“The Cruel Prince,” a fantasy novel written by Holly Black, follows Jude Duarte, a human living in Elfhame, a world with faerie’s. Jude longs to be a knight, but her father forbids her. It is a story about overcoming discrimination, as Jude is often bullied by the King’s children, and especially Prince Cardan. However, Jude comes to lead a second life and uncovers many secrets throughout the story regarding her sisters and the king’s sons. With betrayal, enemies to lovers, and people who are willing to do anything for power, it is a riveting novel. With family uncovered, Jude has to make a tough decision in order to protect those that she loves. This book is one of 3 books in the Folk of The Air series, the last book being published recently in 2019.

This book has gained a lot of popularity on TikTok, and for good reason. For one, I love the main character, Jude Duarte, as she is independent and is ambitious, not letting people like her father or her bullies stop her from achieving her dreams. She is also intelligent, pulling off something at the end of the book that completely changed everything, and is flawed in the way that she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. I also find the relationship between Jude and Cardan interesting- while they start off the book hating each other (and even at the end of the book, their relationship is a bit rocky), there is a forbidden attraction between them. And although I did not like Cardan– he was manipulative and abusive for most of the story– he provided a lot of interesting conflict in the book. I will definitely be reading the other books in the series, and I recommend this book for those who love dark fantasy.

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