Book Review - The Scarecrow Queen

I DID IT!!! I READ THE ENTIRE TRILOGY IN A SPACE OF THREE MONTHS!!! Bit late to the party but I DONE IT!!! (and to that fan who tweeted Melinda that she read the whole trilogy is less than 16 days, shame of you. Melinda kept giving me tweets to say "er... LOOK!")

In this, the third and final book in the trilogy, the Sleeping Prince has taken control of Lormere and with Twylla in hiding and Errin in his clutches, time is running out to them and their band of rebels to stop him taking full control.

But Aurek will stop at nothing to keep the throne and to keep it forever.

Anymore than that and I might spoil a lot of details within the previous two books in the trilogy, The Sin Eater's Daughter and The Sleeping Prince. But it's gonna hit the fan, so brace yourselves...

This is the strongest and my favourite book in the trilogy. Things are put into place and the pay-off worked excellently, characters have grown from when we first met them and we have a climax which left me breathless.

This is how a final book in a trilogy in a dark fantasy trilogy should be: dramatic, badass, tender, creepy as heck (I couldn't stop thinking about the prologue for days after I read it, and those interlude chapters were just ), breath-taking as you want to sped through to the end yet want to savour the writing at the same time. It's been so long since I read a faultless finale, and this ticked every box!

Shame it's taken me so long to discover this trilogy (blame the hype fear and the wrath of nearly EVERY BLOGGER/VLOGGER WHO SCREAMED AT ME TO READ THIS TRILOGY [and Melinda who threatened to send a Dementor at me - I swear she's Voldermort's secret daughter!]) but Mel has a new fan and I await her next book, Floored (which she is co-writing with Sara Barnard, Holy Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood) and her just-announced trilogy with baited breath!

EDIT: Just when you thought I can't mess up the author's name further (have you guys not see me say Mel's surname wrong. I called her a supermarket chain!!!), I then type up her first name wrong! AND IT'S THE AUTHOR WHO TELLS ME ABOUT IT!

@PewterWolf13 @scholasticuk MELANIE?! pic.twitter.com/BYnOni7vEX

— Melinda Salisbury (@MESalisbury) March 21, 2017

MEL, I AM SO SORRY!!! Thanks for pointing it out to me and being very kind and laughing at it (better than my reaction which involved swear words and me blaming auto-correct and a podcast I have recently discovered called My Dad Wrote A Porno [don't ask. Will blog about this in future once all catch up - not sure if that's a good thing or not]). SORRY! 

The Scarecrow Queen Launch Party

Last Wednesday (because I have been weirdly busy - thanks work, reading and Breath of the Wild!), I was very kindly invited to the launch party of Melinda Salisbury's third and final book in the Sin Eater's Daughter trilogy, The Scarecrow Queen.

Now, as you know, I have been trying to blitz this trilogy and, since been invited, I have been trying to finish Scarecrow Queen before I got to the party. And I failed. I got a good chuck in but, alas, not completed it.

So, after doing a half day at work, rushed home, changed and on the train to London I went, speed reading (or trying to. You can't rush this book, I found!) Scarecrow Queen. After getting there a bit early (for reasons am going to explain), I popped to Kings Cross to see Platform 9 and 3/4 and the shop (it was MAD!). And bought myself some pens - because that's what this Hufflepuff likes.

Then, off to where the launch party was being held - in a crypt. That's right, dear readers, a crypt. It wasn't Melinda's natural writing habitat (I checked) and we weren't going to get locked in and have to offer a blood sacrifice to get out and go home (though, I would have loved to see how work would have reacted if I phoned up and went "I'm going to be in today. Why, you ask? Well...". Plus, I could have finished Scarecrow Queen in peace!).

But, I had to get there a little bit early because Lorraine from Scholastic asked if I fancied asking Melinda some questions on their Facebook Live feed. I said yes, then panicked because I have no filter. So I had to be professional and control and not panic over the fact that, before I left for the event, I spend ages trying to figure out what to wear! I HAVE TO LOOK ME BUT PROFESSIONAL  BOOK BLOGGER/LOVER!

I haven't watched the video. I just can't. Not only because I'm not a fan of watching myself on film, but a little bit because I got Melinda's surname wrong. Of all the things that could go wrong, I didn't think me GETTING THEIR NAME WRONG TO THEIR FACE would be one. And after me panicking over getting the characters's names wrong (how many times I asked how to pronounce Twylla before the interview?). But Melinda has a great sense of humour (as you can see) so, hopefully, she didn't get that annoyed with me. Plus, if we play our cards right, we might be able to annoy Sainsbury's supermarket chain for some freebies (unlikely but you never know!). 

Oh, if you want to enter the contest I mention, go to Scholastic UK's Facebook page and like the video. And that's it! 

Anyway, after that whirlwind panic, the launch party started! The crypt was creepy and filled with people - family, friends, publishing people (some who needed wine after London Book Fair - apparently, it was manic!) and bloggers! There was (hang on, let me check my Twitter as have a bad memory and I did have two glasses of wine on an empty stomach!): George from @TheGeorgeLester, Kate from @Magic_Kitten, Darren from @ShinraAlpha, Bex from @MyShelfMyself, Jess from @bookendsending, @littlehux (Am positive we chatted very briefly, or am I misremembering), Grace from @_gracelatter & Stephen from @MyBookishLife. I spoke to David Owen (whose upcoming novel, The Fallen Children, is coming out soon) who is very cool and will be helping me out with Zelda if/when I get stuck/find time to play it. I saw (but was too scared to talk to) CJ Daughter (Night School series and Secret Fire duology) and Chris Russell (Songs About A Girl) and I discovered that Katharine Corr (co-author of the Witch's Kiss series), Lindsay Galvin (whose novel, The Breathing Sea, will be out next year) and L.D. Lapinski (not sure if I spoke to you. If I did, yeah! If not, sorry! NEXT TIME, HUNT ME DOWN AND SAY HI!!!). 

After small, very sweet speeches, we had tiny cup cakes and got copies signed. And this is what Melinda wrote in mine... 

This fits perfectly with what Melinda wrote in my copies of Sin Eater's Daughter and The Sleeping Prince. But, HA-HA! I FINISHED SCARECROW QUEEN YESTERDAY (my reactions to this will be coming soon!) 

And then, due to it being a work night and the train journey back, we left. And the crypt looked SUPER CREEPY at night! 

Anyway, I would like to thank Melinda Salisbury, Lorraine from Scholastic and everyone at Scholastic for inviting me. It was such a fun evening and can't wait to see what Melinda writes next! 

Scarecrow Queen Contest

Ok, this is a lazy post today as I'm not reading as much as I should be reading and have rediscovered gaming (weird, I know). But the lovely people at Scholastic wanted me to let you guys know that they are hosting a contest in a similar vine of the Vision Boards you've been seeing throughout the tour (if you want know what I mean by Vision Board, check out my stop in the tour that went up yesterday!) 

Now, before I show you what Scholastic sent me in the email, let me remind you this is Scholastic contest, not mine. But as I had a blast doing a vision board for Helewys, I thought you might wanna try and enter. I believe this is UK only but if you want to be sure, pop them an email and double check. 

Now, handing you over to Lorraine at Scholastic! 

The Scarecrow Queen vision board competition

Hello fellow bloggers and readers! It is time to get creative and win some prizes courtesy of Melinda Salisbury! Melinda would love for bloggers and readers to take part in creating a vision board of any character in The Sin Eater’s Daughter trilogy, as you have seen us do during the blog tour. Feel free to check out what we have created over the course of the week to inspire you!  

The competition will run for 2 weeks from today and closing date is Friday 24th March, at midnight.

A main prize will go to the most creative vision board (images, lettering, drawings all welcome!). The main winner will win a prize pack of all three novels in the trilogy  and *signed* The Sin Eater’s Daughter, The Sleeping Prince and The Scarecrow Queen, a pair of The Scarecrow Queen socks, the King of Rats short story, a set of badges and postcards, a golem, a necklace and a golem/alchemical text bookmark which Melinda picked up on a recent trip to Prague.

Two runners up will win a copy of The Scarecrow Queen, The Scarecrow Queen socks, and a set of postcards and badges.

You can send your entries to publicity@scholastic.co.uk

Good luck everyone!

Scarecrow Queen - Helewys's Stop

Today is my stop on the Scarecrow Queen tour! And as you know, each of us bloggers are doing vision boards to reflect a character. So does the lovely author Melinda Salisbury and we compare. This can go either really well or very badly wrong! 

And I have the terrifying stop to make a vision board for the Queen of Lormere, Helewys, who appears in the first book in the Sin Eater's Daughter trilogy, The Sin Eater's Daughter. 

Now, we were meant to pick six images each. But I am a total rule breaker and, without me even realising it, I chose 10! WHOOPSIE! 

Whereas Melinda, though a Slytherin, actually stuck to the rules. I didn't realise Slytherins could do that...!

Scarecrow Queen Contest

I have a contest for you guys! Because of the lovely Lorraine from Scholastic, I am very lucky to giveaway a copy of THE SCARECROW QUEEN, the third and final book in the Sin Eater's Daughter's trilogy by Melinda Salisbury.

Now, as you know, I am currently reading this series (I have, truth be told, only just started the second book in the series, The Sleeping Prince, and should be completely finished with the trilogy sometime in March!) so I don't want to go into too much depth about what will happen in Scarecrow Queen (spoilers!). But all I know is that the Sleeping Prince is tightening his grip on the land and the final battle is coming...

That doesn't sound like characters I love/am going to fall in love with are going to die AT ALL!!!

Anyway, if you are a lover of this series and want to win a copy of Scarecrow Queen, I have one copy to give away!

This is a UK only contest, I'm afraid (I'm sending this out so funds is a problem!). Like I say in every contest post, I am planning an International contest in the coming months. Just not sure when.

Anyway, back to this contest. All you have to do is fill in the form below!

This contest will be open till midday this coming Saturday (25th February 2017) and the winner will be picked at random via random.org. I will announce winner on my Twitter and will email the winner for their address so I can send them their goodies in a very shiny purple envelope!

To those of you entering, GOOD LUCK!!! May the Felix Felicis ever be in your favour!