The Stolen Heir

- Holly Black

Albany, WA

February 2, 2023

GOODREADS BOOK BLURB:

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.

Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.

Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.

Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

SERIES / GENRES:

FIRST WORDS:

A passerby discovered a toddler sitting on the chilly concrete of an alley, playing with the wrapper of a cat-food container. By the time she was brought to the hospital, her limbs were blue with cold. She was a wizened little thing, too thin, made of sticks.
She knew only one word, her name. Wren.

MY REVIEW:

absolute favourite:

☆☆☆☆☆ 5/5

As a child, Wren read a lot of fairy tales. That's why, when the monsters came, she knew it was because she had been wicked.

I had high expectations going into The Stolen Heir. The Cruel Prince is one of my favourite YA fantasies and one of the best starts to a series I’ve ever read. So for The Stolen Heir to exceed my expectations never even crossed my mind.

"My sister thinks that she's the only one who can take poison, but I am poison," he whispers, eyes half-closed, talking to himself. "Poison in my blood. I poison everything I touch."

I did go in thinking it was going to be told from Oak’s perspective. At first, I was upset, but I quickly became aware of how much better this was. To have an outside perspective on the royal family was wonderful, and not knowing what Oak was scheming and thinking was even better. And I fell for Wren more with every chapter. She draws you in with her pointy teeth and cold heart, but the loneliness, the torment, and the ache for love make you love her.

"You have an unusual voice," he says. "Raspy. Quite fetching, really."
"I damaged my vocal cords a long time ago," I inform him. "Screaming."

Black has a serious talent for writing phoenix protagonists. Girls who are abused, tortured and unloved take their futures into their own hands and wreak havoc to rise from the ashes and get what they want. I am here for every moment and cannot wait to see what burns next.

As we trek across the snow, I am careful to walk lightly so that I can stay on top of the icy crust. But it still spider-webs with every step. My dress billows around me, caught by the cold wind. I realize that I am still barefoot.
Another girl might have frozen, but I am cold all the way through.

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