Book Review: Floored; Various.

I had a list of ten books I was highly anticipating getting early, and this was one of them. And lucky me, my dream came true! Not only that, but I've also been selected to be part of the Blog Tour prior to it's release. So you can imagine I went into this book very excited!

SOURCE: Publisher Sent ARC
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Floored
AUTHOR: Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson & Eleanor Wood
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Kids UK
PAGES: 320
GENRE: Young Adult, Contemporary

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
When they got in the lift, they were strangers (though didn't that guy used to be on TV?): Sasha, who is desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he's the best-looking guy in the lift and is eyeing up Velvet, who knows what that look means when you hear her name and it doesn't match the way she looks, or the way she talks; Dawson, who was on TV, but isn't as good-looking as he was a few years ago and is desperately hoping no one recognises him; Kaitlyn, who's losing her sight but won't admit it, and who used to have a poster of Dawson on her bedroom wall, and Joe, who shouldn't be here at all, but who wants to be here the most.

And one more person, who will bring them together again on the same day every year.

What I Liked:

• These authors are all seriously talented. It's hard to put together a cohesive book with seven POVs, and I imagine it's actually even harder to have everyone agree on things and to do so cohesively. After all, the phrase 'too many cooks spoil the broth' exists for a reason. That being said, they did a wonderful job!
• I really liked the characters and their development, particularly personality-wise. Some characters went through a major epiphany (I'm looking at you Hugo) while others were much more subtle about it. But they definitely all changed and it was fun to read.

What I Disliked:

• Even though I felt that the characters developed well, the context and characters that surrounded their lives were a little bit vague. Each meeting is a year apart and a lot happens in a year, but I still came out of this story feeling that I didn't know them all that well. It was very much a novel of fleeting moments.

Overall Conclusion:

Despite the lack of connection to everyone (aside from Hugo, who was an awful human being but made me laugh and root for him like nothing else) I did enjoy this book a lot. They all had great personalities and watching them interact and 'take sides' in certain situations was a lot of fun. I just wish we could have got to know their lives outside of the meetings a little better and had a little more in the way of story. The narrator did a great job of bringing themes and threads together and played a huge part in making this work.

Book Review: The Sleeping Prince; Melinda Salisbury.

I've been dreading reading this book a bit, I must admit, because I spent a long time feeling so let down by book one! The gorgeous cover and huge hype gave me such hope, and it fell short of most of my expectations. That being said, it wasn't the worst book I'd ever read, and I was intrigued enough by the world-building that I wanted to continue with the series, because it had potential. This book did impress me more than book one, it's true, but there were a few issues with it still.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: The Sleeping Prince
AUTHOR: Melinda Salisbury
SERIES: The Sin Eater's Daughter (#2)
PUBLISHER: Scholastic Fiction
PAGES: 336
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

RATING: 3.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
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.

What I Liked:

• Errin is a MUCH better MC than Twylla ever was for a whole host of reasons. All Twylla ever did in book one was mope and sing and wander the palace like a lost puppy, whining about her horrible life. Errin actually does something about it! She was feisty and stubborn, vulnerable but kickass and I loved her so much! I never once felt bored reading from her viewpoint and though there wasn't as much questing as I'd hoped, at least she actually left the village in her book!
• Let's talk about the romantic side of things, another aspect of book one that I didn't like. I really didn't enjoy reading Twylla and Lief together because I though she was a bit of a wet blanket and I hated Lief. Such an arrogant, horrible guy, whose ultimate betrayal was just awful and I don't understand why people are hoping Twylla will forgive him. Silas, Errin's love interest, was a total sweetheart and I adored him. Much more like the book boyfriends I'm used to adoring and I liked way their relationship built and panned out over the course of the book. I care about his and Errin's future a lot more.
• Salisbury really has done a great job with the world-building, something I enjoyed about book one too. The whole thing is very detailed and nicely mapped out - I like the folklore and fairy tales behind it all, the historical context and the political complexities within the kingdom. I've always been impressed by this lady's writing style and the way that she creates such vivid settings for her story, and this was definitely developed upon in this book.

What I Disliked:

• So, as I mentioned, there were elements of this book I still didn't enjoy. The biggest one was how Salisbury handled Twylla and Lief. Starting with Twylla, she's in the book and her characterisation felt virtually untouched. She was still boring and a bit prudish, and despite her strong will I didn't understand why she was being treated as if she were so special. Lief...ugh. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that I hated him even more strongly coming out of this book. Flashbacks to his childhood reaffirmed my decision rather than making me question it.
• Salisbury builds a great Fantasy world, it's true, but I'm afraid areas of this book contained very extreme cases of info-dumping and they were a bit of a battle to get through. Especially when Errin went underground towards the end. I really wanted more action at that point and I felt like I didn't understand half of what was being talked about anyway! It just didn't aid me in feeling immersed in the world in the same way that other Fantasy series I've read have.

Overall Conclusion:

This book produced so many mixed reactions in me. On the one hand, I really felt the improvement from book one but there were still things about this book that left me feeling disappointed. It's a shame because this series has gorgeous covers and gets so much hype, I wish I could see the attraction in the same way. I'm definitely invested enough to want to know what happens though, and I have to applaud Salisbury for not letting her book suffer from 'book two syndrome' (which is a real thing). I hope 'The Scarecrow Queen' is a good finale for this series because if it ends strongly, I'll feel like the trawl has been worthwhile!

Book Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter; Melinda Salisbury.

I'm pretty excited about the fact that I got through this book so quickly! It took me a little while to decide exactly how to rate it because as I progressed, I became more and more unsure of how I felt about it.

SOURCE: Gift
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: The Sin Eater's Daughter
AUTHOR: Melinda Salisbury
SERIES: The Sin Eater's Daughter (#1)
PUBLISHER: Scholastic Press
PAGES: 336
GENRE: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance

RATING: 2.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it's price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla's fatal touch.

Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla's chilling role to the girls she truly is.

Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen's, some truths should not be told...


What I Liked:

• One of the elements of this book that I really enjoyed was Salisbury's mastery of plot progression. So many twists and turns! A few of them I did predict, or at least have a sneaking suspicion about, but some of them were a complete shock to me and very nicely dropped into the story. What Salisbury really did a great job of was making sure that things that seemed minor actually turned out to be worth remembering in the long run.
• Salisbury also did a really great job with the world-building. I loved the religion that underpinned the Kingdom's actions and the way in which the tyrannical Queen chose to rule. The sin-eating was pretty interesting, and Twylla's role in court I really liked. If there had been more pages in the book, perhaps a little more of a look into the surrounding Kingdoms that put more stock in logic and reason would have been cool!

What I Disliked:

• I'm afraid to say that Twylla was not a hugely inspiring main character, and her inability to leave the castle walls also made for a fairly dull viewpoint. She whined a lot. She moped a lot. She delivered hundreds of inner monologues on how torn she was, how unfair her life was, how she probably deserved it because she was such a terrible person and in the end it became a little repetitive. I would have liked to see a heroine with a bit more personality and the desire to stand up for herself every once in a while.
• The ending really made me angry. The huge twist with Lief I sort of saw coming (though not completely) and it really made me angry. What made me angrier was her response to it and the epilogue in which, it would seem, she is willing to forgive and forget. I'm not going to spoil anything here but I'm not the biggest fan of love triangles and though Salisbury handled the trope pretty well, the conclusion left me feeling disappointed in Twylla's already dubious decision making skills.
• This issue is minor really, but I felt there were a few character and plot inconsistencies along the way in this book, especially and at times I felt like Salisbury didn't have a complete idea on how she wanted her characters to come across. Merek is the biggest example of this. Everything he did, in my eyes, seemed fairly nice and affectionate but Twylla seemed to only see the opposite most of the time. Was he supposed to be a likeable character? Was Lief? Because most of the time he kind of got on my nerves!

Overall Conclusion:

Perhaps I'm being a little harsh and overly analytical with this book. After all there were some really great features that I would love to see Salisbury bring to the next book (that's right, I would like to actually read the next book). Salisbury's brilliant use of cliffhangers has really won me over and I'm intrigued to see more of the world she's started to build. However I can't ignore the obvious flaws with this book: lack of characters to really root for, an annoying ending and inconsistencies. I hope that Salisbury will fix this in the next book, which I hear is from a different perspective that isn't Twylla. Fingers crossed!