The Cruel Prince

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. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. 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. 


DNF 70%

I was expecting to love this book. I really was. I’d head nothing but good things and was eagerly awaiting my copy weeks ahead of the delivery date. And I couldn’t finished it. I forced myself to keep reading despite putting in down countless times with no real desire to pick it up again until, finally, I gave up. Don’t get me wrong. The Cruel Prince is not a bad book (you only have to read the numerous glowing reviews to see that), but I found it an absolute crushing bore.

After being stolen from the human realm by her parent’s killer, Jude and her sisters grew up in the fairy realm under the roof of father-figure/parent-killer Madoc. Jude is desperate to be accepted by the fair folk, and when it becomes apparent that she never will be, she turns her attention to being better than them and winning a place as knight of the court. While all this plays out, she’s tormented by the titular cruel prince Carden and his gang of sidekicks. And this is my problem with the story. It’s juvenile in the extreme. Much of it revolves around Jude being cornered and bullied by Carden like a less satirical version of Mean Girls.

Seriously, this is pure high school drama. Sure, the fair folk’s magic gives these encounters a neat twist – like force-feeding Jude magical fruit that makes her incredibly suggestible – but this stuff felt a bit too cynically targeted at young people who go through severe bullying. Jude is presented to the reader as a capable, determined girl, but over and over again all I saw was a bitter, emotionally damaged girl who hates the popular kids while longing to be one. I didn’t connect with her at all, and so had little to no interest in her story.

On top of that, Jude's sort-of attraction to Carden was skin-crawlingly creepy. Hate-to-love is one thing, but portraying Carden as Jude's abuser, only to hint that she was attracted to him as a result, was beyond poor taste. I do not lie when I say these scenes genuinely left me feeling queasy. I was kind of confused as to why Jude was so comfortable living under Madoc's roof and protection too. She saw this guy murder her parents and she apparently harbours him no ill will beyond getting stroppy when he won't let her train to become a knight. She's about ready to kill Carden for cruel taunts, but apparently straight up murdering her parents before her eyes gets you nothing more than a side eye every once in a while.

I give this book two stars because it is incredibly imaginative and well-written. And if I was still in high school, maybe this book would resonate more with me, but I found the basis of the story to be in such poor taste that it soured the whole thing for me. Maybe the book picks up in the final act that makes the preceding 70% of Jude's suffering and misery worth it, but by that point I didn't care enough to find out.
 

Sunburner

No one said being queen was easy...

Kai, the newly-crowned queen of Miina, finds her reign threatened by a plague of natural disasters that leave death and destruction in their wake. Are the gods truly angry at the peace between the moon and sunburners, or is something more sinister to blame? Kai's throne and her very life may be forfeit unless she can appease the gods' anger and her peoples' superstitions.

Determined to find a solution, Kai and the Sunburner Prince Hiro embark on an extraordinary and dangerous journey to discover the true cause of the plagues. What they find is an ancient enemy determined to plunge their world into eternal darkness — and one desperate chance to save it.

Sunburner picks up a short time after Moonburner left off. Kai has taken her place as queen, with Hiro as her side, but the sinister prophecy about her rule looks to be coming true. Famine and disease are taking their toll on her people, and it seems the gods themselves aren’t happy with the alliance she’s forged with her old enemies.

Kai and Hiro’s relationship was all but absent from Moonburner. It was an unusual tactic from the author, but it worked. Keeping their romance on the backburner while they dealt with bigger issues made it feel genuine, rather than a shallow infatuation. Now, we finally get to see them together. And what a pairing. I loved seeing Hiro content to take Kai’s side without having to constantly prove his macho credentials. There was no possessive behaviour, no putting her in her place to make himself look like a big man. Theirs was at true partnership, and it showed.

It was a bit of a shame that Kai's relationship her sensei-esque fox Quitsu was a bit surplus to requirements this time around. With Hiro in the picture as Kai's confidant and supporter, Quitsu could have been left out in the cold, but the author managed to keep him in the story and maintain his close relationship with Kai without him feeling like a third wheel. Kai herself was easily one of the best things about this story, keeping it grounded as the odds became increasingly stacked against her. One of my pet peeves in YA fantasy - as much as I love it - are 'sassy' protagonists. I say sassy in inverted commas because, more often than not, I read them as rude, insufferable and arrogant. So it was wonderful to read a strong-willed, fiercely determined character who didn't once insult anyone, threaten them with violence if she didn't get her way or throw a tantrum when someone didn't show her proper respect.

Kai’s best friend Emi was back in Sunburner, much to my delight! This straight-talking, take-no-shit moonburner was one of my favourite characters in the last book. Her burgeoning relationship with bitter sunburner Daarco felt a bit trite at first, but the messages of forgiveness and growth that played out through it made it worthwhile. I had to love Emi putting the arrogant Daarco in his place time and time again!

The story itself – of an age-old war between gods and demons playing out to the detriment of the innocent humans that are caught up in its effects – felt like a huge step up from Moonburner. That’s not to say there was anything wrong with the first book’s story, it’s just that this felt like everything great from that book, turned up to 11. The stakes were higher, the world bigger and the consequences more severe. I loved the idea of the gods being somewhat weak and ineffective. It makes sense of course – they’d relied on the Burners they’d created to fight for and defend them – and was a great twist on the usual trope of the protagonist racing to raise an all-powerful being or uncover a magical MacGuffin to save the day, leaving the characters themselves in the dust. These characters weren’t going to be saved. They had to save themselves.

As for the ending … well, I won’t spoil anything, but it was absolutely note perfect. The story is wrapped up and the characters have come full circle, although the door is open for new stories in this world. And I, for one, will be snapping up any sequels.