan don't appear on page it's very interesting to see them referred to by other characters. Wren's situation almost made Jude seem unlikable to me sometimes.

Seeing Oak all grown up was something as well. A good something. It's never quite clear what his intentions are and where his loyalties lie, especially in the beginning of the book, and I thought that really added to the story. He's the character I felt the most attached to, closely followed by our protagonist Wren.

There's a lot of (justified) mistrust and betrayal between them. They're both flawed characters and I love them dearly.

"Things will be easier without me around. They'll see that."
- Oak about his family in one of the flashbacks, planning to run away

+ He's incredibly reckless with his life


Additionally, we get some more detailed backstory on Wren and Oak as well as some information about what they were up to in the time between this book and the previous one. Some of it in the form of flashbacks, some of it in Wren's narrative, some of it in conversations between her and Oak. All of them giving us a better understanding about the characters. This might have been one of my favourite things about the book.

There are some very interesting side characters as well, including a prominent mlm romance between two of them.


I can't really say too much without giving away some major plot points but I enjoyed this book a lot, probably even more than the original trilogy and I highly recommend you check it out!

I listened to the audiobook and I do recommend it, I thought the narrator was really good :)


Disclaimer: The romance subplot between Wren and Oak is even more subtle than the one between Jude and Cardan in the first book so don't go into the book expecting it to be about romance. It's political fantasy.
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