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The Cruel Prince

The Folk of the Air, Book 1

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The Cruel Prince

By: Holly Black
Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly
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About this listen

First in the bestselling Folk of the Air trilogy. The sequels - The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing - are the winners of/won the Goodreads YA Best Fantasy in 2019 and 2020.

Nominated for the CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2019. Winner of the silver INKY for best international YA book.

"A dark jewel of a book . . . intoxicating" - Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Six of Crows

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.

One terrible morning, Jude and her sisters see their parents murdered in front of them. The terrifying assassin abducts all three girls to the world of Faerie, where Jude is installed in the royal court but mocked and tormented by the Faerie royalty for being mortal. As Jude grows older, she realizes that she will need to take part in the dangerous deceptions of the fey to ever truly belong.

But the stairway to power is fraught with shadows and betrayal. And looming over all is the infuriating, arrogant and charismatic Prince Cardan . . .

Dramatic and thrilling fantasy blends seamlessly with enthralling storytelling to create a fully realised and seductive world, brimful of magic and romance.

©2018 Holly Black (P)2026 Bonnier Books UK
Death & Dying Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Literature & Fiction Royalty Science Fiction & Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Paranormal
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I enjoyed listening to this book and wanted to know what would happen next. It's a very interesting take on the Fairie world.
Whilst it is certainly aimed at a teen audience so it's simplistically written with no raunch, as an adult I still found the twists and turns in the plot intriguing.

*spoiler alter* I found the main characters lack of remorse or concern over e acts of violence she commited unbelievable. I mean, she is only human after all!

Easy addictive listen

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I really enjoyed the development of the story. Twists and turns you don't see coming and so much better than all the predictable love stories between humans and other creatures every other book seem to be about lately!!! Definitely recommend!

It gets better as you read!

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Oh my god I absolutely loved this book! I loved it so much I immediately went and listened to the second one in the series! I couldn’t put this down and listened to it within 2 days!! Now I will admit it does have slightly slow start to it not gonna lie but once the actual story line starting coming through I could not put this down. The world she creates is absolutely phenomenal it’s almost like watching the story like a movie. The way she describes the detail even the little detail is fantastic. The narrator did a wonderful job on the characters and you could really feel there personality coming out while she’s reading it. It has easily become one of my favourites.

Amazing

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This whole series is great! I love that the MMC isn’t straight away this awesome, you would fall head over heels, heroic kind of guy. He’s actually unlikeable in the beginning… not like brooding tall dark handsome ‘urgh I hate him but he’s so hot’ sort of unlikeable, no he’s an actual ass…until he’s not of course. So that was fun to finally read an actual enemies to lovers. I also enjoyed The world building, plot, politics and of course the characters. Everything was fast paced but was also well developed. Holly black is an impressive writer. I’m glad I read it!

Fun dark faerie vibes

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A thoroughly engaging read with a forever developing and twisting plot. The main character is well developed and complex. I look forward to reading the next.

Engaging Fantasy

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