The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air)

Idk- Ig Ill summarize my thoughts on the entire trilogy here cuz I don't remember where one ends and the other begins. Some of the plot elements were jarring and honestly pretty unnecessary- What was the point of seeing the murder of their mortal parents? Surely there was another way Jude Taryn and Vivi could have ended up in Faire without the gore- it makes it hard to believe that Jude can even tolerate Madoc...I think Cardan's gang is really well developed, especially since they do what they want and don't just listen to Cardan because he's a prince. There's that one moment when Cardan rips out someone's wings just to be cruel, but Jude wonders if it will kill them. It's weird that she's lived here long enough to know about the magical fruit but not about this since it apparently happens all the time. The way Jude agrees to the Geas makes sense, unlike stuff that happens later. But this part is rational, power driven, and ambitious. The Locke arc was weird just because Taryn didn't say anything at all. Like I didn't care for Taryn after that. Forgiving her for the river was one thing but this was just...cruel. The scene where Cardan is with Balekin with Jude spying is really interesting and NOT talked about. There were some quotes that I really liked and some details that were brilliant (Cardan telling Jude to JUST come home, the proposal, Jude realizing Cardan was poisoned because she recognized the taste, Jude could have come back whenever she wanted). BUT other stuff was weird. It was believable that Jude wanted the geas, but why she wanted to be seneschal or queen later doesn't make sense and it's not power driven. It's more to keep the throne for Oak, but it would have probably been easier to let Cardan do whatever and then overthrow him instead of whatever this was. I would have loved to see Jude's ascent be more for her sake rather than compulsion. That said, the Jude and Cardan moments were really tense, which was perfect. (Did it overshadow the rest of the plot? yes, cuz the rest of the plot was mid)

Idk- Ig Ill summarize my thoughts on the entire trilogy here cuz I don't remember where one ends and the other begins. Some of the plot elements were jarring and honestly pretty unnecessary- What was the point of seeing the murder of their mortal parents? Surely there was another way Jude Taryn and Vivi could have ended up in Faire without the gore- it makes it hard to believe that Jude can even tolerate Madoc...I think Cardan's gang is really well developed, especially since they do what they want and don't just listen to Cardan because he's a prince. There's that one moment when Cardan rips out someone's wings just to be cruel, but Jude wonders if it will kill them. It's weird that she's lived here long enough to know about the magical fruit but not about this since it apparently happens all the time. The way Jude agrees to the Geas makes sense, unlike stuff that happens later. But this part is rational, power driven, and ambitious. The Locke arc was weird just because Taryn didn't say anything at all. Like I didn't care for Taryn after that. Forgiving her for the river was one thing but this was just...cruel. The scene where Cardan is with Balekin with Jude spying is really interesting and NOT talked about. There were some quotes that I really liked and some details that were brilliant (Cardan telling Jude to JUST come home, the proposal, Jude realizing Cardan was poisoned because she recognized the taste, Jude could have come back whenever she wanted). BUT other stuff was weird. It was believable that Jude wanted the geas, but why she wanted to be seneschal or queen later doesn't make sense and it's not power driven. It's more to keep the throne for Oak, but it would have probably been easier to let Cardan do whatever and then overthrow him instead of whatever this was. I would have loved to see Jude's ascent be more for her sake rather than compulsion. That said, the Jude and Cardan moments were really tense, which was perfect. (Did it overshadow the rest of the plot? yes, cuz the rest of the plot was mid)

Coworker convinced me to read this trilogy so I grabbed the audiobook from the local library, since the wait time was shorter than the text copy. The voice actor got a bit tedious after a while - she always sounds slightly on the verge of being whiny - but I can't hold that against the author. I read a lot of old, traditional fairy lore back as a kid so I'm aware of the dark, sinister side to the old-style fae and this book dived right into embracing that, which was fun. All the stuff about having to wear rowan berries and salt your food and mortals dancing themselves to death, has been kinda left out of more recent sparkles-and-unicorns-and-crystals type magic stuff. So, good to see the author had clearly done at least a little bit of research.

The story itself didn't grab me immediately - it's very Young Adult at the start, teens in school, bullying each other, wanting to be popular, etc. The heroine Jude is a little bit hard to like at times also. However, by the end of the book I did like how much many of the main characters had actually learned and grown, instead of just remaining the same selves they started out as. And there were twists in the plot I definitely didn't expect; instead of going for the short predictable ending the author takes you on unexpected plot turns and I always appreciate that. So, while I still don't extremely embrace the protagonist, I followed up with the rest of the trilogy.