The finale to the YA fantasy romance “The Stolen Heir” duology, part of Holly Black’s bestselling “The Cruel Prince” series
Hello my lovelies! Hope you are all doing well on this fine day, jumping into the first week of April. The sun is out, the weather’s getting warmer… Of course, being in Florida, this means I’ll probably be drowning in the humid air and eaten alive by the bugs within the next couple of weeks. Yay!
Today I’m reviewing the latest book from Holly Black, “The Prisoner’s Throne”, which is the ending to “The Stolen Heir” duology, which is a spin-off of the “Folk of the Air” series. Which is, which is…
So here’s a quick synopsis:
…
Um…
Well, so there’s this prince of Elfhame. His name is Oak. His sister, Jude, and her husband, Cardan, are the High Queen and King. The prince is the next heir to the throne. But he doesn’t want it. He’s very adamant about that. And there’s this other queen from another place. Her name is Wren. And the prince likes her. And she likes him. But she’s conflicted? And there’s hags and trolls and magic and backstabbings and people who turn into falcons?
Look, here’s the deal.
I read the “Folk of the Air” series a couple of years ago, which includes “The Cruel Prince,” “The Wicked King,” and “The Queen of Nothing.” I then read “The Stolen Heir,” the book before this one. This is my way of saying I know this world; I know the characters in these books, and the situations that led to “The Prisoner’s Throne” and this is what I was thinking when I read it: What the heck is going on?
And I don’t mean, “There’s so much going on I can’t keep up!”
I mean, “There’s literally nothing happening; I’m bored and just waiting for something, anything, to happen.”
Hence me having issues writing out my own synopsis.
I enjoyed the “Folk of the Air” trilogy. The issue is I think Jude and Cardan have become such fan favorites that stories about other characters in the same universe are just… meh.
I’m not sure what convinced me to pick up “The Stolen Heir” in the first place last year, because I did not like Oak in the original trilogy. I probably gave him the benefit of the doubt because Oak was about 8 years old in it, and this duology takes place years later. Maybe I just wanted to see more Jude and Cardan. No matter, I picked it up, and I gave it 4 stars out of 5, so there were elements I enjoyed. I think I’m in the minority here, but I liked the character of Wren, and she was the POV for that book. Plus I did an evil cackle at the cliffhanger of that book, when she put Oak in her prison for betraying her. I was excited to see what happened next, how she’d deal with his betrayal and having the prince of Elfhame in her prison, since I’m sure that’s going to be some sort of political nightmare. Can’t wait, y’all!
But then I pick up “The Prisoner’s Throne” to see what she does next, and she does… nothing.
Nothing! Suddenly the character of Wren is just there. The POV changed in this book; we’re inside the mind of Oak instead of Wren. I understand that that would usually mean Wren wouldn’t be in the book as much, but she was there, she just didn’t do much. You’ll find out late in the story why this is the case, but I didn’t find it to be a good enough “reason” for her to basically fall flat as a character. It was just disappointing, because I was rooting for her in the first book. The position she was in bound her hands, so to speak, but the Wren I knew from “The Stolen Heir” would’ve figured something out. It felt like the plot was set up so Oak could be the one to swoop in and save her from the situation instead of herself, which I honestly wasn’t a fan of. Let the queen save herself!
Not only does Wren not do much in the book, but I feel like nothing really happens at all until the end, when all hell breaks loose and there’s just randomness running amok. The last several books, I devoured rather quickly. This one? I had to make myself pick it up, because I’d be halfway through the book and I’d think: I still don’t know what the book’s about.
The book felt disjointed; there was no hook or arc to me. It seemed to be about tense situations and potential wars breaking out and, “Oh, what alliance shall we have this time?” but they were more in the background, because guess what? Oak doesn’t care. They made this character to be a “Capital R Rake” – as Lady Whistledown would say – and pretty wild and fancy free; he seemed to have been thrust into the position he’s in because he happened to be born a prince (and the only heir to the throne of Elfhame) and he happened to fall for a faerie who is now the queen of the Court of Teeth, a kingdom that Elfhame (and the High King and Queen) don’t really like very much. Oak’s basically there to be like, “Heyyy can we all just be friends because I don’t want anyone to die and I’m actually in love with the queen of the kingdom that tried to kill my king and queen.”
Even the “big reveal” of who killed Oak’s birth mother wasn’t a big shock. It fell flat, and I didn’t really care enough about the woman’s death to care about the information. And even Oak was like, “Oh, right then. That’s a bummer, but what’s done is done.” Okay, then why? It was just odd.
This review is on the shorter side due to me not wanting to write about spoilers, but also because I was excited for this book and it disappointed me, so I am *le sad*. I have also been *le sad* in general when it comes to the finales of YA fantasy romance series because I read “A Curse for True Love” this year, which is the third book of the “Once Upon a Broken Heart” trilogy and that was a disappointment too!
Have you read “The Prisoner’s Throne” yet? Liked it? Hated it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time, my lovelies!
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