This blog certainly has come far from 2018 when I first started writing and I think the main thing I was hoping to achieve was the amount of book reviews I was going to do. As many of you guys know, I love to read, and reading really makes me feel better when I’m feeling down. Last weekend, while feeling slightly irritated with a tutor of mine, I decided to read the whole series of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I’m not entirely sure what pushed me to really finish this series so fast, but, I definitely do not regret doing so. I had an unreasonably large amount of free time after finishing two essays and notes so I was feeling pretty good about myself. So, I bring to you my review on The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black.
I would also like to mention, you can always check out my TBR and Read books on my Goodreads linked here. Also, I would never spoil a book unless I desperately need to. This review contains no spoilers!
The Cruel Prince was a book that I was definitely excited to read about and my expectations were indeed met. I absolutely loved the dynamic relationship between our main characters Jude Duarte and Cardan Greenbriar. Now you might be wondering why I’m reviewing the series (which is a trio) and not just one book? Well that is because in order to fully understand this series, it is much easier, and better, to read all three books.
The first book, The Cruel Prince, starts us off by introducing to us Jude Duarte who is our protagonist. She has two sisters, Vivienne and Taryn, Taryn being her twin sisters. The first book really starts us off with our surroundings and how Jude develops into the type of person she is. I found that this first book really did well to introduce us to the situation as to what was happening. While I found that some parts could have been written better and perhaps there were some where there was just too much detail, I gave this a 5/5 on Goodreads however in real life, I would most likely rate this a 4.5/5. While that might not seem like a big difference, I just found that there were some situations throughout the book I was expecting.
While on the second book, The Wicked King, I rated this a 5/5 mainly for the shocking twists and turns throughout this book really left my jaw wide open in shock. I loved the tiny details and the relationship between Cardan and Jude that slowly strengthen over time. You can really see that while it is a continuation of The Cruel Prince, there were so many unrelated parts and that is what made it good. And plot twists I must say are definitely a theme throughout this trio of a series. I definitely think that The Wicked King deserved a 5/5.
Last but not least, The Queen of Nothing. While the title sounds rather sad and like a book you might expect, there were definitely some aspects to the story where I was pleasantly surprise by the outcomes while some were predictable (however when I mean predictable I don’t mean I was spot on, but rather close to the actual event). This last book in the trio was definitely a good closing story for the series and I think that it went very smooth and definitely connected as a conclusion which I was very much happy with. However, I do wish that there were some aspects where I would be completely shocked by. So overall for this book, I gave it a rating of 4/5.
And that concludes my abrupt review of The Cruel Prince series! As a whole, I did enjoy it a lot and there were definitely some moments where I poured emotion all over the pages and I definitely think this series is great, but as someone who likes to read and annotate books, I found that some of my expectations may not always get ticked off. This series was definitely an exception where I enjoyed all three books.
While I tend to overrate on Goodreads, I promise that as of 2020 I’m going to start rating honestly on Goodreads. Remember to check my Goodreads to see all sorts of book updates linked here!
Loves,
Veronica Chen