Not to make this too deep, but Cardan very slowly realizes that he is not responsible for the terrible acts his family committed both to him and to the people they ruled over. 'Playing the villain was the only thing he’d ever really excelled at.'Įach part, each mini story, we get to see Cardan questioning who he is and who he wants to be. And when Holly gives us Locke’s perspective one of these years…

And these two, in addition to a prophecy looming over this young prince, are truly the first catalysts to this story and I was so in love seeing behind the scenes. We get to see Locke, and his empty house and even emptier heart, teach Cardan the word “cruel” on every page. But we see Nicasia being fostered on the land because her mother, Orlagh, Queen of the Undersea, wants to start putting pieces in motion. Nicasia and Locke have much wanted character development in this book, too, and I am literally on my knees begging for Holly to just give us the trilogy in Cardan’s complete point of view. We also get to see so much of Cardan’s perspective during The Cruel Prince, much like we did with Tarryn in The Lost Sisters, and it was everything. 'She was the only real thing in a land of ghosts.' And then all throughout his life, she tells his alternate versions of this same story, each version with a new meaning for a new version of Cardan himself. She tells a story about a boy with a heart of stone, who finds himself in a predicament with a monster girl who won’t scare him away, until his heart starts beating again.

In this story, Cardan’s life is very much impacted by a troll named Aslong who was wronged by Cardan’s father. From the perfect color palette, to the most perfect details, she executes the vibe of Cardan and his story in a way that I don’t think another artist could. I was already in love with her and her art because of her work with The Wayward Children series, but this entire book feels like am immersive work of art. Rovina Cai’s art is truly so beautiful that it renders me speechless. The sound that left me when I opened this book and realized we were going to get present day with Jude from Cardan’s POV… be still, my hopes and dreams and heart.

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories is an illustrated novella following Cardan Greenbriar, during many different stages in his life, while we slowly see all the different things that shaped him cruelly.

'Hate that was so bright and hot that it was the first thing that truly warmed him.'

The cruel prince series book 4