Vivi, the eldest, is the half-blood daughter of a mortal mother and a fey father.

In particular, The Cruel Prince is a story of three sisters: Vivienne, Taryn, and Jude. The Cruel Prince is a tale of the fey of old–the ones who thirst for blood and have their way with humans, playing tricks, telling riddles, compelling and ordering and stealing their way to power. But then, a new Holly Black book comes along, and all of that changes. A few years back, however, I stopped reading so much about this particular brand of faerie–not as a slight to the pantheon, but just because it felt like that particular moment of fey resurgence in Fantasy and YA SFF had passed. Melissa Marr, Holly Black, Juliet Mariller, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison–these authors all know and write beautifully about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, of the creatures of wood and air that inhabit the world at the edges of our mortal realm. Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Folk of the Air seriesīack when Ana and I started The Book Smugglers, we read a lot of dark fairy tales. But as civil war 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. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. They will live forever.Īnd Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black