This time for my quick reviews I have the Folk of the Air series by Holly Black! (Minus The Lost Sisters, which will be in a separate post since it’s a short story.) If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a YA series about a human raised in the fae realm. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I wasn’t a big fan. I was probably being a bit nice with my 3.5 star ratings, now that I think back on it, but that’s fine. I enjoyed some the complex family relationships and twisty court intrigue, at least. Anyway, here are the links for the three main books in the series, plus some extras!
*Quick Reviews are posts where I share summaries and links for reviews I’ve recently posted to Goodreads and Amazon but don’t plan to make full review posts for here on the blog. Tag links are at the end.*
The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air Book 1) by Holly Black [Audiobook]
In The Cruel Prince, a human raised in the faery realm is tormented by the fae and realizes the only way she’s going to belong there is to be more like them and to snatch up the opportunity for power when she gets it.
I never felt connected to the characters, but I enjoyed the faerie court intrigue and politics and all the scheming and twistiness, and the first book had me curious enough to continue the series.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes YA fantasy, faeries, complicated family relationships, twistiness, and court intrigue.
Tags:
Fantasy, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Part of a Series, Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Faeries/Fae, M/F Feelings or Hint of Romance, No Explicit Sex, Cover Love, Audiobook
My Full Review:
Goodreads | Amazon
The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air Book 2) by Holly Black [Audiobook]
In The Wicked King, Jude, a mortal in the fae realm, will have to figure out how to hold onto the position of power she’s schemed and manipulated her way into.
This one had less intrigue and scheming, which made it a bit less enjoyable for me, but I did feel for Cardan the more I learned about him.
Recommended For:
Fans of Book 1 in Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air series. Anyone who likes YA fantasy, faeries, complicated family relationships, twistiness, and court intrigue.
Tags:
Fantasy, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Part of a Series, Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Faeries/Fae, M/F Feelings or Hint of Romance, No Explicit Sex, Cover Love, Audiobook
My Full Review:
Goodreads | Amazon
The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air Book 3) by Holly Black [Audiobook]
In The Queen of Nothing, Jude will have to find a way back to her position in the faery court and figure out how to stop a brewing war.
This one brought back the intrigue, and though I can’t say I loved this series the way other people seemed to, I did enjoy the complex family relationships and the twisty plots full of schemes and court intrigue. (I actually mention this in my first review, which is a series review, but I enjoyed the complicated family relationships more than the romance.)
Recommended For:
Fans of Books 1 and 2 in Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air series. Anyone who likes YA fantasy, faeries, complicated family relationships, twistiness, and court intrigue.
Tags:
Fantasy, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Part of a Series, Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Faeries/Fae, M/F Romance, No Explicit Sex, Audiobook
My Full Review:
Goodreads | Amazon
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air Book 3.5) by Holly Black [Audiobook]
In How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, you learn a bit about Cardan’s past and how he’s trying to change in the present.
This didn’t add much to the series, but it did remind me how bad Cardan’s life was (it makes sense he turned out the way he did), and it had pretty art.
Recommended For:
Fans of Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air series.
Tags:
Fantasy, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Series Extra, Part of a Series, Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Faeries/Fae, M/F Established Relationship, No Explicit Sex, Cover Love, Audiobook
I mostly felt the same about this series. Book #1, I liked enough to keep going but eh. I liked book #2 the most because of Jude, her dad and learning more about Carden. The ending was disappointing to me because it was more of a weird love fest but it was all ok. Like you – I was more into the family drama.
I didn’t read the King of Elfhame book because I’m sure I won’t love it but I keep getting tempted every time I see it in person because it’s soooo pretty,
And I think I saw you read that sister short story and I do not understand the point of it. Least favorite of them all.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
I’m glad it wasn’t just me who found the family drama the most interesting.
Eh, you prob won’t love if you didn’t love the series either. Honestly you could just flip through to see the art lol.
Yeah I’m putting that in a different post, but I wasn’t really sure the point of it either.
I’ve never been a fan of the fae for the most part. I so many of the books I’ve read with them in them, they are just awful. lol So it’s no wonder I haven’t read any of these books. Thanks for the reviews.
Yeah they are portrayed as awful sometimes.
I haven’t read those books. But I did read some of The Shadowhunters (The Mortal Instruments books) that Holly Black wrote with Cassandra Clare. I stopped reading them when it got to be all fae. I don’t really like fae books. One of those Shawdowhunter books was about court scheming and I really didn’t like it.
I don’t really know anything about those books, though I’ve heard of them. I think I used to care less for court scheming, but it grew on me.
This series has flooded the book blogging community, but as an older reader who avoids YA like the plague, these books wont be on my list. If you like court intrigue Kit, have you read the Forgotten Empires trilogy by Jeffe Kennedy? It starts with The Orchid Throne and I really enjoyed the court etiquette, espionage and layered deceptions.
I haven’t heard of that series, I’ll check it out!