Title: The Stolen Heir

Series: Elfhame #4

Author: Holly Black

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.

‘Maybe you will come back and tell me how the Prince of Sunlight liked the Queen of Night.’

I absolutely adored Cardan and Jude’s books so, I admit, I was worried that I wouldn’t love this as much……but I did!! But maybe in a different way!

In the original trilogy I loved the bully side of it, that they were openly cruel from the get go hiding nothing but here we have 2 people who are meant to be monsters, inherently evil…..and maybe they are but they hide it well.

This book is the start of something beautiful, I can feel it in my ordinary human bones!

Suren, I mean that girl has suffered. In every year of her life so far she has suffered so greatly that I can’t believe she is still sane. I love her. After all she has been through all she wants is to be loved. I could cry. I want to hug her but those teeth make me nervous!

Oak….now I like Oak but at the moment I don’t love him. Maybe that will change with the next book. He is just so Folk. I mean with the role models he had round him growing up, I can’t say I’m surprised!

Together though they actually made my heart sing. Oak was right in that they’d be formidable together.

The quotes were plentiful and I highlighted so many!

‘We are no longer children, playing games and hiding beneath his bed, but I feel as though this is a different kind of game, one where I do not understand the rules.’

In conclusion, this book was full of what you would expect from the Folk and from Holly Black. Schemes, lies, treachery, plans, shocks and I want more! I know this is a duology so I’ll be looking out for news of book 2 and after that explosive ending, I need it now!!!!

But I also want some questions answered in book 2. ….is Taryn now with the Ghost? Will we get an Oak pov?