Came for the Judran crumbs, stayed for a ice queen.

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
4.5/5 Stars

This was a long awaited spin off for me. I LOVE the Folk of Air series will all my heart and I knew that I would probably love Oak just as much.

I was honestly a bit surprised when I realized that this was actually told from Suren/Wren's POV, but I loved it.

Suren is the queen of the former Court of Teeth and once upon a time, Oak's betrothed. When her mother, Lady Nore starts causing some noise in the North, Oak seeks Wren out to help stop her.

Oh Oak, and your goat legs, I love you so much. No longer the cute little prince from the first part of the series. We are now introduced to older Oak, who knows how to play people almost as well as Jude can. It was so interesting to see his change and growth over the last 8 years. I feel like you can definitely tell his qualities are a great mix of Jude, Madoc and Cardan.

Suren, my sweet queen, I cannot wait for you in book two. She really grows into her character throughout the book. And the plot twist at the end? My jaw is on the floor.

Book two cannot get here fast enough.

I’m not gonna say I’m disappointed but I feel like something is missing.

Holly Back is an amazing writer, Elfhame keeps getting bigger and you’re immediately transported into the right atmosphere. However this is something expected, since there’s a trilogy behind this new duology. I tried my best to start this without comparing it to the previous story but the book itself relies too much on The Folk of the Air not to do so.

I liked how the past events are mentioned and are somehow part of the new lore in this world, and of course reading about previous characters like Jude and Cardan (I need to meet the older versions of them), but even the small mentions of The Court of Shadows or Taryn made me very happy