leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

Shea Ernshaw absolutely knows how to tell an atmospheric story. I loved this setting. The woods were mysterious and dark and so very intriguing. I fell in love with the Wicker Woods.

I also really loved the backstories of the Walker women. They were so fascinating, and I wish we got the chance to meet them in the flesh.

However, I had a similar issue with the characters as I did with The Wicked Deep. These characters were more interesting than in her debut novel, but I still feel like they lacked depth which made them a bit boring. And once again the side characters were complete throwaways.

I'm definitely interested in what this author will write next. I think she'll write a book that I'll absolutely love, and I cannot wait for that to happen!

You can @ me if you want, but rating a book 3 stars ISN'T a bad thing. I genuinely liked this book and will continue with the series.

I liked that Jude was a selfish heroine, that she wasn't this perfectly good and perfectly neat and perfectly proper main character. She's not a completely developed character, but that's OK for a first book - for me anyway. She's definitely going to be an interesting character to see grow.

I liked Cardan - the fantastically cruel prince. Again, he's another damaged, selfish character, and I like that.

I liked the story - the hows and whys that Jude and her sisters came to be in Faerie. And I liked what happened once they were there.

I liked Jude's older sister - Vivienne, but not Jude's twin. Vivienne BTW is an LGBTQIA+ character and repped well (to me). Taryn (the twin) was lame, and I kinda hope she gets killed off - she was a useless plot device of a character.


But, as you can see - I liked a lot of things, but I didn't LOVE any of it.


I particularly didn't love that Holly Black just told a lot about the fae world. I don't read a lot of fae books, so I don't know if what Holly Black wrote in THE CRUEL PRINCE is typical lore and by reading up on it, I'll know her world, or what. But, I didn't enjoy not being in the know, especially when all it would've taken was a couple of paragraphs expanding upon what was going on.

But that never happens here.

And, I didn't particularly like the love interests outside of Vivi and her girlfriend (and there's not enough of that relationship, but I'm hoping for more in the future). Relationships were stuffed down my throat, and I didn't appreciate it, and I didn't believe them most of the time. I hope it gets better in the next book.

Like I said at the beginning, I'm definitely planning on continuing with the series. I'm hopeful that I'll end up really enjoying what these characters have to offer. But right now, I just like it, and I don't mind waiting a year or so until the next book arrives.

So, I didn't like The Cruel Prince. I didn't get the hype of it, and I didn't think it was anything extraordinary in any way. Jude was a blah main character in a blah story filled with throw away characters.

I stand by that.

This was better. Jude was more tolerable and the throwaway characters had more substance here. It also didn't suffer from second book syndrome and had a better plot all around.

Fantastic ending to the trilogy! I finally got what most everyone seemed to get in Book 1. Really loved these characters by the end, especially Jude. I feel like I've been hard on her, but just look at that growth!

Carden and Oak may have stolen the show here! I just really liked every single time they were on page.

Maybe I would have enjoyed this more had I seen more of the show, but I just wasn't invested in anything that was happening here. The narrator was really good and this is a fast listen/read.

January 2020
2 years later, and I'm completely in love with this story the second time around. A lot of what I said below still holds true, but none of it matters anymore. The writing, characters and setting are completely magical, and I refuse to be such a stickler about what books may be missing.

February 2018
I'm not a fan girl yet, but I can see myself heading that way, easily.

Oh these characters are wonderful! My favorite is easily Ronan. He's fantastically damaged. Blue is fantastically eccentric. Gansey is fantastically heroic. Adam is fantastically flawed. And Noah is fantastically...well...Noah.

The writing was excellent and the story kept me very very interested in what was happening. I really dug the main story and then all the background info had me pretty stoked.

The only reason this is getting 3 stars instead of 4, is because while I enjoyed the background info, I did scan a few times when I wanted to still be in the main plot. So maybe the pacing was a bit off for me.

Overall, I know I'm late to the game, but I'll be recommending this series for sure.

I went into this pretty blind as I don't know much about Arthurian legends, so I can't speak to how true this is to those, but I really liked it.

I liked Guinevere as a character. I thought she was decently fleshed out, and I loved her friendship dynamics with Brangien. Those were some of my favorite parts. I also really liked her with Arthur, but I didn't feel like we got enough there.

I took a star off because this had the inklings of one of my least favorite tropes in YA, but it gets resolved by the end (hopefully!), so I guess I can forgive it a bit.

There's a lot to be answered still, lots of open threads, and I'll definitely be picking up the next book in this series to see if I'm right regarding some theories I have.

This was one twisted, wild ride! I really liked a lot about this (the characters, the writing, premise), but I'm not a fan of reading HS students getting it on, or one specific act near the end so I had to take a star off.

I'll definitely read the other book in this series, cause I really wanna know how this ends.