Book Review: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

Premise:

Our favourite bad boy prince-turned-king is back in this collection of short stories bookending The Cruel Prince series. In this collection, we witness key points in Cardan’s upbringing that paint a more vivid picture of how the youngest prince grew to have so much hate in his heart as well as how strives to move on from his past.

“So long as you’re begging, he doesn’t mind one bit.”

Review:

Cardan is hands down my favourite character in The Cruel Prince series and I was so disappointed in how little we saw of him in The Queen of Nothing, but that wasn’t his story. This collection, though, is a perfect way to tell his story. Getting to hear his thoughts and see life through his eyes brings so much more to the mystery of Cardan we just didn’t get to see through Jude’s perspective. It was bittersweet to see Cardan’s upbringing and the evolution from boy to man. I do like how he was never purely sweet, but could have had such a different path at every fork in the road.

Seeing other characters from his point of view were such much fun! Nicasia, Locke, even that idiot Valerian. And his growing fascination with Jude was EVERYTHING. I always wish that authors who have an entire series from the point of view of one character have a companion series from the main character’s love interest or partner. I would totally spend money on that. If this year’s Midnight Sun success is any indication, there is a huge interest in it.

Last thing I want to touch on are the illustrations, which are perfection. They added just the right amount of additional storytelling and whimsy to this collection of stories.

5/5

Romance: Mild

Violence: moderate

Tropes: Anti-hero, enemies to lovers, story within story

Trigger warnings: None