Tis Me Michelle

I’m currently in my book-ish era. Booktok has definitely helped me with finding options that are up my alley. The Cruel Prince came up a few times, so I picked it up right around spooky season. Fantasy aligns with spooky season in my brain, ya know.

I really didn’t know what this book was going to be about other than it would be a fantasy. I imagined it would be mainly following a ‘cruel prince’. The beginning of how the book sets the story is pretty similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses, which I had read last year or so. I’m sure that’s why this book came so recommended, the devices knew I read ACOTAR. In both series, the main protagonist is a human girl who lives with her family in the human world and then there is an altercation with the fairy/magical world which ultimately brings them over to the magical land.

In the case of The Cruel Prince, we follow Jude, who is brought over to Fairie after her parents are murdered. She and her sisters then proceed to live with and be raised by the fairie who murdered their parents, also the former husband of their mother. Talk about trauma! Given this traumatic circumstance, it seems Jude and her twin were raised relatively well considering this fairie who killed their parents, Maddock, is a high-ranking general. Even with the safety of his protection, there is no escaping that they are humans living in Fairie.

Jude is a fighter and wants to earn her place as a soldier in the court. While her twin Taryn, wants to lay low, find a suitable husband, and live a ‘normal’ life in Fairie. Their oldest sister on the other hand is the blood daughter of Maddock rebels against everything Maddock wants and wants to go back to the human world. Jude and Taryn however have acclimated to their life in Fairie, they even attend school there. They are often tormented by the nepo babies of Fairie, led by Prince Carden. Some of the crew are harsher than others, but there is a clear brewing of enemies-to-lovers trope with Jude and Carden. One I wished brewed more strongly in this book. There is a bit of an entanglement that occurs with Jude and Locke as well.

I liked the pacing of the book. This will be my recurring comment… I love it when a book has short chapters, so I can read little bits and feel accomplished. Because of that, it was super easy for me to fly through this book with a few short chapters a day. I kept wanting more. More drama, more juicy love story, just more… It felt very much like a starting point. As much as I was invested, I was a bit let down that there wasn’t more in this book as a standalone. And I know this is a series, so I’m hoping there is more of all of that in the next book.

I’ve just started The Wicked King… Hoping it has that drama and heat I was looking for in the first book. Let me know if you’re interested in the review of Book 2!

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️