Review--The Stolen Heir by 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.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black returns to the opulent world of Elfhame in the first book in a thrilling new duology, following Jude's brother Oak, and the changeling queen, Suren.

I won't lie, diving back into Elfhame was a little harder than I thought it would be. It's been ages since I last read Holly Black's The Queen of Nothing, and even How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories. I remembered Oak well enough, but Suren was another story! But it was a new story in a familiar world so I tried to just roll with the flow of The Stolen Heir. Holly brings us back to Elfhame but with a new generation at the lead.

I was surprised to learn that the story would be told through Suren's point of view. Yes, the blurb tells us that, but it was a surprise nonetheless! I guess I was thinking it would be Oak since he was the most familiar to us. Regardless, we get to know more about Suren, nickname Wren, and her tragic backstory. There was a lot of diving into past through flashbacks to see how she grew up, when she met Oak, and all that jazz. These flashbacks happened throughout the book, but largely stopped maybe around halfway, give or take.

Oak comes to Wren and asks for her help. He needs to go to the Ice Needle Citadel for a mission and since this is where Wren's mother lives, she knows the ins and outs the best. Against her better judgment, Wren agrees to help him.

I don't know what it was about the story that made it hard to get into at times. I am thinking it's just because I am struggling to remember Elfhame from the original series and when I spend so much time forcing myself to remember, I can't enjoy the new story in the same place--so to speak.

I love a good flashback as well, but I felt like there might have been just one too many in this one that didn't really feel 100% necessary, like a shortened version of remembering instead of reliving it for us on the page would have suffice.

The story was still pretty good. There's a quest, there's dangerous obstacles in their way, an enemy to defeat, enemies all around them. The stakes were high. There was a budding romance blooming between Oak and Wren. But it didn't feel as strong or intense as Jude and Cardan's. I know they had more of enemies to lovers thing going on and Oak and Wren were a sort of friends to lovers, but I never got strong romantic vibes off of them. Hopefully that will change in the final book of the duology.

The ending to this one was pretty surprising! Some excellent jaw-droppers were tossed about and now things are hanging over the edge. What will happen next is anyone's guess! Or you all might already know since it took me this long to read this one! Lol. 

All in all, The Stolen Heir was pretty good. Maybe not as good as The Folk of the Air series but a worthy read. It's nice being in a familiar world with the new generation of faeries but also, I wouldn't have minded for some favorite familiar faces popping up. We still have another book to go, so we'll see how things pan out for these characters. 

Overall Rating 3/5 stars