After what seemed to be a bit of a misfire start, my daughter later found our footing The Cruel Prince and feel in love with it. As protagonist Jude transforms herself from near helpless victim to proactive hopeful victor, we began to realize what a dark gem of a book this really is and now have plans to read the trilogy.

What makes this middle-of-the-game twisty tale so ferociously delightful is Holly Black's regard for unpredictable payoffs, admittedly some more than others. That's not to say the opening is dull. On the contrary, The Cruel Prince opens with the murder of Jude's parents. Jude and her sisters, with one being a twin and the other sired by the murderer who abducts them, are then whisked away to the land of Faerie — and not the one inhabited by Tinkerbell but rather the rough-and-tumble Celtic kind. After the opener, Black invests in mapping out the expected a few years after the abduction.

The real joy within this work isn't so much what Black constructs on the front end as much as its deconstruction along the way. Expectations are shattered. Alliances forged and broken. Closely kept secrets revealed. Hates take time out. Crowns are lost and won and lost again. At its center is Jude, a mere mortal trying to make her way among the Faerie. At first blush, it's all she so to stay away from the youngest, and seemingly cruelest, prince of the land.

But there is much more to her than meets the eye — especially after her dream to be knighted is turned in for something far more sinister. You see, humans, unlike fairies, can lie. And it is in this simple fact that Jude quickly learns she might be more dangerous than anyone ever expected.