FOLK OF THE AIR
Series

SUMMARY

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 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.

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OPINION

I don’t often read a lot of fairy-styled stories (aside from the classics). I never truly found them that engaging and interesting but this one had be gripping the pages at the end and holding my breath until I read the last word.

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The title fits this story well. The Cruel Prince is, of course, Prince Cardan, and how he treats Jude in this story is quite . . . disturbing. Prince Cardan is a spoiled, outcast, attention seeking, egotistic, human-racist, and just a sad fairy. Though, to be fair, he never wanted to actually kill Jude, vs. his “friend” Valerian.

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Now, Jude has had enough of how she’s been treated and stands up for herself and strikes back at the prince. This is one of the many things I love about her. She’s not at all like her awful twin Taryn (I won’t spoil everything but I hate her guts). Jude wants to be a fighter. She wants to be more. She has a goal and when things don’t go according to plan, she reconstructs her goal and moves forward. But Jude isn’t perfect, and who really wants a main character who is perfect? She makes her mistakes and she feels awful and they hurt her and sometimes the people around her and she tries to make things right but some things are not always in her control.

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Now, I really haven’t read any other reviews for this book so I don’t know how anyone else thought of Locke, but I smelled a rat the moment he spoke to Jude. I did not buy their relationship one bit. And I kind of disliked Jude a bit for falling for it. I get it, he’s the first fairy creature who’s interested in her, but come on! She could do better. Someone who can keep up with her and give her a challenge. Sometime like . . . Cardan. Yes. I was totally shipping them from the very beginning. I’m not sorry. I’m a sucker for those stories where the love interests hate each other at first. And the two completely drive each other crazy. I love it so much.

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Madoc, the father, is a pretty interesting character. He’s someone who loves his daughters, his new wife and son, but he’s vicious, violent, and murderous. Odd combination, right? I thought so to. Jude tries to impress her “father” and wants to prove that she’s worthy to be a knight in the court, but of course, Madoc disagrees. From then on Madoc and Jude go on their separate mission and agendas, until they ultimately clash at the end. And the clash is so perfectly satisfying, I can’t wait to see what happens between these two in the next book.

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Now, the sisters. I like how Vivi hates Madoc for what he did and does everything possible to make him hate her or go against his wishes. It’s quite entertaining. I also liked how Vivi wants to return to the “mortal” world and wants to lives with her girlfriend. That detail comes into play at the end. As for Taryn, I hate her guts. As I’ve said before. She’s the type who wants to conform to the crowd, and it’s true that Jude wants to be like the fairy people, but Taryn can be very stupid at times. One example is falling for Locke when she knew that Locke was making advances for Jude. The guy was playing both girls and yet, Taryn still wanted to be with the jerk. Ugh!

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As for the story, I wasn’t completely invested at the beginning and parts of the middle. It wasn’t till the end of part one hit that I was so into this story and the ending? OMG. It was completely perfect. Plots, risks, Cardan on a leash, bombs, wrong twin problems, political drama, blood, fights – I loved every word. I can’t wait for The Wicked King!!!