The Folk of the Air Series by Holly Black | Reviewed by Michelle

The Folk of the Air Series | Holly Black | Little, Brown and Company

“I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear.”

Well, I read all 3 The Folk of the Air books in 12 days. There are two novellas which I am hoping to get my hands on but for now, let us chat about these 3 books.

In the first book Cardan is a bully and Jude is tricked by him and his friends, bully romance if you will. But Jude has her own tricks up her sleeves. Honestly, the scheming in the books is quite possibly my favorite parts.

In the second book, stuff takes another turn. Jude isn’t the only one playing tricks. While she is the one making a lot of the choices in the game, she isn’t the only one playing.

In the third book, we have even more deceit, but we have so much more love too. And I cried, oh I cried. Things got so bleak!

Then the end was amazing, and I loved it and I need Holly Black to write another fantasy series similar to this, but I will request a smidge more romance.

Now, I went into these books completely not knowing anything about them, just that they were fantasy. As I was reading, I heard from some people that they thought it was enemies to lovers, and it is if you read all 3 books, but most people thought it would happen more quickly. IT IS WORTH THE WAIT. It isn’t your typical romance, there aren’t lots of love scenes and explicit sex, but it is a slow build of a relationship. Every book the relationship between Cardan and Jude is different and you just fall in love with them.

If you decide to pick up this series know that the romance aspect is not the main point of the story. The main focus would be the throne and politics BUT the story was so good that it didn’t feel like a ‘political fantasy’ to me at all. It just felt like a story about a mortal girl in a faerie world trying to show everyone she isn’t worthless and hoping to find some love along the way.

Synopsis-The Cruel Prince* (Credit: Goodreads)

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven 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.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal 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.

*I only posted the synopsis of book 1 in case you decide to read the whole series. I wanted to try to not have any spoilers unless you spoil it yourself.