When Jude, her twin sister Taryn were seven and their older sister Viviene was nine, Madoc, a Faire, more specifically a redcap, arrived to confront his supposedly dead human wife and kills her and her husband and takes his daughter, Vivi and her human sisters Jude and Taryn to Elfhamme where he is a general in the High King's army. He remarries to Oriana and they have a sickly child named Oak, whom the girls grow to love.
Fast forward ten years and Vivi rebels against everything Faerie and visits the mortal world every chance she gets and makes plans to run away to there. Meanwhile, Jude and Taryn are doing their best to fit in. Jude wants to be a knight in the High King's army. She does, however, have some trouble at school in the name of Prince Cardan and his coterie of friends Valerian, Nicacia, and Loche. Then one day Loche seems to be on her side and encouraging her to continue to fight back against Prince Caradan. He has his own reasons for that. He begins flirting with her and takes her back to his house and they make out before a party.
While Jude is dreaming of making her mark at the Summer Tournament where she could be picked to be a knight in training by one of the Princes or Princesses if only Madoc would allow her to be. This is when Prince Dain arrives at her house and makes her an offer she can't refuse. He sees the value of a human who can lie, as Faeries can't lie and humans can move about freely without being noticed much. He wants her to be his spy. Prince Dain is the heir apparent, but his brother Balekin is likely going to make a move for the throne soon when their father hands over the crown to Dain in the upcoming ceremony. In payment for this, he offers her a geas that will keep her from being enchanted by any faerie but him. He also tells her a way to avoid the effects of eating faerie food and such is to eat small amounts daily and become immune. It makes her sick as a dog, but it is slowly working.
The King will place the crown on Dain's head in the ceremony making him King and if someone tries to kill him after that they will be cursed and none of the Fey kingdoms will recognize them as King or Queen. So the Court of Shadows, Dain's spy network, which consists of a goblin named Roach, a half human half faerie named Ghost and a pixie named Bomb are working to make sure that Dain sits on the throne. Madoc is also working to make sure that Dain sits on the throne.
But nothing is as it seems in Faerie and Jude would do well to remember that. This novel keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire way through flipping pages well into the night. The characters are very complex and surprise you sometimes. While Madoc killed their parents he doesn't seem like such a bad guy to them. He raises them as though they are his very own daughters, which he didn't have to do and cares about them as if they were. You would think that Jude and Taryn would want to go back to the mortal would as soon as possible but the faerie world is all they know and while they live in constant fear Taryn wants to marry and live a quiet life while Jude wants to prove herself worthy and be needed and useful. If only they can survive Prince Cardan's bullying and the machinations of court. This book is the first in a trilogy and the next book can't come out soon enough to suit me. Holly Black is a favorite author of mine and here she proves again why I love her so much: great storytelling and characters and a world you don't want to leave. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Quotes
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Prince-Folk-Air-ebook/dp/B06Y5HPRLC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530707957&sr=8-1&keywords=cruel+prince+bookThe kind of fabrics princesses in fairy tales wear. Of course, Taryn is right about stories. Bad things happen to those princesses. They are pricked with thorns, poisoned by apples, married to their own fathers. They have their hands cut off and their brothers turned into swans, their lovers chopped up and planted into basil pots. They vomit up diamonds. When they walk, it feels as though they’re walking on knives. They still manage to look nice.-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 145)
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