Book's in Review

Warning: Post May Contain Spoilers

The Cruel Prince is the fourth book I finished in the month of March, but as it is my latest read, I decided to start here. I joined the booktok community about a year and a half ago. At the time, I was working a full-time job that allowed me the luxury of reading for my entire eight hour shift. Because of this, I managed to read 12-16 hours a day. I was finishing books at an alarming rate. Which is surprising, considering I haven’t read for fun much in the last decade. I needed new books to read, so I added The Cruel Prince to the list.

When I picked up this book, it was because it was next on the list. I try to read from the list in the order that I added it to my GoodReads (I occasionally get sidetracked when I see books that are available on Kindle Unlimited that sound good but for the most part, I stick to the order and add books to the end of the list). I will be honest, it’s been so long since I added the book to my list, I kind of forgot what it was about. I knew it was YA, which didn’t really bother me. I will occasionally read YA. If it’s popular, I’ll add it to the list. My biggest complaint is that the romance is so little because there is usually an underlying message authors are trying to portray to kids. But I digress.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Cruel Prince. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to get into fantasy because of the world building. Especially in first books of a series, the world building can be a lot. I definitely felt that in the beginning, when being introduced to the characters. I am not the biggest fan of the characters. The book is from Jude’s point of view but I found her insufferable at times. I think the only character I liked was Vivienne and I think that’s because she had a pissed off attitude towards everyone and wasn’t talking anything from anyone.

The book starts off when Vivienne, Jude and Jude’s twin sister Taryn, are children. They always knew Vivi was different but they couldn’t put their finger on it. Until one day, Vivi’s biological father showed up on their doorstep. Turns out, Vivi is half Fae and her mother ran away when she was pregnant. Madoc ends up killing their mother and father in cold blood and taking all three girls too Faeirieland where he raises them as his own. Despite being human, Jude and Taryn are raised with Faerie children, forced to attend school with them. All the while, Madoc also trains them to be fighters. Jude, more so than Taryn.

At 17, Jude has dreams of being made a knight so she can finally have a place in the Court. She, as a human, has been ridiculed and made to feel like she doesn’t belong. She want’s to compete at the upcoming Summer tournament to be a knight. Madoc, who often considers himself as her father, says she is not ready and therefore she will not be allowed to compete to become a knight. He will allow her to compete in the tournament with the other children for fun. Nothing more. This upsets Jude as she was waiting to upset her school rival, Prince Cardan. Cardan has made it clear of his feelings towards mortals and has made sure Jude knows she is mortal while he is immortal. Cardan has taken upon himself and his friends to terrorize Jude, especially when she antagonizes him, much to Taryn’s dismay.

Jude won’t back down and let Cardan knows how scared she truly is. Meanwhile, Taryn wants to desperately find her place in their own world. While Jude has dreams of being a knight and finding her place among the Court, Taryn as dreams of marriage and becoming a wife. She even has a suitor, who plans on asking Madoc for her hand in marriage. In comes Locke, one of Cardan’s friends and apart of the group who bullies Jude. He seems different than the rest and begins to opening flirt with Jude. He even invites her to a party at his home, allowing her to wear one of his dead mothers dresses and spends the entire night kissing her. Jude begins to allow herself to think that she could end up loving Locke. Due to Locke’s new found attention on Jude, the bullying intensifies with Cardan kicking dirt onto her food and even attempting to drown her in the lake. Cardan, knowing how protective Jude is over Taryn, offers her a bargain. She will no longer be involved in the pranks if she agrees to no longer helping Jude. Jude urges her to accept the bargain.

Due to the bargain, Jude believes her sister is safe but catches Cardan saying something to her one day that makes her cry. In her rage, she pushes Cardan to the ground, telling him to leave Taryn alone. Taryn refuses to tell Jude what he said, however, and urges Jude to drop it. Jude does, but not before having her own suspisions.

One night, at dinner, Madoc (who is the Crown’s general), reveals that the current king plans on stepping down and passing the crown to one of his sons, Dain. Everyone expects it to be Dain as he has always been his father’s favorite. After being impressed by her performance in the Summer tournament, Dain pays Jude a visit with an offer: become his spy and have all the power she desires. She accepts and Dain agrees to put a gaes over her so no Faerie can put a glammour over her and make her do whatever they please. Her first assignment is to break into the home of Dain’s brother, Balekin and find some evidence that he is plotting against him. She found a letter about poison as well as her name written over and over again, in angry letters — by Cardan’s hand. That was the first time she truly realized how much he hated her and it terrified her.

On the day where the current High King decided to step down and announce Dain as his successor, Balekin decides to stage a coup with the general’s health. Balekin murder’s almost his entire family because nobody will agree to make him king. Madoc kills Dain but the rest, including his father, was done by Balekin. All except for Prince Cardan as he was not standing up on the dais with his family. Jude overcame her shock and ended up running into Cardan, who was wearing a mask to try to hide is identity. She “kidnaps” him and decides she needs a night to think about what she plans to do. Back at Madoc’s house, she finds out Locke was Taryn’s suitor who planned to ask for her hand in marriage. He flirting with Jude was a test to prove Taryn’s love for him and Taryn knew. That was when the truth came out. Cardan targeting her worse because he and everyone believed Jude stole Locke from Nicasia, who left Cardan for him. Jude, more than hurt, challenged her sister to a duel. Only for it to be broken up by Vivi.

The next day, she confronts Cardan and demands he tell her the truth. He admits he knew about Locke’s relationship for months and also admitted he was upset because Locke stole Nicasia away from him and that he loved her. Jude confronts Cardan about the note she found. The one where he wrote her name over and over again. He admitted he did hate her but also hated himself because she was all he thought about. Though she was just threatening to kill him, she ended up kissing him. At first he didn’t know how to act but he ended up kissing her back. All of this occurred while she was formulating a plan. Turns out, her foster brother Oak was related to the Crown as well. His biological mother had an affair with Dain and caught wind of her pregnancy and decided to take care of the problem as it could affect his future of becoming king. Oriana, who married Madoc, cut the child out of her stomach and raised him for seven years as his own. Nobody knowing the truth behind his birth, besides Oriana and Madoc.

Jude realizes Madoc’s plan was to make Oak king, as he is from the bloodline, and he will become the regent since he was a child. Jude decides she cannot let that happen as it means nothing but war for their world. She devises a plan with Cardan where he pledges his loyalty to her for one year and one day. In that time, she can command him to do as she pleases. The plan that he thought he was agreeing to was putting Oak on as king. Instead, Jude betrays him and makes him king. Despite knowing he never wanting to be one. The plan was for Vivienne to take Oak to the mortal world with her to raise him as a normal child and have him prepare to take the crown when he is ready. The book ends with Jude being named Cardan’s seneschal while he will be her puppet.

The Cruel Prince is not very long, however, I feel like a lot happened. I was not happy to see how Taryn acted towards her sister. While I do not believe Jude really loved Taryn, she was still heart broken. More so heart broken over what her sister did to her than what Locke did. The world building was okay. Like I previously mentioned, it’s hit or miss for the world building for me. I love how this is an enemies to lover sort of thing, as they are hit or miss for me too. I give this a solid 4.5 stars.

I know the series is an older one but I love how you can pick it up at any age, any time in history, and instantly fall in love with the story. I started The Wicked King so I hope I can eventually fall in love with the characters. I know this was sort of a lot so if you stayed with me to the end, I do appreciate it.