Book review ~ The Queen of Nothing, Holly Black (spoiler-free)

The Cruel Prince
Author : Holly Black
Genre : YA Fantasy
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

My opinions

I enjoyed this book, but I thought it was the worst of the series…

My first impression can pretty much be summed up by this : Hum… Hi, hello… Can someone tell me WTF happened to Cardan ?

We start with Jude, exiled in the human world, with her sister and Oak. She does little jobs for faeries in the mortal land, until Taryn shows up on her doorstep, begging her to pretend to be her for a trial for murder. Of course, Jude being Jude, she says yes, and it all goes downhill from there.

The story in itself isn’t bad. I just feel like Holly Black wrote what she felt we would want to read for this conclusion. Yes, I did want to see an epic battle between Cardan and Madoc. Did I expect what we got ? No. Was I disappointed ? Kind of. It could have been so much more than what we got. I mean, there was no big reveal in the book. Just random stuff happening. The part I loved the most was when Jude was posing as Taryn in the beginning. After that, I enjoyed reading, but I had higher hopes for everything.

When the focus of the book was supposed to be battle and redemption, it was merely love. Love everywhere, for everyone. Sure, I like some romance in the book, but I don’t want it to be the main action in the last book of a series that had been thrilling until now.

Biggest disappointment is Cardan though. WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM HOLLY ? We left a sassy, brilliant and manipulating Cardan, and we find now a lovesick puppy. NO. That’s not MY Cardan. For once, I felt like Jude was the only one with some common sense in the book.
I also felt like many characters were just thrown under the bus, and left with no real conclusion to their stories. It might be voluntary because of potential spin-offs, but I was a little skeptical about the side characters. Locke, Nicasia, the Bomb, the Ghost, Oak, Oriana all deserved some better closures. Their endings were just thrown around like “Ok, so that happens to Locke, that happens to the Bomb. Why ? Because.” I wanted more.

That being said I still enjoyed reading this conclusion and the sappy side of me thought some things were cute and adorable. It’s just I didn’t expect cute and adorable from this book. I really liked the last action scene with Cardan and all (no spoilers, of course, but if you know, you know).

In the end, it’s a conclusion to the series. Is it good ? Well, at least it’s okay. I expected more, but it was satisfying enough. I really think only the hardcore fans of the series can really enjoy it though.

Have you read it ? Did you like it ? I’d really like to know if I’m the only one who felt a little let down about Cardan !
Thanks for reading !
See you soon,
Love, Jade