Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by whatbritreads
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
4.0
*Thank you so much to HotKey for gifting me an early copy of this book!*
I was so worried when I started reading this book, because for the first 100 pages or so I absolutely couldn’t connect with it in the way I immediately connected to and engaged with The Cruel Prince. It began quite slowly, and the characters initially for me had no draw to them. The more I read though, the more Holly Blacks classic, whimsical, fantasy charm came to life. Low and behold, I really enjoyed this book.
I’d say it’s worth rereading a bit of TCP before reading this, because it does a make a lot of references to the previous books and honestly the worldbuilding is minimal - it really relies on you having that previous knowledge. I was a bit rusty since it’s been a while, but I managed to follow and pick it all up and catch up with what was happening pretty quickly though. It was well written, had consistently good pacing, and a really enjoyable storyline.
I really liked Oak and Suren, and they made the entire book. What can I say, I’m a simple girl and I like nothing more than a silly little romance between two very headstrong, stubborn characters. They had really great history and I liked the little flashback scenes in here, it really showed how compatible they were not only as friends, but working together and then as lovers. It had a brilliant set up for a relationship, you know it’s going to be a good, tense, tough ride to a happily ever efter when Holly Black is involved, but the journey is always so heartwrenchingly worth it.
After around the 60% mark this book was crazy, mind you. I was unprepared for how juicy and scandalous the plot would get, I could not see all of the betrayals, plot twists, and backstabbing coming but it was so relentless. Painful, but oh so enjoyable. I literally devoured the last half of this and it was a big mistake because now it’s an awfully long wait for the next installment. I NEED that sequel I was so invested.
The only thing I will not be forgiving is the equivalent of Cardans tail being that fact that Oak has… I don’t wanna spoil it but it’s unforgivable. I will be once again be pretending it doesn’t exist.
I was so worried when I started reading this book, because for the first 100 pages or so I absolutely couldn’t connect with it in the way I immediately connected to and engaged with The Cruel Prince. It began quite slowly, and the characters initially for me had no draw to them. The more I read though, the more Holly Blacks classic, whimsical, fantasy charm came to life. Low and behold, I really enjoyed this book.
I’d say it’s worth rereading a bit of TCP before reading this, because it does a make a lot of references to the previous books and honestly the worldbuilding is minimal - it really relies on you having that previous knowledge. I was a bit rusty since it’s been a while, but I managed to follow and pick it all up and catch up with what was happening pretty quickly though. It was well written, had consistently good pacing, and a really enjoyable storyline.
I really liked Oak and Suren, and they made the entire book. What can I say, I’m a simple girl and I like nothing more than a silly little romance between two very headstrong, stubborn characters. They had really great history and I liked the little flashback scenes in here, it really showed how compatible they were not only as friends, but working together and then as lovers. It had a brilliant set up for a relationship, you know it’s going to be a good, tense, tough ride to a happily ever efter when Holly Black is involved, but the journey is always so heartwrenchingly worth it.
After around the 60% mark this book was crazy, mind you. I was unprepared for how juicy and scandalous the plot would get, I could not see all of the betrayals, plot twists, and backstabbing coming but it was so relentless. Painful, but oh so enjoyable. I literally devoured the last half of this and it was a big mistake because now it’s an awfully long wait for the next installment. I NEED that sequel I was so invested.
The only thing I will not be forgiving is the equivalent of Cardans tail being that fact that Oak has… I don’t wanna spoil it but it’s unforgivable. I will be once again be pretending it doesn’t exist.