Mini Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince (#1) by Holly Black (Jan. 2, 2018)
Length: 370 pages
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: I borrowed a copy from the library.
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
My Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis: Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

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My Review

I have always enjoyed books about the Fae. I am a big fan of A Court of Thorns and Roses, Wicked Lovely, and An Enchantment of Ravens, to name a few. With that being said, The Cruel Prince was as equally wicked as it was enjoyable. Although it was extremely hard to like any of the horrible characters, even the humans, I loved reading about their crazy antics on every single page. Jude is dramatic and power hungry while Cardan is cruel and selfish. Although they hate each other's guts, something else lies underneath their interactions. I may have enjoyed this quick read, but I would have liked a little more meat to some of the characters to better believe all their actions. Yet, I was still entertained by every lie and every secretive action. I also want to note that Holly Black does a wonderful job at describing this world of the Fae with its vicious creatures and beautiful lands so much so that I had no trouble envisioning this fantasy world while reading. I will be reading book two. The Verdict: It may not be perfect, but it's a strong addition to the young adult fantasy genre.

ARC Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by: Holly Black

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by: Holly Black (Sept. 3, 2013)

432 pages

Genre: YA/Vampires

Source: A free copy from NetGalley for my honest review.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

My Review    

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is one of those books that you are either going to like or just not.  I don’t think there really is an in between. I am a fan of vampire novels and Holly Black so I decided to give it a chance. I enjoyed this interesting take on vampires living openly in society and are for the most part are being confined in Coldtowns where some humans also live, I mean they need food (although most of the humans that live there want to live there hoping to be turned into a vampire), but the politics behind all that you will have to discover by reading the book yourself because I don't want to get into all of that here. But even with its uniqueness I also had some issues with the book as well. Overall I liked it, but I wish I could have loved it. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a dark and twisty tale.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown opens with a bloody scene and the race to survival for Tana begins. It’s too bad this race isn’t as fast paced once you get further into the book as the opening chapters makes you believe. It’s a little slow at times and there are flashbacks that I normally enjoy in books but for some reason they didn’t work here. Instead of adding more to the story it made it choppy and they were just annoying.

Tana is an interesting and complex character. I enjoyed watching her try to make decisions throughout the book on how to handle the situation she is put in after she wakes up at the party with just about everyone dead. The two males she is on the run with added a nice little touch of conflict. I can’t say that any of the characters are too memorable though.

The biggest turn off for me while reading was that there is of course a vampire-human type romance that verges on insta-love and with how much the human dislikes vampires this had me scratching my head. Since I found this book to be more unique when dealing with vampires I was hoping this romance wouldn’t be in it, taking away some of its uniqueness. Especially since they mention in the book that it’s crazy how vampires are romanticized.  

In the end it was a good read (there is a pretty darn good twist near the end) although nowhere near as awesome as I thought it was going to be. I say read it if you like vampire stories, especially ones that have romance. If you are over the whole vampire thing then I doubt you will like this one.

**I received a free copy from NetGalley for my honest review.