This is a good tide-you-over between Red Queen and the next book. It contains two short story "prequels" to Red Queen. You need to read Red Queen before you read these books. Spoilers for Red Queen and Cruel Crown stories follow.

I'll say that it is hard to write stories you already know the endings to. The story about Corianne was told decently well, but since you already know the ending, the stakes are just not there and it is hard to read. Unfortunately, because of the way it was written, it now opens up a lot of questions about Red Queen that weren't there before, like how much of the King's actions are his? Cal's? Maven's? Mare's? How much does Elara control the people around her?

The story about Farley was better. I found the messages going back and forth a little hard to read. They weren't always consistent in formatting and info. Sometimes I wondered if these were being read by Scarlett Guard or Silvers, despite the story being told by Farley. The uppercase/lowercase was odd and why would you REDACT parts of your own communication unless the intended person wasn't the person reading these? While the effort to be cool was attempted, it made no sense. I think the Colonel and Captain's relationship was supposed to be a surprise, but it was obvious from the first couple paragraphs. Who was narrating the story actually took longer to figure out than that relationship. However, I enjoyed learning more about the Scarlett Guard, where they were formed and how they ended up in the places they were for Mare to interact with them.