The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

December 20, 2017     erinthebooknut     Book review

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda SalisburyThe Sleeping Prince (The Sin Eater’s Daughter, #2) by Melinda Salisbury
Published by Scholastic Press on May 31st 2016
Pages: 336
Goodreads

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.

4 Nuts

When I first began to read this book I thought to myself, “oh no, second book syndrome”. New unfamiliar characters, gritty places, and an almost completely different feel to the first book. It’s almost like reading an entirely different first book to the series. It’s a strange feeling. But I push through and I’m shocked to find that it’s not only not second book syndrome, but it might actually be as good as the first.

For one thing, this book completely dispenses with the love triangle concept of the first. In fact it dispenses with most of the characters from the first for more than half of the book. I think I like Errin better than Twylla, and not because we share a name. She’s a very flawed but strong character, determined and intelligent but not always completely knowledgable. I like her flaws as much as her strengths, even her slightly more idiotic decisions are rooted in good intentions.

Silas is one strange character. He seems to mostly be an exposition tool at times. The majority of his function is storytime and swooning, which in most cases would probably tick me off. Sometimes I love him, other times I can’t stand him, but by the end its firmly in the love category. His family on the other hand… not so much.

Mostly though this book makes me incredibly excited for the next one. The major flaw of this book is a flaw of main such novels: all the traveling. I’m hoping book 3 will dispense with that a little bit and get right down to the nitty gritty of defeating the big bad (who I’m now much more sympathetic to thanks to THE HEART COLLECTOR AND OTHER STORIES.)

Also is it just me or is there a tiny reference to Doctor Who in here? When a good man goes to war? Maybe that’s just in the audiobook’s read of the line.

So now let’s talk about the audiobook. The narrator was pretty good, though it definitely takes a bit of getting used to. She’s got what sounds like a bit of an Irish lilt to her voice. It’s in the way she pronounces her Ts and a few other things. Not as thick as it could be, but noticeable. I like it. The sound of her voice is relaxing.

What did you think about The Sleeping Prince? Share your thoughts in the comments.

From my shelf to yours,

Erin

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