What can be said when you rip a human away and stick her in a fairy world. You get an awesome adventure. Holly Black has done it again.

When they are just little girls, Jude, along with her twin sister, Taryn and their older sister Vivienne, who is fae, were taken by Viv’s father to fairy world to live. Being a mortal in faerie land is not all it’s cracked up to be for Jude and Taryn. The girls are constantly bullied by Prince Cardan and his crew, they are always being told what to do , how to dress, how to act. Jude is tough and does not take to being bullied without a fight, regardless of what can happen to her. Taryn might be her twin but is nothing like her. She too trains daily, but instead of fighting back when bullied, she bows down and does whatever they tell her.

Prince Dain offers Jude to join his Court of Shadows since she is human and can lie, faes cannot. Thinking things will go better for her, Jude takes Prince Dain up on his offer. While secretly working for him she trains harder and deadlier than ever by poisoning herself daily to become immune to the faerie fruit/food. She uncovers some long ago hidden secrets while spying for Dain. Dain as the oldest is next in line for King. His brother, Balekin, has other ideas though and challenges Dain. Oh, how he challenges him.

I’m going to end there as to not give the ending away as nothing is as it seems in Fearie world. As with any of Holly Black books, it just touches on romance. It also has some blood and gore sprinkled throughout for those of you that like that, but it’s a good combination.

The Cruel Prince kept me entertained and reading until the last page. Now for book 2 The Wicked King is to be released January 8, 2019 and book 3 The Queen of Nothing is set to released in 2020, the long wait has started.