The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air Series, Book 1)
Rating: 4 out of 5
"In my heart, I yearn to best them."
"And to coddle your ego, I have made myself less. I have made myself small, I have kept my head down."
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
I had no idea what this book was about going into it but agreed to read it for a buddy read. I was not disappointed. The book started off a bit confusing because I wasn't sure what was happening. And my god all that world building, granted it was done marvelously, but still world building drives me insane. The book started out with a murder and I thought, heck yeah this is going to be a interesting. I loved the narrative style and the way the author was telling the story. But a few chapters in and I was ready to DNF this one, because it was soooo slow. So, how, you may wonder, did it get four stars? The simple answer. The book took quite a turn.
About halfway through the book really just changed course and became hard to put down. Jude is a great main character, and all the quotes used in this review are from her. I loved how fierce Jude became and how she stopped letting things hold her back. The character development in this book is phenomenal and it has a few twists and turns that I honestly never saw coming. I sometimes got lost in the politics of the book, but was able to find my way pretty quickly. I swear the last ten chapters of this book instantly made me say 4 stars because they are just full of all the drama. And that ending... ugh... here's me waiting for book 2's buddy read.
"If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse."
