The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

The Cruel Prince – Holly Black

The Cruel Prince has been a highly anticipated release for 2018, and I had heard many a great thing about it. I have read previous Holly Black books in the past, and have always enjoyed her writing style. So when I saw what story would be told within this book, it left me very excited to pick it up. I love all things faerie, and fantasy. So throw in Holly Black, and her writing style, and it becomes an instant winner for me.

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.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two 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.

People call Holly Black ‘Queen of the Fairies’ this book is just yet another answer to that question of why, that you may be thinking. Holly Black weaves a tale so alluring that you simple cannot put it down. A few pages in and I was hooked. I was able to read the entirety of this book within a day. It did lead to many a grumble whenever anyone tried to interrupt my reading. But the journey that took place within the book made up for any offense I caused those trying to talk to me.

Holly Black was able to bring to life such a diverse range of characters, some that you love, some that you hate, and even those that you hate to love. Each character so broad and bringing to the table its own little piece of magic.

The Cruel Prince follows that of Jude, herself and her two other siblings’ life is turned upside down by the death of her parents, and being forced to live in the High Court of Fairie. Jude and her twin Taryn are left to battle living in a world where the fey detest her kind. But her strength and defiance, all be it get her into some sticky situations, lead to some tough kick ass moments along the way. I loved the edginess to her character, she may fear things, but she never let herself feel that fear. She stayed on top of it and made herself an incredibly strong protagonist for this story.

Jude’s twin Taryn, I’m not going to lie, I’m not a fan. They are the complete polar opposites, but I don’t know if it’s a sibling thing, so I know what it’s like to be told what to do and when to do it. But Taryn felt a little too false and too prim and proper for my liking. Very much a, you shouldn’t that but be doing this, sort of scenario. As the story develops she does come a bit more of an arc in the novel, much to my dismay. However, the contrast in the two, especially being twins was definitely a good way to go. Light v dark, good v evil, right v wrong…you can decide on which is which as you read it….

Vivienne was a brilliant character, her defiance and rebellion was refreshing. I loved the connection still to the mortal world, and the sheer unacceptance of the fey world. Seeing how Madoc responded to her, and despite her being older than Jude and Taryn, seeing a teenage rebellion almost did lead to a few smirks reflecting on my own teen years. I also loved that Vivienne was a bisexual character and was confident in it. I find in a lot of stories I have read about this world, not many touch upon such a component in a character so freely. So it was refreshing to see, and to see how her relationship was and had begun to develop.

Cardan, the cruel prince, or shall we say one of many cruel princes. I was unsure what to feel with this character, I feel like I knew where this arc was going and I’m glad it wasn’t some insta love story. As quite frankly, how many more of those do we need. But still Holly Blacks writing style makes you feel for the bad boy, not even just a bad boy, an arrogant chauvinistic pig of a bad boy. Yet I still could not get enough of his character, and was disappointed any time he was not within a certain chapter. Cardan and Judes relationship is incredibly turbulent, and incredibly volatile, and yet there is still that undertone of chemistry there. I cannot wait to see what direction this duo head in within the next book. It will be very interesting to see unfold.

The Cruel prince is an amazing tale of twist, turns, corruption and murder. It hooks you in and spits you out at the other end wanting more. I had to wait a while until I finished the book to writing this review, as I was left floundering. I needed book two, I had just finished a story that left me wanting more, and I was so invested in it, I feel a bit lost not knowing what to do with myself. If that doesn’t tell you that this book is more than just a bit good….i don’t know what is. I have no idea when book two is due for release, I can only guess it won’t be until next year *takes deep breathe* but I’m sure it will come around a lot sooner that I think….well it better anyway!

I have given this 5 out of 5 stars.

The Royals Series - Erin Watt

The Royals Series – Erin Watt

#1 Paper Princess

#2 Broken Prince

#3 Twisted Palace

I stumbled across the Royals Series one cold miserable Saturday morning. I’m not quite sure what I put into Amazon that brought these books up, but a quote by Jennifer L Armentrout and an intriguing blurb on the first book ‘Paper Princess’ made me purchase this pretty damn quickly. For purposes of avoiding any spoilers, I will only provide a brief description of the first book, and just my thoughts and overall opinion on the series as a whole.

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. 

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.

I have to admit, I am one of those readers where if a book sounds too good to be true, I’m sceptical as to whether it actually is. So the fact the blurb jumped out to me, I wasn’t too sure if I would like the story as a whole. But I was pleasantly surprised, and considering I read all three books in one single weekend. I think that says a lot about this series and what Erin Watt is capable of producing.

Ella Harper is our lead protagonist in this novel; we are thrown right into the story, with no slow build up. We learn pretty quickly that Ella is a fight or flight type of girl, and as vocal as she may be, she is all about taking flight in a sticky situation. I quite liked Ella’s character, I like that even though inside she may be absolutely terrified, she would ensure to never show her weaknesses, which in all honesty, is an incredibly tough thing to be able to do. I really enjoyed the fact that in such a male dominated household, where quite frankly some of the actions of said men were incredibly chauvinistic and arrogant at times, she defied them all. Never allowing them to stop her from doing exactly what it is she wanted to do. From being plucked out of a world where she struggled, from simply surviving one day to the next, to this whole new world of extravagant luxury and money. It was an interesting transition to watch evolve throughout the story. I was shocked by the end of the first book when I learned only a month or so had passed, as I feel the events Ella is involved within and all the experiences she has during her stay at the Royal’s house, it certainly felt like it was a longer time period.

Paper Princess is certainly a bumpy ride, from meeting and having to live with the unwelcoming Royal boys, to transitioning to a new school, which gives the movie Mean Girls a run for its money. Erin Watt provides a story as entertaining as the next, and she certainly throws in some very unsuspecting curveballs.

I will warn you that each of these novels ends with a cliff hanger, well books one and two do. Twisted Palace is the last book as far as I’m aware that focuses on Ella Harper. But some of the cliff hangers really do leave you with your jaw hanging wide open. I had a small inkling as to where book one was heading, but book two wiped the floor with me. To which I absolutely love when I never see something coming such as that.

The character developments across the series are stronger in some areas than that others. I feel that we see more changes and development in the characters of Ella, Callum, Reed and Easton. However, I feel we were lacking a great deal in the area of the twin brothers Sebastian and Sawyer. I do have a sneaky suspicion this may be as a result to a spin off series possibly in the future, which I already know Easton has. So maybe Erin is leaving the twins to revisit another time as there is certainly a story where they are involved and I would love to get my teeth into it.

As a whole, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this series, to sit and binge all three over the course of a weekend, and to come out the other side needing more. I feel this is a real testament to Erin Watt and her story telling. I love to be surprised, and I love that as dubious as I was about this series, I really found it entertaining and gripping at points. I found them all to be quick easy reads, and I didn’t find there to ever be a dull moment. Not in the Royal house anyway.

I would say if you enjoy a quick easy read, with a story following a strong female protagonist and her essentially rag to riches story, with a lot of curveballs in between. Then this is certainly something you should pick up. I am now incredibly curious to see what other work Erin Watt has produced, and even more importantly picking up Easton’s story.

I have given this series a 4 out of 5 stars