Review: The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air #1)

The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air #1)
Holly Black

Published By: Hot Key Books
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Date Read: July 13, 2020
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook

From Goodreads:
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

One terrible morning, Jude and her sisters see their parents murdered in front of them. The fearsome assassin abducts all three girls and brings them to the world of Faerie, where Jude is installed into the royal court. Mocked and tormented for being merely mortal, Jude soon realises that to survive in this treacherous, dangerous, new world, she needs to be as smart, cunning and deceitful as the Fey themselves.

But the stairway to power is fraught with shadows and betrayal. And looming over all is the infuriating, arrogant and charismatic Prince Cardan. Jude must take the utmost care …

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

The Cruel Prince is one of those books that has been on my bookshelf for so long. I am a huge lover of all things fantasy so I couldn’t wait to read this one. I started it sometime last year and just couldn’t get into it. Now usually when this happens I DNF the book and think no more of it. However, so many of my friends were raving about this series and everything they were saying were things that I love in a book. So, rather than DNF’ing the book, I put in on hold for now. As an aid to get back into audiobooks I decided to try this one, one more time. Now, as someone who isn’t usually an audio person, I was so surprised… I loved this audiobook.

The Cruel Prince was a fantastic start to a fantasy series. I did find the first couple of chapters a little bit slow, but I have come to expect this with fantasy series. Those first few chapters are typically setting the scene for this new world that we are in. Once I got through those first few chapters, I was loving this book. I love the world, the characters…. everything.

Jude is a great character to follow through this story. She develops so much throughout the course of this novel. She is kick-ass and won’t back down from a fight, and she goes from wanting to find a place in this world to being slightly power hungry. I loved that about her and I can’t wait to see what happens with her in the next book. With Cardan, I had such mixed feelings about him. I see so many readers completely in love with him and I’m definitely not. Not yet at least. I hated him at the start of the book but as the book went on I just felt more and more sorry for him. Now, I am intrigued as to what he will be like in the next book.

This was the first Holly Black book that I have read and I have to say I am very impressed. Her writing style is easy to read and I really fell head first into this world she has built. The further I got through the book, the more I was loving it and I couldn’t listen to this book fast enough. I was also very impressed with the narrator of the audio edition. She did a fantastic job of bringing each of these characters to life. I will definitely be downloading the audio edition of the next book.

The Cruel Prince was a fantastic start to what I’m sure is going to be an amazing series. I am so glad that I went back to this book and gave it another chance. I’m actually really excited to see what happens with these characters from here on out. I’m ready to fall head over heels in love with Cardan…. hopefully. This book was really enjoyable and I’ll be diving straight into book 2.

“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

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