BOOKS | Review: The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury

Name: The Scarecrow Queen (The Sin Eater's Daughter series #3)

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date published: October 2017

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance

Pages: 376

Rating: 4/5

The final battle is coming... As the Sleeping Prince tightens his hold on Lormere and Tregellan, the net closes in on the ragged band of rebels trying desperately to defeat him. Twylla and Errin are separated, isolated, and running out of time. The final battle is coming, and Aurek will stop at nothing to keep the throne forever. 

- From Goodreads.

I definitely enjoyed The Scarecrow Queen the most out of the books in the trilogy, however I still found it a little hard to differentiate between Twylla and Errin, the two main characters, in terms of their personalities. Twylla was supposed to be the quieter one and Errin the more passionate, but I still had some trouble distinguishing their voices in the narrative, although I found them both likeable and was still rooting for them.

This book certainly had the best plot out of the three in the series, so the trilogy certainly escalated well in terms of risk and the possibilities of what could happen. It was thrilling and kept me turning the pages, excited to see what would happen next.

The Sleeping Prince continued to be a truly terrifying villain, he did some absolutely awful things that made him frightening and made you understand why the characters hated him and wanted to defeat him, and yet he still had strangely charming or thoughtful moments that kept him interesting.

I was glad at the direction the romantic relationships went in as the chemistry and feelings between all of the characters felt right. However, towards the end of the book there were some arguments between one of the couples that felt placed into the story just for added drama which felt unnecessary when the rest of the story had drama enough and the rest of the time the characters had become quite good at communicating and had grown as people, so the arguments felt out of character.

Overall, it felt like a good conclusion to the series and was definitely the book I preferred most out of the three. The ending felt it was lacking slightly in Errin's side of the story and since we had followed her story so closely in the second book, it felt like we got less of in this one and her story did not feel as wrapped up as Twylla's, but other than that I felt satisfied with how the story ended and where the characters were at the end of their journeys.

BOOKS | Review: The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

 Name: The Sleeping Prince (The Sin Eater's Daughter series #2)

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date published: February 2016

Genre: Fiction, young adult, romance, fantasy

Pages: 373

Rating: 4/5

Ever since her brother Lief disappeared, Errin's life has gone from bad to worse. Not only must she care for her sick mother, she has to scrape together rent money by selling illegal herbal cures. But none of that compares to the threat of the vengeful Sleeping Prince whom the Queen just awoke from his enchanted sleep.
When her village is evacuated as part of the war against the Sleeping Prince, Errin is left desperate and homeless. The only person she can turn to is the mysterious Silas, a young man who buys deadly poisons from Errin, but won't reveal why he needs them. Silas promises to help her, but when he vanishes, Errin must journey across a kingdom on the brink of war to seek another way to save her mother and herself. But what she finds shatters everything she believed about her world, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom.

- From Goodreads.

The Sleeping Prince definitely felt like an improvement on the first book in the series, The Sin Eater's Daughter. There was more depth to the story, characters and world, although the pacing and plot structure was not so strong, and during the first part of the story I could not really tell where the story was going and it did not feel like it had any forward momentum. However the plot twists towards the end of the book were definitely thrilling and interesting.

I liked reading from Errin's perspective and found her to be a character I could root for, although I think a little more work could have been done to make her more of a distinctive character from Twylla, she just needed a little something more to make her a really memorable character of her own standing, but she was definitely likeable and I could understand her.

The new characters in this book were quite fascinating, I really liked Silas and thought the Sleeping Prince was a good villain. I have to admit none of the mentions of Lief in this book made me like him any more, but there were some other characters I was glad to see return or at least see call backs to.

I enjoyed the continued world building, the explanation of the history of the world and how the legends were built, although at times it was not easy to follow, it was still interesting to read.

I will definitely be reading the third and final book in the trilogy, The Scarecrow Queen, and I am curious to see what happens in it and how the story concludes for everyone.

Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

Name: The Sin Eater's Daughter
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Publisher: Scholastic Children's Books
Date published: 2015
Rating: 4/5
Spoiler warning: Pretty major, to be honest. I couldn't seem to write about this book without spoiling it, to be honest.

I am the perfect weapon.

I kill with a single touch.

Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it's price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla's fatal touch.

Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla's chilling role to the girls she truly is.

Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen's, some truths should not be told...
- From Goodreads.

I thought that The Sin Eater's Daughter included really brilliant world-building with the beliefs, geography, legends and all of the other details of the fantasy world it was set in being so well thought out. This was especially true with the way that we came to believe in it all too, which made it really devastating when Twylla's world came crashing down (side note: cool name, Twylla).
The great world-building was paired with excellent writing, although I noticed that the phrase "It wasn't until...that I realised I had been holding my breath" , or at least some variations on that, cropped up more than once, and while I think that it works as a phrase, emphasising tension and all that jazz, I think caution should be taken in repeating it, because it loses it's impact when it's used more often.
Another point which meant that I gave this book a rating of four rather than five, was that I wasn't sure about some of the choices Twylla made or some of the actions she took as I couldn't relate to them myself, and while I definitely enjoyed reading the story, I found I was distanced from it somewhat because of that. I also found I didn't fall in love with Lief as much as Twylla did, I did like him, but I couldn't relate to Twylla's feelings towards him, and I think I liked him more when he was first introduced than I did by the end (and not just because of what we found out about him) and I felt more sorry for Merek than I ever did for Lief.
Something else I wasn't sure about was the ending. I liked how Twylla had independence and happiness and how she had promised to return to Merek if the sleeping prince ever appeared, I thought that was the right promise to make, but I think I wanted her to stay with Merek in the castle in the first place (I'm not sure why but I think I might be Team Merek, if that's a thing). I also thought it was quite clear who it was that knocked on her door at the very end and I'm not sure how I feel about that either.
However, all in all, I very much enjoyed the book and now I'm going to go and learn about Victorian flower language, reread the book once I have done so, and then try and discover if there is going to be a follow up to this book, because if there is going to be one, then I will most definitely be reading it.

Add the book on Goodreads | Author's website