Review: The Scarecrow Queen

The Scarecrow Queen
Rating: 5/5 
Buy or Borrow: BUY 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

The final battle is coming...As the Sleeping Prince tightens his hold on Lormere and Tregellan, the net closes in on the ragged band of rebels trying desperately to defeat him. Twylla and Errin are separated, isolated, and running out of time. The final battle is coming, and Aurek will stop at nothing to keep the throne forever... 

First off, the opening to this book is so damn chilling, it's insane. I was like wow okay, we're going straight in to this! The Scarecrow Queen picks up where The Sleeping Prince left off and it wasn't long before I was back in the world of the book, all my memories flooding back. I admit that while I liked Sin Eater's Daughter, I felt like The Sleeping Prince was actually better and I feel like this is just as good as Sleeping Prince if not better! I loved the dual POV's of Twylla and Errin, I feel like it tied the series together perfectly and I'd been curious as to who would narrate this for us! I feel like the book had a very nice fast pace, with plenty of action but we didn't see that much action sometimes and there where some large time skips but I feel like the dual POV's really made that work more than it would have in a regular book! 
I read this in two sittings, I completely devoured it. Sin Eater's Daughter I enjoyed but it took me a little to get in to it, but this series has had me getting more and more in to it with each new book! 

We get to learn some more about Aurek in this book and he's genuinely such pure evil, he's not even redeemable. I read the bits with him in like...fascinated horror! I do love villains that I love to hate, like I hate them but I also kind of love them at the same, because they have a little redeemable feature or something. But Aurek? Nope. Pure evil. And while we're talking about Aurek I have to talk about his little lap dog, Leif. Oh Leif. How I liked you in book one. I could see the paths that Melinda could have taken when she was writing, we could have had Leif come and win Twylla back and blah blah blah. But no. Our Leif, who I so hoped after reading TSP was going to have a really, really good reason for working for Aurek....did not. He let me down. 

I spent most of the book not being entirely sure what to think of him. On the one hand he didn't do anything about how Errin was being treated and he supposedly loved Twylla but kept trying to kill her. On the other hand, he did little things here or there, kept information back and so on. So I wasn't sure just who's side he was on and after Twylla said something at the end, I looked back at some of the other things he did like huh...maybe he was on their side. But I couldn't decide. And it's left kind of open ended so you can decide what Leif was doing. Although he actually tried to paint himself as a victim at one point, like "oh Twylla if you'd just listened to me" like dude no. It was a little bit pathetic. I was actually a little sad because I really liked him in book one until the twist, and then Leif does this thing at the end and then there's a letter and I was like damn Leif....WHYYYYY!? I would genuinely really love to read this trilogy in like one book from Leif's perspective. 

Twylla I kinda liked and related to a little bit in the first book, but I also wanted to shake her once or twice, and Errin was the same but I actually liked Errin a bit more shhhh! Anyway, I feel like Twylla has really grown as a character when we see her in this book and I was really proud to see how far she'd come, becoming a leader, taking charge, she wasn't afraid to tell people off and I ended up really liking her this book! I have to say though, Twylla, who's never handled swords/knives before, managed to do this thing with a dagger that was...well...really good luck, I'm chalking it up to. I mean...I'm in the same boat as her but I don't think I could have lobbed a dagger from the back of a horse and taken someone's eye out..then again I'm very clumsy so I might manage it by aiming at something else :') 

Errin I continue to love, and I felt for her so much with the situation she was in, but Errin being Errin she didn't really give in, but when the time came I was like noooo Errin, I know why you're behaving but noooo! And I really loved the BFF vibes she had going on with Merek because there was no romance to be seen and it made a nice change to see a friendship that didn't end up as a romance thing. Plus I ship Errin and Silas SO HARD. Let me tell you. 

We totally got to see loads of Merek as well! I wasn't too sure about him in the first book, I felt for him a little bit and he wasn't a bad person but I wasn't that focused on him, so it was nice to see more of him in this book and get to know him more and I'm pleased for him that he got what he wanted. Now, to the best of my knowledge, Twylla had no feelings for Merek, I think I interpreted it as her loving Leif but Merek she was just trying to help because she was kind hearted. So I did find it a smidge sudden when Twylla suddenly had these feelings for Merek, BUT they where totally cute, and the focus of this book isn't romance so eh. Genuinely so cute. And I'd been half expecting Leif to be redeemed or something so it was a surprise! 

I love Melinda's writing, she really creates a world and an inner movie in your head with her words and I'd say I'd miss her writing now that the trilogy is over but I follow her on Twitter, and I just so happened to notice she was writing something the other day SO I'm going to wait with baited breath to see what she has planned next! I loved being surprised by her and her twists, she never did what I expected her to do and...damn...Melinda you bring the feels. 

The Scarecrow Queen is a brilliant ending to this trilogy and I'm sad to see it come to an end but so pleased with how it all turned out! Melinda surprised me right up until the end, I mean...I'm barely restraining myself from flat out begging her for another book! I'm so excited to see what Melinda's going to come up with next!