Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Cruel Prince

This book had an awfully slow start. Things didn't start to get interesting until chapter 20, that's about 62% of the way through the book. There were multiple times where I thought about DNRing the book. I had to keep telling myself that everyone online said it would pick up eventually. It finally got good but was over way too soon. By the time I got to the end I felt like I was cheated out of the story? Where was all this excitement earlier in the book?

The characters are horrid and its fantastic. Both the MC and the MC's love interest are terrible people. The MC is selfish, only doing what she wants and ignoring the trouble it causes those around her. I'd say she gets better at this by the end but she's still making choices that would best suit her. The love interest is cruel and does whatever he wants, no matter who gets hurt in the process. As of this book they are both bad people. It's great. Despite their flaws, I love them both dearly. Don't get me wrong, they have good points in their personalities but I'm just loving how they are flawed. In life, nobody is perfect so why should it be any different in a story?

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spatterson7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kshertz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

It was a pretty classic Romantasy. It was interesting to see how this human was going to be valuable and become indispensable. It took me a while to get into it but after 50% I was hooked and enjoyed the experience and the love stories and betrayals. I probably won’t keep going with the series but I did enjoy this one!

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redempta's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5 🌟

This is my first fantasy read. I would never have imagined it.

I didn't like the first part. I had to force myself a bit to move on. This is probably due to the fact that I couldn't get into the universe. I couldn't see anything when I was reading. English isn't my first language, so there were lots of "fantasy words" that I didn't understand and that made it harder to read.

I found the second part (book 2) better and I was more involved and interested. Now I understand why people are invested in fantasy series, the ending makes you want to continue.

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noellegrace8's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It took me about 25% of the way through to start truly enjoying this book. Because it takes the path of a slow reveal of situations and motivations, the beginning groundwork can be almost frustrating because you don't know why some people are acting the way that they are. Also, for a book with so much death and otherwise adult themes, the characters and the writing style both are a bit juvenile at times. I struggled at first with the incongruency of a lack of contractions in dialogue mixed with colloquialisms like "that sucks," but I eventually got used to it and do recognize that it makes sense given the setting. I also really hate first person present tense because it feels overdramatic and impractical, and this book uses it throughout.

That being said, I really like the main characters. Some of the side characters are a bit flat, but Jude, Cardan, Maddoc, Vivvie, Dain, Taryn, Oriana... none of them are "good" or "bad." They just are. They make decisions, they have instincts and natures that make those decisions difficult. I love the complexity! I also think this book set up a series (trilogy) well, so I'm hoping to like the next two even more! The worldbulding is awesome. Holly Black has created a very interesting mix of "fae" and "mortal," complete with rich history and quirks and physical descriptions.

I don't factor audiobook reader into my overal star rating, but I give Caitlyn Kelly 3.5/5⭐️. Honestly, I think she was part of the reason I struggled to get into this book, but there's no telling for certain. She oftentimes doesn't seem to read with the same cadence that the words on the page suggest. She also has a cheesy tone when voicing male characters and over-acts when it comes to emotional (and even sometimes non-emotional!) scenes.

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