The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince

Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (Hachette Book Group)
Year: 2018
Genre: Fantasy
Age: YA 13+
Page Count: 370

Rating:

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This is my 271st blog post! I can't believe I've written that much in the last 4 years, it's crazy to think that I started writing this blog to share my new job & my new life with family & friends & it has grown into such a great place to speak my mind about books I love & share library things with all of you. THANK YOU!!!

So....this book....I can't even...LOL

I remember hearing about this book in 2017, maybe even as early as 2016, I can't remember for sure but needless to say I was excited. I have read several other books by Holly Black & loved them. Her books are always amazing, well written, exciting, & everything you want in a great fantasy book. I plan on reading others in the future. So I was WAY hyped up for this book. My library got it last year based on my recommendation & I was super excited. It was around that same time I realized it was going to be a series. Now...some of you that know me personally know that I have this weird thing about series. I have been burned so many times by series book. You get to the end & there's that big freaking cliffhanger, then you have to wait like 2 years for the next book to come out, or 6 or 7 years for the whole series to finish. I HATE THAT! So about 2 years ago I started this new thing where I don't read series books until the series has been completed. There have been some exceptions to this rule obviously, most of those have been books that I already started that I decided to continue with through the agonizing process of waiting for the rest of the series to come out, LAME! So when my library got this book I was excited but I was also kinda bummed because i knew it would be a few years until it was completed & I wanted to wait...because you know I have NOTHING else to read LOL! Unfortunately as I'm sure you fellow library workers & users know, we can't have nice things. After the first checkout the book got destroyed. Aren't you shocked? So when we finally got the replacement this last month, like a year later, I decided I wasn't going to wait in case something else happened, so I checked out the book. And this is how I feel about it...

When I first started reading I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew that story had to do with the Fae & that was about it. Probably some romance involved as these things usually go. Plus Holly Black always puts a kinda of...dark...violent...twist on her stories, I'm not sure how else to describe it. There is usually 2 different kinds of "fairytale" stories involving the Fae, they are either dark & twisty & violent, or hopelessly romantic, she typically writes the first kind of story. So aside form that I was ready for whatever was to come. It took me a little longer than normal to read this book because things have been crazy busy but I was determined to finish it.

The book is broken up into 2 parts. The first part was honestly kinda meh. I was like ok...when is the big exciting stuff gonna happen, & that's it, really? That was until chapter 20 & DUDE it was AMAZING!!!!!!! It was like waking up from a dream, it was breathtaking, heart wrenching, like a train wreck you can't look away from. Took a while but very worth it in my opinion. After that the story really started developing quickly. Some things that happened were predictable like Jude's love interest issues/choices. Other things like who the true king is were not. It seemed like after the big TA-DA moment something nuts was happening every chapter. I'm so excited for the next book! I already have it checked out on e book. But I have to read our book club book for next week first before I start it. I have to be good (someone needs to take the book & slap it out of my hand if I try to read it LOL). The book also has some interesting features that I really like to see. Each chapter has a little picture at the beginning, the "parts" also have pictures & poems to accompany them. This book would be prime for a beautiful deckle edge, I LOVE LOVE LOVE me a deckle edge. So what are you waiting for!? Go get this book & decide for yourself what you think, worth the wait or not?