WOW!! This book was one hell of a read and I loved every second. I absolutely devoured this in just a few hours; it’s definitely a book that is hard to put down. After speeding through the first two books in the trilogy I was super excited to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint! It was an epic conclusion to a glorious trilogy!

The Scarecrow Queen picks up exactly just after where we left off in The Sleeping Prince. Are we eased into the story line? No. We are thrown straight into the thick of things and I loved that! From beginning to end this book is packed full of action and we are rarely given time to breathe. I truly felt that I was on this adventure with the characters. I felt all of their emotions, whether it be fear, happiness, sadness, longing or the other five hundred emotions that Melinda Salisbury manages to weave into her writing. I was there with them every step of the way. What I didn’t know until I reached the end was that I had been holding my breath for so much of this book. It is incredibly fast-paced and certainly had me on the edge of my seat.

This book is told from the POV of both Twylla and Errin and I completely loved that. Twylla and Errin have quickly become two of my favourite fictional females so to get the story from both of their POVs was perfect for me. Errin is being held captive by Aurek and what he has done to her is truly disturbing. In fact it absolutely terrified me. Twylla is in the midst of a rising rebellion but what will it cost her and those around her?

I am all about the characters when it comes to my reading. I love a strong plot but if I don’t feel a connection to your characters, it’ll be a no from me. The characters in this trilogy are absolutely fantastic and Melinda Salisbury writes them wonderfully. They all go on such incredible journeys throughout this trilogy but I have to give a huge nod to Twylla’s character development. The Twylla we see in The Scarecrow Queen is not the Twylla we first met back in book one. She has been on such a huge journey throughout this trilogy and I love how Salisbury has written her.

I don’t want to put anything in that could potentially spoil this book for those who haven’t read it yet so I will wrap up by saying this: If you love fantasy books that have strong plots, are full of action with exceptionally well written characters, fantastic mythology and world building, then this trilogy is for you! I certainly cannot wait to read what Melinda Salisbury will write next. She has herself a fan for life!

3.5 stars

Scarecrow is a book that I very kindly received a copy of for review, I’m not sure if I ever would have come across it otherwise. It wasn’t as scary as I had hoped it would be but I did enjoy it. The cover is also gorgeous and super creepy!

Jack and his Dad are on the run, Jack doesn’t really know why but one morning his Dad puts him in the car, tells him to leave his phone behind and drives them to Scotland, to a remote village where they cannot be found. It doesn’t take long before Jack notices something strange about the old scarecrow in the field near their cottage and from there things take many twists and turns.

I’m going to split this review into what I really liked about the book and what I didn’t love so much.

I liked…

- The relationship between Jack and his Dad. It had its ups and downs but it felt like a real relationship between a teenage boy and his Dad. Also VERY nice to read a story where the parents have split but the child has stayed with their father.
- Rhona – I thought she was fab and although I can’t put my finger on it there was just something I liked about her.
- The story was interesting enough and the characters as a whole were great.
- Philbert – badass.

What was okay…

-The book doesn’t shy away from the fact that Jack has to take medication for some kind of illness but it doesn’t really say exactly what it is other than alluding to it being a mental illness. I’d have really liked this to be more specific.
- This book is NOT scary (maybe to younger readers it will be though). Once Jack peels back a few layers of Philbert he really isn’t at all the scary scarecrow I had hoped would terrify me.
- I thought there were some bits towards the end where the plot just seemed a bit much for the book. The reason they had to run away was quite complicated and towards the end it just took over the excitement of the plot to me.

Overall I liked this book and would recommend to younger readers. Jack is a fantastic MC and I really warmed to him.

A big thank you to the lovely Harriet at Anderson Press for my copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4.5 stars

I hate dolls. I have to start by saying this because this book is all about creepy little dolls and it really freaked me out. I’ve never been more grateful that I don’t have a load of dolls in my bedroom or I probably wouldn’t have slept since reading this book.

Frozen Charlotte is a book I had heard a lot of people raving about. It is not often that I dip into horror books but the idea of this one just wouldn’t leave me and it had been on my shelf for nearly a year so the Halloween Readathon seemed like the perfect time to read it. Needless to say I absolutely loved it and read the whole thing from cover to cover in one sitting (no, not just because I was too scared to move).

From the very first few pages this book creeped me out. I loved that the book didn’t shy away from modern day technologies and that when Sophie and Jay did an Ouija board it was through an app on Jay’s phone. Little did they know what they were about to unleash and in some very frightening first opening scenes I knew exactly what I was in for during this book, or at least I thought I did.

This book ticked a lot of the typical horror clichés: a mysterious death, a scary house, creepy little girl, weird brother, family secrets and DOLLS. There were a few scenes in the book where I did actually find myself lifting my feet from the floor so that I wouldn’t imagine a freezing cold hand reaching out to my ankle. The horror elements of this book are SO well written and genuinely very creepy. I didn’t realise until after reading the book and doing a Google search that Frozen Charlotte dolls are an actual real thing which definitely creeped me out more!

I don’t want to give too much away about the plot but I really loved all of the twists and turns along the way. Every time I thought I knew where the book was going it took another twist and left me stunned. There is a huge climax towards the end of this book that had my heart pounding and I thought the ending was really sweet too. Although that epilogue definitely sent a shiver down my spine!

Charlotte Says is the prequel novel to the fantastically creepy Frozen Charlotte. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and had very high hopes for this one, luckily the book managed to meet them!

Although not quite as scary as Frozen Charlotte, Charlotte Says still absolutely delivers on everything I was hoping for. There is plenty more action from the creepy little dolls, a spooky old school house, little girls who are almost as creepy as the dolls, death, murder and so much more.

The book flipped back and forth between the present (1910) and the past (18-6 months previous). I liked how this built some tension in the narrative as my brain frantically tried to make the connections between the past and the present. I also really liked how later on in the book I was able to make links to Frozen Charlotte and although this meant I kind of knew what was going to happen, it was still satisfying to read the conclusion.

There’s no doubt in my mind that these are two of the best YA horror novels I’ve read (granted I may not have read many). They are creepy and spine tingling without being too terrifying to read. I devoured Charlotte Says in just two sittings because I simply couldn’t put the book down. I know I’ll be looking out for more from Alex Bell in future!

Thanks to NetGalley, Stripes Publishing and Alex Bell for my advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Well this really disappointed me. I had this book on my shelf for over a year and when I decided to take part in the Halloween Readathon I thought it was the perfect time to dive in. There are so many fantastic authors involved in this anthology that I thought it was bound to be fantastic but it just fell flat for me.

Maybe my expectations were just too high. I don’t know. But what I found was that most of the stories in this anthology didn’t scare me in the slightest, some of them confused me but none of them made me dread turnings the lights out which is what I had been expecting.

That being said, there were one or two stand out stories in this anthology. I really enjoyed The Girl Without A Face by Marie Lu and Sleepless by Jay Kristoff. Both of these stories had me gripped until I got to the end. My absolute favourite story was In the Forest Dark and Deep by Carrie Ryan. This was the only story I gave 5*’s too and that’s because even now it still scares me. It is a very creepy, murderous take on the classic Alice in Wonderland and I’ll certainly never look at tea parties in the same way again.

Here is a breakdown of all my ratings:

The Birds of Azalea Street by Nova Ren Suma – ★★
In the Forest Dark and Deep by Carrie Ryan – ★★★★★
Emmeline by Cat Winters – ★
Verse Chorus Verse by Leigh Bardugo – ★★
Hide-and-Seek by Megan Shepherd – ★★★
The Dark, Scary Parts and All by Danielle Paige – ★★
The Flickering, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh by April Genevieve Tucholke – ★★★
Fat Girl with a Knife by Jonathan Maberry – ★★
M by Stefan Bachmann – ★
The Girl Without a Face by Marie Lu – ★★★★
A Girl Who Dreamed of Snow by McCormick Templeman – ★
Stitches by A. G. Howard – ★★★
On the I-5 by Kendare Blake – ★★★

Don’t get me wrong, the stories are not at all badly written they just weren’t the creepy horror stories I was hoping for and I’m sure others will enjoy this anthology. It just wasn’t for me.

Okay. That’s how I would describe this book for me. It was simply: okay.

I didn’t dislike this book but neither did I love it. The plot was okay, it did have its moments where I will happily admit to being interested and I read the book fairly quickly but it just didn’t scream ‘READ ME’ or have anything that I found particularly gripping. In fact what the plot did for me was leave lots of unanswered questions and one of those was “Why did Lottie so desperately want to go to Rosewood Hall?”

I also felt like the plot went from being super simple to having lots going on all at once rather than having one or two things happening that were really well developed which I think would have resulted in us seeing more layered characters too. I think it’s important for me to point out here that this book isn’t boring, lots happens and some readers will have loved the way it is written, I just really like layers and depth and this was definitely more of a fairytale (I appreciate this is probably intentional!)

As for the characters, I’ve kind of touched on this above but I just felt they were quite flat. I really love a flawed, layered character that I can get to really know but although I felt that I liked most of the characters in this book, I got to the end and still didn’t really feel I knew them as well as I would have liked. If I was asked to describe their personalities I would have a really hard time doing it. Ellie is supposed to be this super rebellious Princess but she didn’t feel that rebellious to me, Lottie was adorable and very Disney Princess-like but what on earth happened to Ollie?! This really pained me because at the beginning Ollie and Lottie are super best friends, then she goes off to school and just forgets all about him. Granted she doesn’t have her phone but, HELLO, write a letter? I just felt like their friendship was totally just forgotten about and then something had to quickly be written back in at the end to acknowledge Ollie.

I think the best way for me to end this review is to sum up my feelings and that goes a bit like this… Undercover Princess is a fluffy, light and Disney-like read that plenty of readers will love but if you are looking for a complex plot and layered characters, this won’t be the book for you. A lovely read and a GORGEOUS cover (had to slip that in…) but for me this book will be easily forgettable.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin and Connie Glynn for my advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The first time I read a book by Hardinge we did not get on. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the writing or what was going on. With that in mind I was both excited and nervous about jumping into A Skinful of Shadows but I’m SO glad that I went ahead and did it. This book is a true wonder.

I loved everything about this book: the characters, the settings, the plot twists and turns, the darkness, the emotion, the writing. Everything felt well thought out and meaningful in a way that only a book of this calibre can.

The book is both a slow burner and fast paced at the same time and I can’t quite put into words why it is that I think that. Whilst things do seem to happen fairly quickly, at the same time I feel we are given plenty of time to get to know our characters and their backgrounds too. Which is exactly what I love in a novel. Plenty happens to keep this book interesting: there are twists and turns at every corner and thrills to be found where you least expect them.

I adored the characters and Makepeace is definitely a character who will stay with me for some time. Makepeace the beautiful, brave girl with a bear in her soul who will do just about anything if it feels right. Makepeace is strong in ways that most people could only dream of and what she goes through in this book did anger me at times. I loved following her story and her strength of character was something that really struck me. She is passionate, dedicated and driven.

There are lots and lots of other characters in this book. Some of whom stay with us throughout and others who quickly appear and then make their exits. I really liked Helen and James, not forgetting the witty Dr Quick.

It would be wrong not to mention the writing in this review. I have fallen head over heels in love with the way that Hardinge writes. Every word on the page feels meaningful and her ability to leave emotions dangling at the end of sentences, pages and chapters just really captured me.

This is definitely a dark tale but one that is pierced with hope and light throughout.

3.5 stars

Blackbird was a book I had heard very little about until I was lucky enough to pick up a proof during YALC back in July. The premise sounded really interesting and the book itself looked gorgeous so how could I say no?

I have to start by saying that what the blurb of this book promises is very different to the story held within. The thing that most intrigued me from the synopsis was this idea that 5,000 blackbirds had dropped dead on the same night this girl had disappeared. My mind was racing with ideas of how these two events could be connected and what mysteries lay in store for me. BUT (and this is a big but) the story inside had little to nothing to do with the mystery of the dead birds. It is mentioned at the beginning of the book when Alex is looking at the news when it is being reported but it then transpires to have nothing to do with her sister’s disappearance, which is what I believed it would. That being said, this book is still an absolutely great read, I just think the synopsis was a little misleading.

What this book actually does is provide an interesting and emotional mystery thriller as Alex and her family embark on a journey to find out what happened to Olivia on the night she went missing. There are lots of different twists and turns along the way and the plot certainly kept me interested. There were lots of characters involved in this whodunit style thriller and I had fun ruling out suspects and making my own decisions. As someone who reads a fair amount of stories like this, I did guess who the killer was but only a chapter or so before they were revealed and the climax of the story was so intense that it didn’t matter at all.

This book really sparked a lot of emotion in me. There were scenes in this book where Alex’s grief was clear for the reader to see and sometimes I felt quite choked up and had to take a break. For me, this felt like such a real depiction of grief and the way in which Alex often felt so forgotten about and alone seemed true of her situation. There are some really touching moments in the book between Alex and her parents as they all realise they must pull together to get through their loss and that family element definitely made the story and emotions feel real to me.

I liked the characters in the book although I did feel that aside from Alex we really didn’t get to know many of them as well as I would have liked. I actually really liked that we had a couple of chapters scattered throughout the book that were from Olivia’s point of view before her death and I wish we had more of those as I think knowing more about Olivia would have enforced Alex’s emotions even more to the reader. The only other character I felt somewhat of a connection to in the story was DI Birkens and I actually liked the relationship of trust he built with Alex.

The setting of Orkney for this book was such an interesting choice as it really lent itself to exploring the ideas that in a small island life there are those, like Olivia, who cannot wait to escape and flee into the big world and others, like Alex, who are perfectly content and safe in their bubble. I also really liked that it meant we saw glimpses of tradition with celebrations such as the solstice.

Overall this was a good mystery book with plenty of tension and emotion; I was just disappointed that it wasn’t the book I had been lead to believe it would be.

Thanks to HQ and N. D. Gomes for my advanced copy in exchange of a fair and honest review.