Review – The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

by Chelley Toy · February 2, 2016

Sleeping Prince

I was so excited to be asked to be part of the blog tour for the second book in The Sin Eater’s Daughter trilogy, The Sleeping Prince. I adored The Sin Eater’s Daughter so so much and have been anticipating The Sleeping Prince for so long!

You can find my review of The Sin Eater’s Daughter here

For my stop on the blog tour I am going to share my thoughts on the book and post a review!

A huge thank you to Faye Rogers and Scholastic for having me on this wonderful tour and for sending me the book to read and review!

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 Errin, 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 splits the world as she knows it apart, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom…

Publisher – Scholastic UK

Published – 4th February 2016

Pages – 336 pages

Format – Paperback and E-book

Category – YA Fantasy

Source – I was sent a copy of this book by the wonderful people at Scholastic as part of the blog tour organised by Faye Rogers. This does not affect my review or my opinions in any way and am delighted to write an honest review. Thank you Scholastic for sending this to me to read and to Faye for organising!

** Please note Tales Of Yesterday Reviews are written as spoiler free as possible**

The Sleeping Prince has been high up on my most anticipated list since I read the first novel in the trilogy The Sin Eaters Daughter. I couldn’t wait to jump back into Mel’s world and see what Melinda Salisbury had in store for me next! I have to say I was blown away!

And this time it has an awesome map showing all the Kingdoms! I love a good map!

The Sleeping Prince starts where The Sin Eater’s Daughter left off thereabouts, but this time from the perspective of Errin who although we had not met prior to The Sleeping Prince we had heard of her through Leif’s stories in The Sin Eater’s Daughter as Errin is Liefs sister.

With the Kingdoms at war following The Sleeping Prince being awoken we are thrown straight into Kingdoms in turmoil. With an unforgettable prologue that crushed my soul we are thrown straight into the action and the feeling of fear is instantly felt.

We follow Errin through the highs and lows. Looking after her sick mother, missing her brother Leif and her dead Father, trying to make ends meet and brewing potions for the mysterious Silas. With the threat of being evacuated from her home and with the approach of The Sleeping Prince threatening to take over all of the Kingdoms Errin is forced on a journey that she ordinarily would not take.

I loved how certain aspects of Errin’s memories were her perspective of what we already knew from Leif in the previous book and it gave me the warm fuzzy feelings inside with these gentle nods to the character I had grown to love from The Sin Eater’s Daughter. That being said Errin stands out on her own and is an instantly likeable character with a caring, loving nature who grows throughout the book.

I fell completely in love with the mysterious Silas….a hooded mysterious man who keeps his mystery throughout the book. That’s kinda sexy right?

A lot of my favourite scenes involved the growing relationship between Errin and Silas before her journey begins.

I also loved various cross over points and nods to The Sin Eater’s Daughter which created some rather sweet moments which touched my heart. And you also find out the answer to the question that has haunted us for a whole year….who was behind the knocking on the door!

Yet again Melinda Salisbury writes such well crafted characters and gives us the fear factor of The Sleeping Prince. Imagine if you had been woken up after a 100 years sleep! You would be grumpy right? Well so was The Sleeping Prince! With his army of Gollum’s doing his dirty work with the aid of The Silver Knight he reigns havoc in the scenes where he is present, but also his presence is felt throughout the book without him being in each scene. The feeling that The Sleeping Prince is coming is truly terrifying and really makes you fearful for everyone in the Kingdoms that you love.

The pace of the book really makes the story flow page after page.

I really think Melinda’s writing in this book has grown so much in strength. It’s completely stunning and breath-taking. The imagery that is created and the feelings she makes you feel through her characters are truly amazing. Each chapter leaves you craving more and makes you wonder how on earth Melinda is going to wrap everything up in just one more book!

Also I have a sneaky feeling I may have worked out the title for the next book…..but I may be really wrong!

And last but not least all I’m going to say is…..That. Last. Line!

*cries about waiting another year for the next book and my return to Mel’s world*

On another note a huge shout out to Jamie Gregory for such stunning covers for The Sin Eater’s Daughters trilogy. They are a thing of absolute beauty!

The Sleeping Prince is a phenomenal read which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy, fantastic characters and a brilliant twisting plot. The story feels true of ancient Camelot times with hints of fairy tales and far away lands.

This could be read as a companion novel, but I highly recommend reading The Sin Eater’s Daughter first to get the full experience and impact of the all the storylines and to let Melinda destroy your very soul!

I award this book 5 out of 5 Tales Of Yesterday Books!

You can buy The Sleeping Prince here

Or why not add it to Goodreads here

Check out my review of the first book in the trilogy, The Sin Eater’s Daughter here

Or find out what about an evening with Melinda Salisbury here

Or find out what we got up to at The Sleeping Prince book launch in Birmingham here

About Melinda Salisbury

Melinda Salisbury Latest Headshot

When not working on her next novel, Melinda Salisbury is busy reading and travelling, both of which are now more addictions than hobbies.

To find out more about Melinda check out here website – www.melindasalisbury.com

Or why not follow her on twitter – @ahintofmystery

Blog Tour

Catch up of follow the rest of this wonderful blog tour by checking out the stops below

Monday 1^st February – Music, Books and Tea

Tuesday 2^nd February – Tales of Yesterday

Wednesday 3^rd February – The Bibliophile Chronicles

Thursday 4^th February – Jess Hearts Books & Uncorked Thoughts

Friday 5^th February – Maia and a Little Moore

Saturday 6^th February – Bookish Outsiders

Sunday 7^th February – The Book Moo

Monday 8^th February – Mia in Narnia

Tuesday 9^th February – So Many Books, So Little Time

Wednesday 10^th February – Emma’s Bookery

Thursday 11^th February – The Books Bandit

Friday 12^th February – Big Book Little Book

Saturday 13^th February – The Reading Fangirl

Sunday 14^th February – Literary-ly Obsessed

You can find my review of The Sin Eaters Daughter here

Or find out about An Evening With Melinda Salisbury here

Have you read The Sleeping Prince or The Sin Eater’s Daughter? What did you think? Has this review made you want to go grab a copy? I would love to here from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this review or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy!

Happy Reading

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