Book: The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

Published May 2016 by Scholastic Press|336 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: The Sin Eater’s Daughter #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

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 randomly picked this one up from the library, having remembered that I read (and liked) the first one.  I wish I had re-read the first one, because I didn’t know these characters, and I couldn’t figure out why.  It took awhile before I realized it focused on different characters.  We do see the characters from the first book, but not in a way I expected, and I remember wondering how they got to the point we saw them in this book.  Re-reading the first book probably would have helped a lot.

I was a lot more bored reading this book, and I’m honestly not sure why I kept reading.  Probably to see what happened.  I did like the world, though, since we get to see a different part of it in this book.  I liked the use of magic, and how it has consequences.  I feel like that doesn’t come up a lot in fantasy- magic having consequences.  It would have been easy to go with the no consequences route, but other than the world building, I don’t remember much of anything about this book.

Part of me wonders if I would have liked the book more if I had re-read the first book.  I doubt I’ll re-read the first one anytime soon, but if I do, maybe I’ll give this one another try.  And while this book wasn’t memorable (and also a little bit boring), I do want to read the next book to see how things go.

2 stars.  It was okay, and while I didn’t love it, I do want to read the next book to see what happens.  I wish I had more to say about The Sleeping Prince, but I don’t.