Book Review: The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

*** This is the second book in a series. If you have not read The Sin Eater's Daughter, be careful of spoilers. Read that first, it's fantastic. [MY REVIEW] ***

Title: The Sleeping Prince Series: The Sin Eater's Daughter #2 Written by: Melinda Salisbury Published: May 31, 2016 by Scholastic (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: 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.

I absolutely loved The Sin Eater's Daughter when I read it last winter so I was incredibly excited to read the sequel, The Sleeping Prince. And I was not at all disappointed with this book. It was a fantastic sequel and a brilliant escalation of the plot and world.

For the most part, this book feels like a companion novel. It takes what happened in the first book and the basics of the world and the setting, then builds on that to create something completely different and totally engaging. It takes the readers to a new part of the world and introduces them to new characters. It was definitely interesting to explore Tregallin and learn about the places that were only referenced in the first book. It had ties to The Sin Eater's Daughter but it was something different and even more original. But don't worry, if you are curious about what happened to some of the characters in the first book fear not, you do find out.

But the characters from the first book are not the focus here. Like all good companion series, it introduces the new characters and then pulls them into the story of the originals. I have to say, I was originally a little bummed when I found out that the book wasn't about Twylla, Leif, and Merek but those feelings changed very quickly into the book. On the whole, this is Errin's story and that is perfectly fine. Errin is a very different character from Twylla. She has had a very difficult life and when we first meet her she is doing her best to take care of herself and her mother. She's tough, resourceful, and intelligent. It was easy to get behind Errin and her struggle. The other great character is the mysterious Silas. I loved learning about him and his history throughout the book and I thought I knew who he was and I was totally wrong.

I was also really impressed with the amount of action and adventure in this book. I reread The Sin Eater's Daughter to prepare and I honestly forgot how much exposition and set up there was in that book. In this one however it was totally different. If you thought that The Sin Eater's Daughter was slower in terms of pacing then you will love the pacing of this one. It's much mote exciting along the way with a lot of narrow escapes, big reveals, and some great action towards the end. The stakes are much higher here too. The way that the first book ended set up a lot of what happens in this book so now we can just continue with that excitement so it had more of a traditional fantasy feel to it. The book slowly builds to a fantastic conclusion that had me absolutely reeling and in desperate need of the final book.

But it also had everything that I loved about the first book. So much of that had to do with the world-building of this series and how much it incorporated of mystery, fantasy, and mythology. I loved the way the author created her own mythology in The Sin Eater's Daughter and incorporated that into the plot development and world of the book. This book did that again. Of course we know about the Sleeping Prince, I mean that is the title of this book, but it was more than that. The stories and religion of this world have a big way of affecting things and they lead to some huge reveals in this book. The last 50 pages had me totally shocked more than once. The more of this series I read, the more I become a fan of it.

On the whole, this second installment was a fantastic read in general and a great way to escalate the series and the world. It has fantastic character, a lot of action and adventure, and an engaging world full of mystery and mythology.

I give The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury 9.5 out of 10 

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: BUY! If you liked the first book you will not be disappointed by this one and if you are a fan of YA Fantasies, this is a series to check out.

Have you read The Sleeping Prince? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!