Holly Black

#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. A reluctant prince. A runaway queen. And a quest that may destroy them both.

The Stolen Heir


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.

Cici Pearson

My greatest weakness has always been my desire for love. It is a yawning chasm within me, and the more that I reach for it, the more easily I am tricked. I am a walking bruise, an open sore. If Oak is masked, I am a face with all the skin ripped off. Over and over, I have told myself that I need to guard against my own yearnings, but that hasn't worked.

Jenna-Lee Gordon

I hope you're not about to tell me that you hate it and you were just beingpolite. "I don't hate it," I say softiy, "And Iam not polite.

Cassidy Nolan

But I can’t pretend that I don’t like the sound of him screaming my name.

With him, I am forever a night-blooming flower, attracted and repelled by the heat of the sun.

Fear is not love, but it can appear much the same.

How appropriate to have my tongue cut out, when silence has been my refuge and my cage.

 to wear your skull for a hat,” Oak warns. There is an uncomfortable shifting among the ex-falcons. Perhaps they are recalling their own choice to denounce her, their own punishment. “And Cardan is going to laugh and laugh when she does.”

 with every restless shift of my body. But his does not, and I am too much of a coward to do more than lie there and yearn until my eyes drift closed at last.

“Sometimes life gives us the terrible gift of our own wishes come true.”

He gives me a smile, a strange light in his eyes. “If we were capable of putting mistrust aside, we might be a formidable pair.”

He’s the kind of beautiful that makes people want to smash things.

“Will you tell me about the constellations?” I asked him.

“I thought you didn’t like me,” he said.

“I can pretend,” I told him. “For one night.”

My thoughts are racing as fast as my feet. I kissed two people before Oak. There was the boy who liked fires and, later, one of the treefolk. Neither of those kisses felt quite as doomed as the one I shared with the prince, and they had been doomed enough.

With the certainty that I have well and truly punished him for trying to flirt with me.

The angry, feral part of me feels so close to the surface that I can almost scent its blood-clotted fur. I want to lick the scratches I made.

“A small group is nimble,” Tiernan says. “Easier to hide. Even if I think crossing through the Stone Forest is a fool’s notion.”

Oak traces the route up the coast with a finger and gives us a roguish grin. “I am the fool with that notion.”

If I look at him too long, I want to take a bite out of him.

“My vanity took the worst of the blow,” he says.

“Worried about your pretty face?” the knight asks.

 too little beauty in the world,” says the prince airily. “But that is not my area of greatest conceit.”

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both. . . (Fairyloot Edition.) 

The Stolen Heir Duology #1

Also, Holly's absolute love for Madoc is showing in this book and I am here for it. 😂 

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

"What a freeing thought it was to no longer believe I had to deserve something in order to get it."

He's right; that would be a shockingly freeing thought.

The description of the ice citadel from the outside is imposing and neat, like any beautiful ice castle I've seen in other works. But the added detail of the inside with frozen, suspended, "wallpaper"-like elements totally blew me away. 

A massive bone chandelier hangs in the center of the room, candle wax dripping hot enough to melt indentations in the floor.

While the exterior of the Citadel is formed of giant slabs of clear, bright ice, some of the interior walls are enhanced by having things frozen inside the ice, resulting in something like wallpaper. Stones suspended, as though forever in midfall. Bones, picked clean, occasionally used to form sculptures. Roses, their petals forever preseved in their full flowering. This room's walls have two faerie women frozen inside them, preserved so that they never decay into moss and stone, like the rest of the Folk.

I love this description of the troll village. Holly Black is masterful at painting a scene, but this book really excels in giving unique settings to different locations!

The troll camp and the ice citadel are incredibly different, but very  distinct and inventive in their structures and decor. I like the artistic, sculptural element to the troll houses in particular.

The troll camp is set in a large clearing, where buildings of stone and clay have been constructed around a massive bonfire. Sparks fly up from it, then fall as black rain, smudging whatever they touch.

The houses are cleverly and artistically made. The stucco-like clay ahs been sculpted into shapes--spirals and trees and faces, all in the same pale mud color, decorate the dwellings. High up on the walls, circles of mostly green and amber glass have been inset, creating the effect of stained glass windows. I draw closer and see that they are parts of bottles, and spot a few in brilliant blues and crimsons.

More passages from the Undry Market scene, some of my favorite scene setting in the book.

We pass a fletcher, selling barrels of arrows with different feathers affixed to the ends. Crows and sparrows, even those from a wren. Pass a display of gowns in beetle-bright green, saffron, and pomegranate red. A stall with bouquets of drying herbs hanging upside down, bedside seedpods. Then a bookseller, shelves of old tomes and empty, freshly bound books open to creamy pages waiting to be written in. One stall over, an alchemist displays a shelf of poisons, including poisoned ink. A row of oddly shaped skulls sits alongside them.

One of my favorite scenes in the book. I love how Holly Black weaves a scene, I just want to walk right in it.

The threshold of the Undry Market is announced by two trees leaning toward each other, their branches entangled. As we duck beneath, what had previously been scraps of song and spots of color lose their disguise and the entire panoply comes into view. Shops and stalls fill the clearing. The air is rich with perfumes, honey wines, and grilled fruits.

There is a forge not far from where we are standing, one with a display of swords in the front. And beside that, a maypole and a few dancers going around it, winding the ribbons. A stall selling cloaks in all the colors of the sky, from the first blush of dawn to deep as midnight and spangled with stars. A bakeshop hawking braided breads, their shining crusts decorated with herbs and flowers.

Emily Klo

He half smiles. "Sometimes life gives us the terrible gift of our own wishes come true.”

Inés

Sometimes life gives us the terrible gift of our own wishes come true.

I was honestly not that excited to read this when it first came out - I love Carden and Jude so much that I just wasn’t interested in Oak at all. HOWEVER - lol this definitely exceeded my expectations. I loved being back in Holly Black’s world, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was all from Wren’s pov. There were some twists and turns and ultimately, a really well-written YA novel which I usually struggle to enjoy. Can’t wait to read the sequel!

Katie Allard

But I guessed the ending 🥲, and didn’t like the way it went, a bit too dramatic. 

Taryn

Juppp loved it.

But I guessed the ending 🥲, and didn’t like the way it went, a bit too dramatic. 

On to part two ✌️.

౨ৎ | ‘sometimes it feels as though there's a knot inside me, and were it to come apart, whatever emerged would be all teeth.‘

i loved this book so much. the way holly writes is so beautiful and i found myself so immersed in this world. 

wren can do no wrong, she is my favourite girl ever. and i can’t wait to see her evolve more in the next book. 

oak was okay, i mean i liked him but he didn’t give much and i get the faerie deceive but he annoyed me a lot LMAO. 

i LOVED the side characters too and i hope we get more of them in the prisoners throne. 

anyway all in all, wren is baby and i will support whatever she does!!

౨ৎ | ‘sometimes it feels as though there's a knot inside me, and were it to come apart, whatever emerged would be all teeth.‘

— ★ 5/5

i loved this book so much. the way holly writes is so beautiful and i found myself so immersed in this world. 

wren can do no wrong, she is my favourite girl ever. and i can’t wait to see her evolve more in the next book. 

oak was okay, i mean i liked him but he didn’t give much and i get the faerie deceive but he annoyed me a lot LMAO. 

i LOVED the side characters too and i hope we get more of them in the prisoners throne. 

anyway all in all, wren is baby and i will support whatever she does!!

it was pretty good! the plot twist at the end got me and it definitely made me want to read the second book. the rest of the book was a touch slow though. 

Maddy T

not the turn that I expected this duology to take, but okay

Taylor Grace

I have an Elfhame bias so take my rating with a pinch of salt. I just love this world and how Holly Black writes fae. It’s both witty and darkly humorous. I’m not as attached to the characters in this duology as much as The Cruel Prince but it was still a good time. 

Mel 

I loved this adventure we took with Oak and Suren. Full of riddles and deception and brings the Folk not being able to lie into a huge spotlight in this book especially to add to story. I love the two of them together and I also think because they have very different personalities from Jude and Cardan, that sets these books apart completely from TFOTA main series. Suren is very troubled, paranoid and fierce which is interesting to see how she opens up to Oak when he shows her kindness. Oak’s charming “love-talking” is something I did NOT expect from his boyish character in TFOTA but suits him so well. You really spend the whole book questioning loyalties and focusing on word play and trying to figure out if there is loopholes in promises. Loved. 

Eimear O'Connor 

I actually like this Oak story better than the original trilogy if I am being honest. I think Holly Black is settling into storytelling now that the world is built. 

Apiecalypse Jen

I've put off reading this book since the day it came out, and now that I've read it, I can't believe I've denied myself of it for so long. I haven't reread tfota in a while, so maybe it's not as good as the original trilogy, but I was so impressed by this book. Something about being back in this world filled me with so much glee and whimsy it's crazy. Holly Black's pen is truly unmatched. In her true fashion, I knew there would be a betrayal, but I wasn't quite prepared for the scale of it, even if I should've known better. Wren is so captivating, and her struggles are so relatable despite not being made from snow. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Oak. He has so many crazy layers to him that I wasn't expecting based on seeing him as a kid. The plot kept moving, and I was trying to figure out where things would go wrong the whole time. I'm so glad I finally read this because it feels like it might move up to favorite status. Idk I just love this world, and I would probably read anything if I got to see it again, but this felt special. It is familiar yet totally different in its own way.

lena

I HAVE TO WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED JWJFIWU37E8Q77×7$<+&×*'8H3EHFJJD2H3U

I love being back in Elfhame, and seeing Oak older and just as clever and charismatic as both Cardan and Jude, it’s wonderful. i love how he’s grown and seeing him take things into his own hands now that he has the power. can’t wait to see what’s next for him and Wren! i love her sm and she deserves the world. 

star girl✨

4.5/5 rounded up <3

I honestly loved this so much. 

I think my one criticism (and it's something I feel with the original trilogy too) is that I wished plotlines went for longer !!!! I know this is ya and the books are short but I am always left wanting MORE. 

I love Wren and Oak and I definitely think they will be so much more fleshed out in the sequel and I love the new stuff we learned about faerie and I love their relationship it was a breath of fresh air. 

And I'll be honest sometimes reading spin-offs can feel like reading the original work in a different font but I did not feel that way at all this was great!

** spoiler alert **
           4.5 stars 

ms holly black never disappoints

devoured this and got me out of a terrible book slump

now i see what people meant about jude and cardan being pissed at wren

as much as i'm on board for a villain arc, i fear wren may be in trouble and also that perhaps the betrayal was not as big as it was made to seem by the prisoners throne summary BUT i understand why she was pissed and did what she did. i support woman's wrongs 🫶🏻

speaking of wren, absolutely adored her. my favorite type of fmc and as much as she talked about being traumatized, it didn't annoy me the way it does with other characters (looking at you juliette shatter me). i love oak as well despite his betrayal and the fact that i still feel like i barely understand him, but i enjoyed the direction holly took with his character as an (almost) adult.

absolutely cannot wait to see jude and cardan in book 2

Greer Andersson

☆☆☆⋆
To be so real with you, I just don't care about these characters as much as Jude or Cardan. I was eating up every little mention of them. I do think Wren is a very interesting and complex character and think there is room for my appreciation of her to grow. 

Quite frankly though, I thought the pacing was a little odd and the middle of the book wasn't very interesting. I did really like the plot twist and the ending of the book, which pretty much convinced me that picking up the second book is worth it.

Will report back with my findings with that.

arwen

Ellie M.

This book was incredibly mindfucking in the best way I could think of and I cannot wait to have the sequel in my hands! Holly Black’s writing was entirely different in this book in comparison to when she wrote Jude and Cardan’s story and this still had the signature short number of chapters, but the length made it feel so slow-paced. Oak has surely grown up and well into the prince of Elfhame that his sister wanted him to become and Suren’s character is incredibly complex yet loveable at the same time. I’m excited to meet Tiernan and Hyacinthe in the next book as well! The Stolen Heir will truly put you on edge because of the build-up of the tension. You simply just don’t know what’s going to happen next so the ending really fucked me up. I need The Prisoner’s Throne NOW with a judecardan cameo <3

Helena

4.5* 
i loved it. i love the betrayals in her books and her world and characters and everything. chef’s kiss.

2.5 stars! 

 ‧₊˚ ⋅𐙚 spoilers are hidden 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

i don't know if it was me or the pacing was too slow. i think it was the reason why it took me quite a while to read it. i somewhat ended up being bored even though i know that the author tries to make the reader become familiar with the new characters. it is criminal to compare but there are times where i thought that this book and the cruel prince's plot is strikingly way too familiar. 

moreover, i felt that the story only begun on the last few chapters. the action and the pace began to pick up when (view spoiler)[wren, oak, and tiernan got caught by lady nore. (hide spoiler)] it was kind of shocking to learn that oak changed a lot after nine years. like, that is my baby!! (ó﹏ò｡)

overall, it was nice revisiting the world of elfhame. i wouldn't give much detailed review of this because i would like to see how the characters would develop in the prisoner's throne.

now, onto the next book ! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

not as good as the original trilogy, but still really good! can’t wait to read the next one

sophie bastow

Brionna Palm

love love love holly black and how she writes. i was excited to read this asap after finishing the folk of air series and even though i wasn't As Hooked reading this one, i still couldn't put the book down... i loved loved loved loved learning more about Suren after she was introduced in the folk of air books and then seeing Oak all grown up... i kept forgetting he has hooves instead of feet ... i cant believe he's just a lil guy.... anyways i'm starting the next book as we speak

Wow was really not expecting that ending!

Hannah Williams

A Novel of Elfhame, from the author of The Folk of the Air series

Z♡ 

3.5★
i can’t help but compare this to the original trilogy. while i still enjoyed the adventure they were on and the tension between Wren and Oak, the stolen heir feels like one long introduction to the prisoners throne. i look forward to reading it, though!

The Stolen Heir

Reviews

Highlights