eBook Review - The Heart Collector

As you guys know, I blitz the whole Sin Eater's Daughter trilogy the early part of this year (Sin Eater's Daughter in January, Sleeping Prince in February and The Scarecrow Queen in March). And I really liked this series, with Scarecrow Queen being my favourite. And I remember chatting to Melinda at one point, going "You should write a small collection of short stories set in this world."

This must have been in the works because, a few months later, a small ebook collection of short stories set in this world was published!

The Heart Collector is a collection of three short stories set in the Sin Eater's Daughter world. We have two that have been released on the Waterstones's website for a limited amount of time - The King of Rats and The Heart Collector - and a third being published for the first time in this collection - Mully No-Hands.

All are prequel stories and you don't need to have read these to enjoy the trilogy. I want to make this clear before I go any further, explain what each story is.

The King of Rats is the story of when rats plague the city of Tallith and what triggers events that will reshape the world in centuries to come. The Heart Collector is a story of the Bringer who must wake and bring a girl to the Sleeping Prince for, one day, one girl will wake him from his slumber... Mully No-Hands is a fairy tale of a boy who has a beautiful mother and a rich father, who is destined to live a fairy-tale like life. But not all fairy tales end happily ever after...

Now, I have already read King of Rats (write-up for that is here) so I just jumped into The Heart Collector and Mully No-Hands. But out of the three stories, I enjoyed The Heart Collector the most. This story, I wished, was written as a standalone novella, almost in the same vein as The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer. I feel that this would stand up on its own, but add extra insight into the Sin Eater's Daughter story as this follows a different character.

This collection is very much for fans of the series and it adds an extra layer to the world.

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! 

Book Review - The Sleeping Prince

I am powering through this series, aren't I? By the time you'll be reading this, I should be a good chuck of the way into the third and final book in the trilogy, The Scarecrow Queen.

But that's not the book we're talking about today.

The Sleeping Prince is the second book in the series and we follow, Errin, sister to a character we met in Sin Eater's Daughter. Errin lives with her mother who is suffering a misery illness. When the village has to be evacuated due to an fairy tale comes to life and begins war in the neighbouring country. But when events take a dark turn, Errin has to fled. But with her father dead, the mother ill and her brother missing, the only person she can turn to is Silas, who's face she has never seen...

But can she trust him?

This is an interestingly odd book. Not in a bad way, but this is a mix of being a first book in a series and the second. Bear with me while I explain why.

This is the second book in the trilogy. There is information and details from Sin Eater's Daughter is reference so reading the first book is important. This is the same with characters. This is a second book in the series and should be read as the second (I did try last year to read this without reading Sin Eater's Daughter and I struggled).

BUT... reading The Sleeping Prince does have elements of first book in a series. We have new characters, new situations and elements that feel very book one of a series. Plus, with this book timeline that overlap ever-so-slightly with Sin Eater's Daughter, you could read them side-by-side and you would be alright, in theory.

Although, I would say that if you are going to read this trilogy, read Sin Eater's Daughter first then Sleeping Prince.

This book I would say is split into two. Part one and part two. Part one is setting everything up. Character development, information dropping, setting things up. While the writing is dark and seductive, this is very slow. It is a bit of a struggle at times to push forward and I think, because of this, it took me longer to read. I don't mind reading slower pace - because this is a new character and we have to get to know them and their situation - and once I got to know Errin, I liked her and her attitude, but there were moments in part one I wished the book would pick up pace.

Part two is when the pace picked up and I whizzed through. This is the strongest part of the story because you go "This is why Melinda did this. This makes sense now. There's a plan!". Plus, like I said, I like pacer chapters. I like it when characters feel like they are doing something - and with Errin, it felt like she was more proactive in part two than in part one (but once you read part one, you understand why).

And because of part two and how it ended, I am excited/worried over Scarecrow Queen. Melinda has put her characters and story in position and now we're going to have to wait and see how she's going to wrap this up...

While I like Sin Eater's Daughter more, once it found it's footing, The Sleeping Prince is a worth sequel. Now, am excited/terrified over how Scarecrow Queen is going to end...

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 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!

Novella Review - The King Of Rats

After finishing The Sin Eater's Daughter last Friday, I wanted to jump straight into The Sleeping Prince. But as I'm STILL rereading Philip Pullman's Northern Lights as part of my #re3 Challenge, I decided to focus on that before I return to the Sin Eater world. And, against some people's tweets, I decide to read one of the short stories Melinda wrote for the Waterstones's blog, but I was given by the publisher in a small booklet form, The King of Rats. Now, according to tweets, I should have saved this for after Sleeping Prince... oh well! Too late now!

Everyone in the Sin Eater's Daughter series knows the Sleeping Prince, but the no one really knows why he's sleeping and when/if he will awake. But centuries ago, the kingdom of Tallith was a utopia, filled with proud and privileged people. One of them was Prince Aurek and his twin sister, Aurelia. Both who will lead Tallith into a bright future.

But then the rats came. Desperate, the King summons a rat catcher to get rid of rats. But the rat catcher didn't come along. He came with his son and his beautiful daughter. Upon seeing her, Aurek decides to have her. This decision will set off a chain of consequences that will last for centuries to come...

The writing in this short story is just as dark and seductive as Sin Eater's Daughter. And it's good to see the bases of the Sleeping Prince fairytale. I loved the twisting of the Pied Piper tale and, from what I've heard, we do hear little snippets about the twins and this fairytale within Sin Eater's Daughter and Sleeping Prince.

What's also good is that this is a free story and it's not essential reading. If you only read the novels, that's fine. But if you read this and the other short story (I believe it's called Heart Collector and I think it was on the Waterstones's blog for a limited amount of time) , it gives up an extra layer to the darkly seductive world that Melinda has created.

Fans will devour this within half an hour. I can't wait to find time to start Sleeping Prince in the next few weeks...

Book Review - The Sin Eater's Daughter

If you read my write-up about the Scholastic Blogger Feast 2017 post (if you haven't, you should click here and read), you are well aware that I kinda got myself into a bit of bother with Melinda Salisbury. At the time, I haven't read Sin Eater's Daughter or its sequel The Sleeping Prince yet. I had several bloggers telling me off and forcing copies of both books into my hands when I was making myself a copy of tea during one of the intervals. As we were talking about these books, I mentioned that I hadn't read these yet... AND MELINDA SAINSBURY WAS STANDING NEXT TO ME AND HEARD EVERYTHING!!! [insert mental screaming here] "I'll read them!" I promised her and everyone close by. "I'll start Sin Eater's Daughter before the end of this month [January] and I'll binge so am up to speed for Scarecrow Queen."

I started reading Sin Eater's Daughter the following day. And I finished it last Friday. So, am keeping to my promise to get myself up to speed before the third and final book in the series, The Scarecrow Queen, comes out in March.

In the first book in a high fantasy trilogy, we meet Twylla. A girl who is blessed. She is the Gods choice - the Daunen Embodied. She lives in the palace and is betrothed to married a prince and rule the kingdom by his side. But being so blessed has a price. To prove that she is the Daunen Embodied, she must drink poison every month and survive. And she does. But because of this, her skin is poison. One touch of her poison-infused skin and the person who has angered the Queen will die.

Only the new guard, Lief, sees Twylla beyond the role of Daunen Embodied. He sees the girl that she is. And in a court as dangerous as the queen's, that might not be for the best. In the queen's court, some truths should never be told...

I always stayed away from this book. The hype around this scared me and puts me off. What if I didn't like it?

I'm going to split this book into two part. The first 200 pages and the last 133 pages.

The first 200 pages I loved. I got sucked into this world-building and the gorgeously dark writing. There's something seductive about the writing, a quality that reminded me of Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series and Trudi Canavan's Age of the Five trilogy (I listened to the abridged audiobooks YEARS ago. Before I started the blog, actually, and one day, I will go and read the trilogy...). For the first two hundred pages, this sets everything up in a fashion that I don't see that often in fantasy books but when I do, I can't help but turn the pages at speed. This book's writing doesn't feel like a debut. It feels stronger. I liked the characters, the ideas put forward, the culture, the fairytales, the cruelty hinted out (oh, the Queen is a fascinating cruel character and I am quite intrigued to know more about her and why she behaved and think the way she did...), these were good within first 200 pages.

But, something happens around the 200 page mark which made the story take a turn. I enjoyed the story up to this point, but the love triangle (which is hinted at, FYI) goes up a gear. With me, I like love triangles where I root for both sides. But it felt very heavy handed, and because of this, I was awaiting the fallout. I love a good fallout and when it happened, I enjoyed it.

Some of you guys have said that this does have a feel of a standard fantasy series set-up book, and there were times I agree with you. But I feel that this book's writing and world building is the strongest element here. These and some of the twists Melinda pulled. And now things have been set up, I am very intrigued to see where The Sleeping Prince and The Scarecrow Queen goes... And I can't wait to find out!

Building the World of the Sin Eater

I am thrilled to welcome Melinda Salisbury onto the blog today! Melinda is the author of the books The Sin Eater's Daughter and her most recent novel, The Sleeping Prince, came out a few weeks ago.  After chatting to the lovely Faye asked if I wanted to be involved in a tour to celebrate The Sleeping Prince, I desperately wanted to. But I felt it would be unfair to without reading The Sin Eater's Daughter. But Faye and Melinda chatted and said I could have a tiny post before asking if there was anything I was curious over and wanted to know more about. I love world-building and how author can create worlds. Hence, this wonderful post. 

My thanks goes to Melinda (@AHintofMystery on Twitter) for having time to write this and to Faye (@FayeRogersUK) for asking if I wanted to do something to celebrate! Now, am going to hand it over to Melinda and we can talk world-building! 

“Lormere is fertile, but the altitude means a lot of the land is best used for livestock. We can grow our own potatoes, turnips, parsnips, rye and beans, but grain doesn’t thrive here. We have to import it from the north of Tregellan, where they have abundant farmland next to the river that separates Tregellan from Tallith. All of the fish and seafood for our table comes from Tregellan too, fished from the river or brought upstream by the fishermen who brave the Tallithi Sea.”

For me, the only way to build a world is from the ground up, quite literally. I start by thinking broadly about the outside setting as I imagine it; are there rivers, mountains, forests, etc. Once I have that picture in my mind of how the landscape looks, I start to get technical. 

This means thinking about the soil, which determines the plants and trees that grow there, and therefore the wildlife that feeds from them. And that affects the daily lives of the people who live there. The kind of produce the people can grow and farm decides what they eat, what they wear, even what they do for a living. You have to know what the seasons are like, what the climate is like, because that influences the kinds of clothes people need to wear, and the kinds of shelters they live in. 

Once you have all of the physical attributes of your world, you should explore the spiritual ones; what do the majority people of believe in, if anything? Have they always believed in it? This has a huge impact on how a country operates. Countries in our world that don’t separate faith and state are often (though not always) considered fundamentalist by the west. Where the governance is secular, the west sees it as more progressive, and usually democratic (state atheist – as opposed to state secularist - countries are often seen as fundamentalist and repressive too). 

Though a subjective perspective, this is a great starting point for figuring out the internal politics and economics of a place; even as far as its attitudes towards education, healthcare, science and citizens’ rights. 

For example, my first novel, The Sin Eater’s Daughter, exists in a place called Lormere, a country I completely made up, by a) cherry-picking bits from history and smashing them together, and b) finally putting my A* in GCSE Geography to good use (see, Mr Dale. I wasn’t just messing about with Rachael Cox at the back. I was learning too). 

In real terms Lormere is a very small country, around the size of Luxembourg. If it were on our planet it would be roughly where Sweden is, high above sea level, in a mountainous region. Winters (though we don’t see them in Sin Eater) are very harsh, summers comparatively mild and warm. The climate and landscape doesn’t lend itself too well to most types of arable farming, and limited pastoral; game, goats and sheep thrive, but cows and pigs don’t. 

Lormere, a country that doesn’t separate church from state, (and also practices the Cult of Personality) is a relatively poor country, with little import and export potential due to a lack of developing industries, and also opportunities. Financially it’s quite dependant on the tithes it receives from Tregellan as part of the peace treaty between them, as well as the taxes earned from citizens.

Tregellan, on the other hand, has thriving industry exporting grain, meat, fish and luxury goods to Lormere. It is a self-sufficient country. Because Tregellan isn’t as high above sea-level as Lormere, it has more arable farmland and pasture for livestock, and also has accessible coastline for fishing. The climate is close to our maritime climate, making it warmer and wetter than Lormere, though still cold in winter. Possibly most importantly, it’s also a democratic country, governed by an elected council, who took over after the dethroning (and executing) of the former monarchy. Power in Tregellan is handled at local level, with each town having a Justice who carries out district judgement in accordance with countrywide law, but with the ability to use their discretion and local knowledge. In just one hundred years it’s gone from being a country very like Lormere, to being progressive, liberal and very concerned with learning and development. In Lormere the Gods’ word is all, in Tregellan the religious are looked upon with scorn, even pity, by most citizens.

It might seem like an awful lot to have to figure out, especially when, as in The Sin Eater’s Daughter, you see very little of the external world, but in terms of writing The Sleeping Prince, and book three, it’s been invaluable to know the terrain of the world I’m working in. The contrasts and differences between the two countries are very important in terms of how they both respond to the threat of the Sleeping Prince, and the ultimate outcome of the trilogy. 

But that’s very much another story, for another time.