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2019 reread: still loved it. Still hate Taryn.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was BY FAR my most anticipated read of 2017/2018, so when I received an ARC I was so excited. And nervous. What if it didn't live up my expectations? What if it turned out like every other run-of-the-mill YA fantasy involving fairies? I needed have worried though - this was awesome. It had everything I'm looking for in a YA fantasy - drama, awesome inspiring characters, a complex villain and an interesting plot with a twist.

We start The Cruel Prince with a double murder which leaves twins Jude and Taryn orphans and, along with thier elder half-Fae sister Vivienne, stranded far from home in the land of Faerie. Raised by the Fae Madoc, who murdered her father, we skip ten years later and find the three girls each trying to fit in among the very race they should despise. A race that is cruel to humans, keeping them as slaves, who mock Jude and her sister for their mortality and inability to be as perfect as them. Yet Jude still wants to make a name for herself within this world, and she's going to do it by deceiving and spying her way to the top. Faeries cannot lie - and Jude will exploit this weakness to topple the High King and crown a new royal.

In Jude we have a main character who is deeply conflicted. She's bullied by her 'peers' at school, subjected to cruel tricks by Cardan, one of the royal Prince's who rule the land she's now living in, and his gang of followers. Yet still she wants to be like them, and is envious of their beauty and talent. She feels deeply inadequate, yet also feels like she doesn't belong back in the human world either. She's also desperate for the attention of her 'father figure' Madoc, despite all he's done to her. She still loves him.

Her relationship with sister Taryn is wonderful. Alike in appearance only, we see Taryn struggle to gain her own place within Faerie - deciding that the best way to fit in is by marrying a Fae and accepting her fate as a 'lesser' being. In her own way she has the strength to accept her position in life, and it mirrors Jude's own acceptance to go against what it expected and make her own name for herself.

It's the character of Cardan however, that really stands out here though. Through Jude's eyes we see a mean and vicious Fae who hates her. He's all consumed with hatred for Jude, and wants nothing more than to make her life hell. But it goes deeper than that. This is no one dimensional character, and as the story unfolds we meet a man that's deeply troubled, taunted by his older siblings, yet charismatic and complex. And repulsed at himself.

The plot itself is fast paced, with plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing until the end. I didn't want to put this down. It's also incredibly well written. Every character we meet is fully developed, with so much potential leading into the second installment for Bomb, Ghost, Roach and all the rest. I cannot wait. Cannot. Wait.