thesequelguide

The Cruel Prince

This recap is intended as a memory refresher for readers who have already read the book and want a quick reminder before continuing the series. It is not a substitute for the original work. All characters, settings, and storylines belong to their respective authors and publishers. If you have not read the book, I strongly recommend experiencing the original story first. No summary can replicate the depth, suspense, and enjoyment of reading the book itself.

What Happen in the Book (5-10 Minutes)

Growing up as a human in the faerie land is extremely difficult for a mortal like Jude because the faerie can enchant her and make her perform actions that she has no control over. The faerie look at her like she is not good enough and will never be on the same level as them. Despite these difficulties and being exploited her whole life in Faerie Land she is constantly reminded that she is lucky to be adopted by Madoc because he is the High King, Eldred’s general.

Madoc killed her birth parents and decided to adopt the human twins, Jude and Taryn along with Vivi. Vivi is Madoc and Jude’s mother’s daughter, so she is a part of the faerie however she hates Madoc and refuses to do whatever he asks of her.

Jude, Taryn and Vivi are sisters but in truth they think in completely different ways. Vivi does not care about the faerie world and does not wish to be associated with it at all, she actually falls in love with Heather, this mortal girl and decides to live with her in the mortal world. Jude and Taryn both want to make a place for themselves in the Court of Faerie, but they choose different paths.

Taryn wants to marry her way to do so but Jude wants to earn a place by showcasing her fighting abilities and prove herself worthy regardless of what the faerie may think of her. So, Jude decides to participate in a tournament and stand out, if she is successful in doing so a royal child may pick her to be their personal knight.

At the tournament, she performs well and wins but Madoc says that she is not a killer and refuses to give her permission to be a knight. However, Prince Dain sees her potential and asks her to be his spy and in return he will provide her with a geece of protection. This means that no faerie except Dain can glamour her no matter what. She agrees to the deal because she wanted to serve the throne and a geece will really make her less vulnerable.

When she becomes his spy and enters the Court of Shadows, she meets Ghost, Bomb and the Roach, each who have received their code names based on their specialty.

After becoming a part of the Court of Shadows, Jude starts training with Madoc to learn to fight well, she also starts developing tolerance to poisons like Fairy fruit, death sweet flower and blusher mushroom by taking gradually increased doses of them.

Prince Dain is the leader of the Circle of Falcons, i.e. the warriors and the knights. Madoc is a part of this circle and a trusted comrade. Madoc and Dain are also said to be thick as thieves initially in the book.

The coronation ceremony is where the high king Eldred will crown one of his children. He does not necessarily have to crown the oldest but whoever he thinks worthy out of his 6 children. 2 Greenbriar descendants are needed for the crown to be passed down, one who crowns it to the next high king and one who wears it.

Prince Cardan, one of Eldred’s son, is in the same classes as Jude and they absolutely hate each other. Cardan keeps finding ways to put Jude down and make her feel miserable and useless. His friend group has Nicasia, the princess of the Sea, Locke who is sneaky, sly and loves pranks and finally Valerian. Cardan and Nicasia used to date but then Nicasia dumped Cardan for Locke who later dumped her for Jude, Locke tells Jude that he admires her and keeps approaching her. She ultimately has her first kiss with him, only to realise at the coronation that he was just playing a game with her and in reality was going to ask Taryn to marry him. Jude views this as betrayal not only from Locke but also from Taryn because despite knowing that Jude was getting attached to him Taryn made no effort to tell the truth about her and Locke’s relationship.

Everyone thinks that Eldred will crown Prince Dain and at the coronation just as he is about to, absolute chaos breaks through Prince Balekin refuses to accept his brother, Dain as the future high king so he asks to duel Dain but when he refuses, Balekin out of sheer anger kills their sister Elowyn. At this incident Dain asks the guards to get ahold of Balekin but when no one moves it’s clear that Madoc has betrayed Dain and that is when Madoc himself kills Dain. Utter bloodshed breaks through and ultimately all the Greenbriars except Balekin and Cardan are dead. At this point when all the people of the royal blood are being killed, Cardan is missing and no one knows where he is.

After the coronation Jude realises that Oak, who she considers as good as her own younger brother is not Madoc and Oriana’s child but Prince Dain and Liriope’s child. Liriope is Locke’s mother. She was one of Eldred’s consorts at the time she was with Dain’s child, Dain was afraid that his father will find out that he was sleeping with one of his father’s consorts so to protect himself he killed Liriope. But Oriana was Liriope’s friend just before Liriope died due to poisoning from blusher mushroom, Oriana had cut Oak out of her and kept him safe since.

Jude also finds out that Dain was poisoning his father with blusher mushroom so that he would become weak and feel the need to pass the crown down to someone which completely changes the perspective of Dain’s character by the readers.

When Madoc found out about how Dain wanted to kill his own son, he lost all respect for Dain. Madoc is a strong man who believes in loyalty and family and after this he concocted a plan and executed it at the coronation. Jude also realises that Madoc wants to make Oak the king and since he is only 7 years of age, the crown prince will be Oak but the true ruler behind him who will be making all the decisions will be Madoc. Jude believes that if he is in power there will be absolute chaos and bloodshed and the future of ELfhame will be dark.

This means that contrary to what everyone believes, there are 3 and not 2 Greenbriars that are still alive, Oak, Cardan and Balekin. And even though Madoc seems to have joined alliances with Balekin and wants to make him king, in reality Maodc will double cross him to make Oak the king.

A few moments after the coronation, Cardan who is missing is found by Jude, she drags him to the Court of Shadows to her companions and comes up with a strategy to make Oak the king in such a way that Madoc does not benefit. She needs Cardans’s help for that but does not trust him so asks him to take an oath to follow her orders for 1 year and 1 day. Cardan takes this oath because he does not want to be a king either way and hates the idea of being in the limelight and responsible. The original plan was for Cardan to crown Oak but Jude betrays Cardan last minute and makes him the King by asking Oak to crown him. Cardan cannot do anything about it because of the oath he took. So now Jude is exactly where Madoc wanted to be, now that Cardan is the king, she gets to make all the decisions because he swore to follow her commands.

After everything goes according to plan her spy companions tell her the code name they came up with for her. ‘Queen’ . This highlights Jude’s character transformation from being vulnerable at the beginning to being in control and recognized for all the efforts and her potential.

Jude wants him to grow up happy away from the politics because he is royal blood she insists he live with Vivi and Heather in the mortal world for at least ten years, by the time he is all grown up.

Characters and Their Relationships (2 Minutes)

Jude

Jude is portrayed as someone who enjoys power and being a mortal she has none of it with the in faerie land and with people constantly looked down upon she is determined to fight back as much as she does and even though she is afraid she never shows it. She wants to prove that she is not just as good as the faerie buy better than them. But the truth is that because Jude is mortal events keep taking place where she is constantly reminded that she is vulnerable and has no power or escape. But she really hates to be defined by this fear and that is what shapes ehr personality the most in the entire series. She wants to be feared and no be the one who is afraid.

Taryn

Taryn is soft, goody two shoes giving more princess vibes while jude is hard around the edges. They are portrayed as completely different people. Jude wants to fight to get her place in court but Taryn would rather fall in love to achieve that. Taryn likes to lay low and stay out of trouble.

Oriana and Madoc

She does not really like the girls and has always been protective of Oak for reason we understand later in the book. Madoc on the other hand is a ruthless warrior. Even though no blood relation he has raised Taryn and Jude has his own daughters. He even gives Jude, Knightfell which was a sword made by her birth father (who Madoc killed) and he has always shown them all the love and support one would expect from a birth father.

Cardan

He is the prince hwo does not have very good familial relationships, after he basically loses almost all his family he does not show much remorse which tells us that he was never truly close to them. Just because he is Greenbriar he doesnot really have anyone who is close to him or has looked after him. That is why he is envious of Jude because of the way Madoc treats her despiter them not being blood related and more importantly being mortal. This envy is portrayed in the way of bullying from his side. It is also clear that there is some chemistry between the two of them which will be explored later in the series.

Things that May Matter in The Wicked King (1 Minute)