#Review - The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury #YALit #Fantasy

Series: The Sin Eater's Daughter # 3
Format: Paperback, 376 pages
Release Date: October 31, 2017
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Fairy Tales & Folklore

The stunning conclusion to Edgar Award nominee Melinda Salisbury's internationally bestselling The Sin Eater's Daughter trilogy.The rebellion is in peril. The dangerous Sleeping Prince, once thought to be nothing more than a fairy tale, has awoken from his enchanted sleep and is set on vengeance. As he tightens his hold on the kingdoms of Lormere and Tregellan, the net closes in on the ragged band of rebels desperately trying to defeat him. After surviving their harrowing journey, Twylla and Errin are separated, leaving them isolated, and running out of time. The final battle is coming, and Aurek will stop at nothing to keep the throne . . . forever. Explosive, rich, and darkly addictive, The Scarecrow Queen will lure you into a startlingly-original magical world you'll never want to leave.

The Scarecrow Queen is the third and final installment in author Melinda Salisbury's The Sin Eater's Daughter Trilogy. This story picks up right where The Sleeping Prince left off. This is a different sort of story. The author intermingles narratives between Twylla, and Errin. Twylla, who survived the brutal attack on the Conclave by the Sleeping Prince gets the first part of the story, while Errin, who finds herself at the mercy of the Sleeping Prince, gets the second part. The third part is mostly Twylla's.

Each has a fight on their hands. Twylla who is marked for death by Aurek because her blood can kill her, and Errin who is alone trying to find a way to bring down Aurek. If anyone can discover a way to defeat Aurek, Errin is the most likely candidate. Let's start out with Twylla, who is now the Sin Eater of Lormere after the events of the previous installment. Twylla is an entirely different character from the first installment. She refuses to accept the title of Sin Eater, and instead focuses on surviving. She is a survivor who has managed to stay alive despite horrible odds from book one forward. 

I had a few minor issues with Twylla in the first installment, but found myself impressed that she's able to pull up her boot straps, and gather a group of like minded individuals to fight against Aurek. Her group includes Hope, Nia, & Kirin. With help from Hope, Twylla becomes the groups leader and pulls even more people to her cause. I especially liked the Red Rising particulars that Salisbury creates. One could actually think about the movie Red Dawn, where a group of kids fought back against foreign invaders who took their homes and families. Twylla really stands up and becomes the leader that I have been hoping for since we learned that she was being groomed to become Queen.

Meanwhile, Errin has struck up a nice relationship with Merek, the real King of Lormere. Nobody knows who Merek is except Errin who is only alive because of Silas. The same Silas whose blood is used to keep Aurek in his Elixir. Errin is brilliant and intelligent and has found herself in a situation where she has no control over her destiny or even her life thanks to Aurek. Her family has been twisted by Aurek. Her brother Lief, is a traitor, her mother is too far gone, and she has no idea whether or not anyone survived the destruction of the Conclave. Even though Twylla is the leader of this group, Errin is the one who holds the key to defeating Aurek.

Finale's can be the bane of my existence. But, Salisbury really did her best to wrap up things in a manner that really keeps the reader turning the pages and, above all, makes the story entertaining. My only disagreement with this story is the angst that existed between Twylla and her once fiance Merek. They are both strong willed individuals which means that more often than not, they will butt heads until one or the other realizes how ridiculous they are being. It is apparent that Salisbury was trying to send some sort of a message without the Happy ending that most readers enjoy. 

I can honestly say the most heartbreaking parts of this story were Errin's. If you were a fan of Errin's in the previous installment, I think you will be a bit saddened that she doesn't get a bit of her own payback. This book is a bit on the dark side. It has to be considering everything that Aurek has done since ripping Lormere apart and brutalizing anyone who stood in his way. Can villains be forgiven for their trespasses? Too bad we can't ask Lief what his thoughts are on the subject.

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#Friday Review - The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury #YA #Fantasy @MESalisbury @Scholastic

Series: The Sin Eater's Daughter # 2
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: May 31, 2016
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Return to the darkly beautiful world of The Sin Eater's Daughter with a sequel that will leave you awed, terrified . . . and desperate for more.

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.

The Sleeping Prince is the second installment in author Melinda Salisbury's The Sin Eater's Daughter trilogy. The Sleeping Prince actually features two new characters in Errin Vastel and Silas Korby. But, don't ignore the villain who really makes things so much more entertaining, twisted, and darker. The Sleeping Prince has risen after 500 years of being cursed to sleep. He's on a mission, and he intends to make those who were responsible for him missing 500 years pay in earnest. I could spend an enormous time talking about The Sleeping Prince and how vindictive and utterly dark he really is and how he manipulates everything and everyone he touches. But, I'll stick instead to the newest characters.

The first chapter really grabs and holds your attention. It is bloody, it is dark, and it sets the stage for what the rest of the story's characters will have to deal with in order to survive. Moving past the bloodshed and horror, readers meet Errin who has living in a village called Almwyk where people come to rot. Errin's life has been turned upside down. Her father is dead, her brother is gone, and her mother has lost all of what made her human, and Errin believes she has some disease called The Scarlet Varulv. 

The village of Almwyk is where dregs of society, debtors, drunks, addicts, and liars who have no other place to go live. They are closely watched over by soldiers who worry that the Sleeping Prince will soon rain horror down on the village. Errin and her mother are renting a cottage from the vile Chase Unwin. Errin has been trained to run an apothecary shop, but she can't go anywhere with her mother acting very strangely. She also has no clue where her brother Lief has gone to, or if he is still alive. 

Errin must sell potions to a mysterious character named Silas who keeps his hair, and face covered at all times. Errin and Silas friendship/romance is not in your face. Silas is the one character who genuinely cares for Errin, but his identity, if exposed could make things even more dangerous for everyone involved. Silas is the mystery man of this story, and so it becomes even more important not to skip over parts where his true mission is laid out for readers.

For those of who read The Sin Eater's Daughter, you know where Lief is because we met him along with Twylla and Merek. The fact that he nor the rest of the first novel's characters don't show up until the last part of this story, makes things really interesting. By this point, we know who Errin is, and we hope that she has the skills and the courage to live to find out what really happened to her brother and the others. I have to say that Errin, to me, was a remarkable character, and I do hope we get more of her in the final installment. 

At one point she takes credit for a mistake that causes so much pain, but doesn't run away from that mistake. She's all about her family, even after Lief disappeared without a trace. She is so loyal to her family that when given the chance to find a cure for her mother's ailments, she travels a rather long way back to her former home, and on to find a girl that Silas & his coven have been searching for. Someone who can turn the tide against The Sleeping Prince. Errin's own struggles are pale in comparison to what happens in other places where the Sleeping Prince's rampaging is tearing whole communities apart.

I dare say that I look forward to the next installment in this trilogy called The Scarecrow Queen.

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