The Cruel Prince

How can she hope to be a knight when she can't even stand up to a group of bullies. There are multiple descriptions of what she had for dinner, but zero exploration into the personality of the guy she's dating. I guess if you're into the fantasy of being in a role but don't want to acknowledge the reality of what it would mean to be the servivor of your parents murder compounded by being kidnapped and raised by their murderer, who is a general that encourages you to learn how to be a warrior and doesn't put up with excuses...then this is def the book for you. Because all that back story does not impact the main chacter in any way. She's still just a whiney insecure teenager that wants to make daddy proud, doesn't know how to kiss, and has no survival instincts. Just *so* relatable when you have zero life experience.

love this series it's definitely a slow burn but worth it. Jude and Cardan have such great chemistry and banter I love reading scenes when they're together.

This book was definitely one that snuck up on me while I had my back turned. I haven't read many of Black's books, and Tithe wasn't all that memorable to me, so when I went into this, I was aware of the hype but with low expectations. And for the first half, it was like I thought it would be - the story of a mortal girl in a fae court, who is regularly bullied, and who wants to earn her place in their society. Jude has been brought up like a warrior, and she doesn't yearn to return to the mortal world - she finds Faerie to be her home, for better or for worse, and even if she is being looked down upon by the youngest Prince of Elfhame, Cardan and his friends, one of whom wants to kill her and one who wants to, well, seduce her. So, I was like, okay, yeah, their constant fights and the building tension seem interesting enough but what about the coronation plot - why is that in the background? The rule passing on seems a much more intriguing one?! But then, in the second half, all that seeming languidness of the first half built up to a development that absolutely drove away any doubts I had regarding the hype. Jude grows from a mortal wanting to just find a respectable position of a glorified guard, to a kingmaker: from a pawn to a Queen. There are so many things I could discuss - the complicated relationships between the characters, specifically Jude with her adoptive father, Taryn and her aspirations in Faerie and the delicate truce between the sisters, the nature of the human servitude situation, the delightful turns of phrases that meld the charm of old-fashioned speaking with modern style sass, Cardan and the 'romance' that just seems unhealthy, all the scheming and political machinations, Jude's anxiety and her struggles never being glossed over and presenting Faerie in all its vicious beauty - but then this review would be too long. It definitely reminded me of the darkness of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale world, understandable as there are a couple of characters from there that make an appearance here, so it is a shared universe, but also the atmosphere of the plot calls to mind more of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, with a heroine who is just exhausted with the world she is in, but is still doing her best to be kind while also keeping herself first. And that ending - what an exhilarating ending, that more than makes up for the slower first half! Jude delivers an A-level scheme and all the faeries better watch out in the next book!