“The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black was the most pleasant surprise of the year for me.
Mind you, I am not really into the fantasy genre, with book series generally making me spiral into a deep paranoia of “ will I ever finish it or not?”. Or, even worse, with an incredible discomfort over whether or not I will be able to relate to the main character with a tail, fairy wings, or canine teeth.
This time, it was the complete opposite, this time around I was hooked from the get-go and transported to places my mind thought impossible even to imagine.
Forget book 1 being an ‘enemies to lovers trope’, if you picked it up expecting burning passion and desire forget it, or better, forget it between the two of them romantically and more about them wanting to kill one another.
It mainly focuses on this insatiable world filled to the brim with a magical and mystical hysteria, where treason and bloodshed flow as easily as honey wine and riddles.
The world-building is incredibly well made, so detailed it leaves you confused in certain moments, but so incredibly worth it by the end, where you will find yourself unable to let this other dimension out of your mind.
Jude, the main character, is a force of nature. Her strong aura and her strength are so strong, it hides even her weaknesses and I cannot help but think it is so important to have in a heroine of this sort. Fearless, held high even in a world that keeps reminding you how you ‘do not belong’.
I am thrilled to see what will happen in the future, with book two ‘The Wicked King’, already burning next to me and waiting to be picked up as soon as I finish typing these words.
I cannot help but think, what a wonderful thing it is to be carried away by worlds and words, far away from you.
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